Karen Casey (artist)

Karen Casey
Born(1956-01-07)7 January 1956
Hobart, Tasmania
Died15 October 2021(2021-10-15) (aged 65)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia[1]
NationalityAustralian
Known forPrintmaking, new media art
AwardsNational New Media Art Award (2012)
Websitekarencasey.com.au

Karen Casey (7 January 1956 – 15 October 2021)[2] was an Australian interdisciplinary artist of the Palawa people, Australia.[1] She was Melbourne's Artist in Residence in 2003.[2]

Early life and education

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Casey was born in Hobart, Tasmania.[3]

Casey attended art school at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education where she studied silversmithing. Following school she moved to Melbourne to work as a graphic designer.[2]

Career

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Reconciliation Touchstone by Karen Casey and Darryl Cowie in North Terrace, Adelaide[4]

Casey began exhibiting her artwork in the late 1980s, and worked for over three decades in a diverse range of media, from painting and printmaking to installation, video, performance and public art.[5] Her work investigated the "experiential and philosophical understanding of the interrelationships between various cultural and spiritual traditions and aspects of contemporary western science." Casey was interested in metaphysics, consciousness and interconnection, and these influenced her work.[6] Her piece Got the Bastard provided new insight into the life of Aboriginal women.[2] In 1987, she took part in "Aboriginal Australians in Print and Poster", co-curated by an Aboriginal and non Aboriginal person.[7]

A collaborative work with Damian Smith, called Bruny, won the Art of Place Reconciliation Award in the Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards in 2000, and was exhibited in the accompanying Art of Place exhibition.[8]

In 2006, she collaborated with Darryl Cowie on the Reconciliation Touchstone sculpture that incorporated the imprints of 64 handshakes.[9]

In 2012, Casey received the National New Media Art Award, the most significant award in Australia for new media art.[10]

In 2021, Casey submitted two pieces to RMIT Gallery's Future U project. Using MRI and CT scans of her own liver, she created an animated film called Transplanted, a piece that was described as "remarkable" by art critic Barnaby Smith.[11] She also submitted a duratran print entitled Transmutation included a CT scan of her own head.[11]

Collections

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Casey's work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales,[12] National Gallery of Victoria,[13] Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA),[14] the British Museum,[15] and the Seattle Art Museum.[16]

Personal life

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Casey received a liver transplant at the Austin hospital.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Karen Casey". Centre for Australian Art. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Newstead, Adrian (4 December 2021). "Much-valued collaborator on art projects around the world". Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Karen Casey". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Reconciliation Touchstone | SA History Hub". sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
  5. ^ Edmonds, Penelope (8 April 2016). Settler Colonialism and (Re)conciliation: Frontier Violence, Affective Performances, and Imaginative Refoundings. Springer. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-1-137-30454-4.
  6. ^ "About". Karen Casey. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  7. ^ Australia, Art Gallery of Western; Croft, Brenda L. (2001). Indigenous Art: Art Gallery of Western Australia. Art Gallery of Western Australia. ISBN 978-0-7307-3816-9.
  8. ^ "Australian Heritage Commission Annual Report 2000-01". Commonwealth of Australia. 2001. ISSN 0155-1434 – via Parlinfo.
  9. ^ "Reconciliation Touchstone | SA History Hub". sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  10. ^ McKay, Peter (2012). National New Media Art Award 2012. Queensland Art Gallery; University of Minnesota. pp. 10, 43. ISBN 9781921503450. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  11. ^ a b c "Karen Casey maps the intersection of personal history, art and science in Future U". Art Guide Australia. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Gateway, (1994) by Karen Casey". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Karen Casey | Artists | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  14. ^ "CASEY, Karen". collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au. QAGOMA Collection Online. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  15. ^ "Karen Casey". The British Museum. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  16. ^ "Karen Casey – Artists – eMuseum".
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