ABOUT

Rebecca Mayo is an Australian artist. She is a Lecturer in the Printmedia and Drawing Workshop at the School of Art & Design, Australian National University. Trained in printmaking, she draws upon its performative attributes of repetition and re-iteration. She is particularly interested in how such repetitive processes might articulate or correspond with ways of thinking, being and acting. Similarly, the repetitive (and sometimes meditative) act of walking has become increasingly central to her practice.

Mayo principally examines relations and interactions between urban ecologically significant sites and people. Most recently she has been reactivating superseded printing and dyeing techniques using dye extracted from plants gathered at urban restoration sites (such as her local creek, The Merri, in Melbourne’s north). The resulting textiles are installed in situ or are re-introduced to the sites via her walking body or via the bodies of fellow restoration volunteers.

 

CURRICULUM VITAE

QUALIFICATIONS

2019
PhD, ANU School of Art & Design, Canberra
Labours of Care: Art practice and urban ecological restoration

2000
First Class Honours, School of Art (Printmaking) RMIT University, Melbourne

1992
Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts University of South Australia (One semester exchange program to SUNY at Buffalo, NY, USA.)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
It’s in the bag, CAVES, Nicholas Building, Melbourne (CLIMARTE Festival)

2017
Habitus, Heide Museum of Modern Art, CLIMARTE Festival, curator: Lesley Harding

2011
Mistletoe Menace Albury Museum and Gallery with Ecologist Associate Professor David M Watson, curator Bridget Guthrie

2010
Mistletoe Megalo Print Studio, Canberra

2003-2004
Kiss + Make-up Country Arts SA touring show

2002
Teething Mass Gallery, Melbourne

2001
Kiss + Make-up Platform 2, Melbourne

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017-2020
Open House, Tamworth Textile Triennial, curator: Glenn Barkley

2019
Unfinished business, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, curator: Alexander Boynes

The way we wear, Australian Embassy, Washington DC, USA, curator: Dr Charlotte Galloway

Out of the Matrix 2.0, L8-06 Gallery, Hong Kong Open Printshop, Hong Kong, curators: Richard Harding & Wilson Yeung

2018
Local Colour, UNSW Galleries, University of Sydney, NSW curator: Associate Professor Liz Williamson

Walking Matters, Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, NSW

2017
Water, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne, curator: Suzanne Davies

The Creative Legacy of Edna Walling ArtSpace at Realm, Maroondah, curator: Lisa Byrne

Flow, Counihan Gallery in Brunswick, curator: Heather Hestermann

2016
Out of the Matrix, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, curator: Richard Harding

2015
Tomorrow never dies Linden Arts Centre, Melbourne, curators: Adriane and Verity Hayward

Finalist, Burnie Print Prize, Burnie Regional Gallery, Tasmania

2014
Walking the Merri: From Source to Confluence, RMIT Project Space, curator: Lesley Harding

Horizon: Exploring the West Coast with the Clipperton Project, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA, curator: Dr Ric Spencer

The Walks ANU School of Art, Canberra, curator: Dr Raquel Ormella

2013
Northern Lights Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, curator, Cara Ann Simpson

2012
Umwelten RMIT Project Space/Spare Room, RMIT University, Melbourne

FINALIST, Fremantle Print Award Fremantle Arts Centre

2011
IMPACT7, Curated conference exhibition, MADA, Monash University

Familiar Unfamiliar Touring show for the Print Council of Australia’s 45th anniversary.

2010
Mistletoe Megalo Print Studio, Canberra

Artists’ in Residence 2009, Megalo Print Studio

Regeneration RMIT Project Space and Spare Room (with Marian Crawford)

2009
FINALIST, Burnie Print Prize Burnie Regional Gallery

2008
FINALIST, Fremantle Print Award Fremantle Arts Centre

Double Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

’50’ Geelong Art Gallery

2007
Come Hither: Interpretations of the Boudoir  Wagga Wagga Art Gallery,
Curator Susi Muddiman

Books 07 Noosa Regional Gallery

2006
Books 06 Noosa Regional Gallery

2005
‘33’ Port Jackson Press

Sydney Art on Paper Fair, Adele Boag Gallery

Adele Boag Gallery, Adelaide

Books.05 Noosa Regional Gallery

The art of folding (collaboration with Carmella Iudicone) The Dolls House

2004
New Wave Port Jackson Press

‘23’ Port Jackson Press and Phyllis Palmer Gallery, La Trobe University

2001
Mildura Palimpsest IV, Aurora Packing Sheds, Red Cliffs

2000
Proof Positive Gold Treasury Museum, Melbourne

RMIT Printmaking Graduate Show Preview Gallery, Collingwood

Trace First Site Gallery, RMIT

Adelaide Fringe Festival Exhibition, Now Art, 45 Gilbert St Adelaide

1999
Between Talk Artists’ Initiative, Melbourne, curator: Richard Harding

FINALIST, Geelong Print Prize Exhibition, Geelong Art Gallery

CollieTrust Emerging Victorian Printmakers Scholarship, Australian Print Workshop

1998
Remote Red, Remote Green, Very Different, Flinders Art Museum Campus Gallery, SA

1997
The First Darebin -La Trobe Acquisitive Art Prize Exhibition (winner)                     

FINALIST, Fremantle Print Award, WA

Meander North Adelaide School of Art, SA

1996
Fremantle Print Award Exhibition, WA. (highly commended and acquired)

Survey of Contemporary South Australian Printmakers, RSASA Gallery.

1995
FINALIST, Fremantle Print Award Exhibition, Fremantle WA.

On tour with Nessie and Elvis, Contact Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.

1994
A folio of Photographic Prints by Underwired (Edinburgh Women’s Artists Group), Cameo Bar, Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, PRIZES

2015 Graduate Harris & Hobbs Materials Award, ANU

2012 Australian Postgraduate Award

2006 Print Council of Australia Commission Print (40th Anniversary)

1998 Collie Trust Emerging Victorian Printmakers Scholarship (Australian Print Workshop)

1997 Winner, Darebin-La Trobe Acquisitive Art Prize (Emerging Artist)

1995 SAYAB Project Grant

1995 Pat Corrigan Grant

 

PUBLICATIONS

Mayo, R 2016, ‘Interview with Deidre Brollo’, Imprint, vol.51, no.3. (in press)

Mayo, R 2015, ‘From Brush to Screen: Articulating the Intervening Layers’, in S Cramer (ed) Colour Sensation: The Works of Melinda Harper, pp. 43-45. Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen.

Mayo, R 2014, ‘Walking with Weeds’ in R Mayo & L Harding, (eds), Walking the Merri: From Source to Confluence, pp. 2-3. Catalogue and artist book.

Mayo, R 2014, ‘Scattering the Ashes’ in T Graham, B Trotter, B King & K Kirsner (eds), The Search for HMAS Sydney – An Australian Story, pp. 24-28. UNSW Press, Sydney Australia.

Mayo, R 2013, ‘Wearing weeds, working the Merri’ in Y Gluzman & M Yankelevich (eds), Emergency Index Vol 2: 2012 documenting performance annually pp. 464&465. Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, NY.

Mayo, R 2013, ‘Good Texts: The tracing of printmaking and grief through Actor-Network-Theory’ in L Morgan (ed), Intersections and Counterpoints, Proceedings of Impact 7, an International Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Conference, pp. 335-340. Monash University Publishing, Melbourne. (peer reviewed)

 

UNPUBLISHED CONFERENCE PAPERS

Mayo, R 2016, ‘Wearing weeds: the materiality of art, care and labour on the Merri’, paper presented at PSi#22 (Performance Climates), University of Melbourne, 5-9 July. (peer reviewed abstract)

Mayo, R 2014, ‘Walking the Merri: Threading through Gorse’ paper presented at Talking the Walk/ Walking the Talk symposium, ANU School of Art,  21-22 May.

Mayo, R 2014, ‘Walking and working with weeds: Performing restoration along the Merri’ paper presented to the Weed Society of Victoria at the Invasive Plants & Animals – Contrasts and Connections 5th Victorian Weed Conference, Geelong. 13-15 May.

Mayo, R 2013, ‘Walking with water: The Merri Creek from Heathcote Junction to Abbotsford’ paper presented at the Eco Arts Australis Conference, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 12-13 May.