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COFA Heads To Venice

Article released: Wednesday, 01 April, 2009

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Graduates from UNSW’s College of Fine Arts, one of the country’s premier art and design schools, will dominate Australia’s official representation at the 2009 Venice Biennale art exhibition.
 
The Venice Biennale is widely regarded as the most prestigious event on the international contemporary visual arts calendar. Three of the five artists chosen to represent Australia are COFA alumni.
 
Master of Fine Arts graduate Shaun Gladwell will return to Venice after receiving world- wide acclaim at the last Biennale exhibition. This year, as Australia’s senior representative, Shaun will present his work MADDESTMAXIMVS in the Australian Pavilion. Influenced by the Australian desert landscape and Mad Max movies, Shaun’s work is a suite of videos accompanied by sound, photographic and sculptural works COFA graduates Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro will take part in a group exhibition Once Removed at The Ludoteca, a former convent in the Castello district.
 
Once Removed features three installations unified by themes of displacement, Indigenous and environmental issues. Claire and Sean’s installation is a five- metre tower of 195,774 video tapes commandeering a 16th century Venetian
church in The Ludoteca.  The group exhibition is curated by COFA academic Felicity Fenner. Felicity curated the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and Primavera 2005, the annual exhibition for early career artists at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
 
Joining the artists will be a group of Master of Arts Administration students who will complete a special project at the Biennale under the leadership of Felicity Fenner. Other Masters students are undertaking internships and research papers based on COFA’s Venice Biennale project. As well, COFA Art Education students have been working with the Australia Council to develop the print and web-based educational material for the Australian exhibitions and artists and they too will be travelling to Venice.
 
“I am delighted for our graduates, and also for Felicity. To have so many COFA alumni and current students involved in such a prestigious festival, and representing Australia, reflects the outstanding standard of our students and
staff,” says the Dean of COFA, Professor Ian Howard.
 
 
The Australia Council funds and manages Australiaʼs representation at the Venice Biennale.
 
Media Contact : Fran Strachan | fran.strachan@unsw.edu.au | 9385 8732 | 04294 16070