Megan Cope

Cope’s work often resists prescribed notions of Aboriginality and examines psychogeographies that challenge the grand narrative of ‘Australia’ and our sense of time and ownership in a settler colonial state.

From 2017–19 Cope was the Official Australian War Artist. Cope has undertaken a number of major public art commissions for council, universities, businesses, and corporations including: Monash University, Melbourne Museum, Australian Catholic University, Redland City Council, and Cook University amongst others. Her work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), National Gallery Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Melbourne Museum, Musées de la Civilisation: Canada, Australian War Memorial and more.

Cope’s work has featured in a number of major exhibitions, including: Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres at the Art Gallery of South Australia (2020), The National (2017) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial (2017) at the National Gallery of Australia, and Sydney Contemporary’s installation program (2019).

Quandamooka People, Born Brisbane, 1982

Qualifications

2006

• Bachelor of Visual Arts (Visual Communication), Deakin University, Victoria

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024

• Water is Life, Bayside Gallery, Brighton, Victoria.
• Mirigan / Star in the Sky and the South East Wind, MIlani Gallery, Brisbane

2022

• Low Pressure, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
• Unbroken Connections, Redland Art Gallery

2021

• Unbroken Connections, Canberra Glassworks, Canberra
• Fractures and Frequencies, UNSW Galleries, Sydney
  

2019

• The Black Napoleon, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
• Fight or Flight, Australian War Artist, Australian War Memorial, Canberra
  

2015

• The Blaktism, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
• The Blaktism, This Is No Fantasy + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne

2013

• The Tide is High, Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne

2012

• Deep Water, Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane

Selected Group Exhibitions

Currently Touring

OCCURRENT AFFAIR: proppaNOW

Touring exhibition with UQAM and MGNSW 2021-2025

• Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW; Artspace Mackay, QLD; USC Gallery, University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD; Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW; Ngununggula | Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, NSW; NAS Galleries, National Arts School, NSW; John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, WA, University of Queensland Art Museum, QLD

2025

• Sharjah Biennal 16: to carry, Sharjah City, United Arab Emirates
• Hawai'i Triennial: Aloha Nō, Hawai'i Contemporary

2024-25

• The Ecologies Project, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
• The Charge That Binds, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
  
• Contemporary Queensland Glass, artisan, Brisbane
  

2024

• The Soils Project, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• After the Flood III (ongoing series), 24th Biennale of Sydney
  
• With Nature, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Lakeside
  

2023

• We Are Electric, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
• Heat, Redcliffe Art Gallery, Queensland
  
• The Soils Project, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
  
• CrownLand, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales
  
• WEATHER/Whether, Wyndham Art Gallery, Victoria
  
• proppaNOW: There Goes the Neighbourhood!, Vera List Center, New York City

2022

• Réclamer la terre, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• Te Au: Liquid Constituencies, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
  
• Art in Conflict, Australiam War Memorial, Canberra (touring)
  
• This language that is every stone, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
• Agent Bodies, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
• Busan Biennale 2022: We, on the Rising Wave, Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea
• Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
  
• A Language is Not Something You Look At, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
  
• Interspecies and Other, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
  
• All light, all air, all space, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn, New South Wales
  
• Mona Foma 2022, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
  

2021

• 경로를 재탐색합니다 UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA, Artspace, Sydney and Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea
• IT'S ONLY A GIFT IF YOU SEE IT AS A GIFT, Outerspace, Brisbane
  
• Connecting the world through sculpture: In the Air, Monash Museum of Art, Victoria
• TarraWarra Biennial: Slow moving waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Tarrawarra
• OCCURENT AFFAIR: proppaNOW, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane
• Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives), ACE Open, ACE Gallery, South Australia (Touring)
• MCA Collection: Perspectives on Place, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

2020

• Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• do it (australia), Kaldor Projects Online
• Rite of Passage, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
• NGV Triennial 2020, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
  

2019

• Water, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
• Great Movements of Feeling, NETS Victoria (Touring)
• Violent Salt, Artspace Mackay, QLD (Touring)
• Material Place, University of NSW, Sydney
• Haunt, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
• Concrete, Jam Factory, Adelaide (Touring)
• A World of One's Own, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria

2018

• Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Installation Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney
• Octopus 18: Mother Tongue, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
• Ex Embassy, Former Australian Embassy, Berlin
• TARNANTHI Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

2017

• Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• The National 2019: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism, ACCA, Melbourne
• Coast: the artists’ retreat, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
• Helen Johnson & Megan Cope, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
• Sovereignty, ACCA, Melbourne
• Another Day in Paradise, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney

2016

• Frontier Imaginaries, Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem
• Bereft, Artspace, Sydney
• Frontier Imaginaries, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
• proppaNOW, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
• Re-visioning Histories, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
• Ideas Platform exhibition, Artspace, Sydney
• Ku-ring-gai pH, Manly Art Gallery & Museum
• Dead Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth
• 40 Years of 3CR, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
• Women, Art and Politics, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne

2015

• Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
• Lost in Translocation, RMIT Project Space, Melbourne
• BLAKOUT, Sydney College of Art Galleries, University of Sydney
• Lifelines: Indigenous Contemporary Art from Australia, Musées de la Civilisation in Québec, Canada
• Dead Ringer, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth

2014

• Saltwater Country, Gold Coast City Art Gallery
• From Where I Stand, Bunjilaka (Melbourne Museum), Melbourne

2013

• A Journal of the Plague Year, Para Site, Hong Kong
• My Country, I Still Call Australia Home, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Awards, Grants, and Residencies

2022

• 2022-2024 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Politics (for art collective proppaNOW for exhibition OCCURRENT AFFAIR)

2020

• Canberra Glassworks Residency, ACT (2020-2021)

• 57th Annual Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW – Finalist

• Australian Council for the Arts, Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups – Grant Recipient

2019

• Finalist Hornsby Art Prize

2018

• Finalist Konica Minolta Redland Art Award, NSW
• Sovereign Words, Dhaka Art Summit (Artspace Sydney and OCA Norway), Bangladesh

2017

• Redcliffe Art Award, QLD

2016

• Ku-ring-gai pH Residency, NSW

2015

• Recipient WA Indigenous Art Award

Collections

• National Gallery of Victoria
• Queensland Art Gallery |Gallery of Modern Art
• Monash University Art Collection
• National Gallery Australia
• Australian War Memorial
• Art Gallery of Western Australia
• Melbourne Museum
• Queensland University of Technology Art Museum
• NEWflames Anne Gamble Myer Collection
• Musées de la Civilisation: Canada
• Artbank
• Darebin Art Collection
• Newcastle Art Gallery

Public Art

2023

• Whispers, Sydney Opera House

2022

• What Becomes of the Clouds, 80 Ann Street, Brisbane
• Rematriation, Abbotsford Convent, Victoria

2021

• Gundungurra Ngurra, Ngununggula Retford Park, Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, NSW

2020

• James Cook University, Central Plaza Commission, Townsville

2018

• Monash University Museum of Art, Public Art Walk, Clayton Campus, Melbourne

2016

• The Koorie Art Commission, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne; QUT Art Museum, Brisbane

2015

• Australian Catholic University, Melbourne

Selected Biography

2022

• Indigenous artist Megan Cope has created an oyster reef on Quandamooka Country – Jo Higgins; ABC art Works; ABC News
• Episode 22 Arts Week: head to Minjerribah to see Megan Cope build an oyster reef on Country; Art Works; ABC TV
• Reclaim the Earth, urge artists at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo; Amy Serafin; Wallpaper Magazine

2021

• Artist Profile #56 - Yarnography: The Life and Art of Megan Cope – Hannah Donnelly; Artist Profile
• Art Works! - Artist Megan Cope on creating with recycled glass - NAIDOC Week 2021; ABC Art Works TV
• Unbroken Connections on AWAYE! with Daniel Browning, Broadcast Sat 22 May 2021; ABC AWAYE!
• TarraWarra Biennial: Thoughts on Time and Space - ​​Chi Tran; Ocula Magazine
• Deep Waters: TarraWarra 2021 Biennial – Amelia Winata; The Saturday Paper
• A Reason To Re-Imagine: The Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives) – Ali Cobby Eckermann; Artlink
• Megan Cope: Fractures and Frequencies – Travis Johnson; Time Out
• ​​Exhibition Review: The Image is Not Nothing (Concrete Archives), ACE Open - Emma Bedford; Arts Hub
• Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition puts notion of place on the map; The Australian
• Listening to country: ‘Fractures- & Frequencies’ and ‘Infractions’ – Anwen Crawford; The Monthly
• TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters - Announcement by Nina Miall; E-FluxFractures and Frequencies - Keynote speech (live) by Suzanne Dhaliwal at Sydney Festival

2020

• Deep Listening with Megan Cope, interview with Julianne Cordray on ArtConnect Magazine
• Art Show with Namila Benson, Wednesday 15 April 2020, ABC Radio National (starts 45:03)
• Native Title's Compensation Provisions Require Careful Attention by Louise Martin-Crew in Engineering for Public Works
• L’arte aborigena rivela l’Australia by Maria Adelaide Marchesoni in Il Sole, 24 Ore
• Australian artists tap into current fears and past nightmares in Adelaide Biennial of Australian Artby Dee Jefferson on ABC News
• Monsters in the gallery: Adelaide biennial invites the chaos of the unknown by Jane Howard on The Guardian
• Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, by Andy Butler in The Saturday Paper
• ‘Meth Kelly’ and colonial monsters: Australia's biggest art shows get Indigenous rewrite by Steve Dow on The Guardian
• A meeting of monsters at the Adelaide Biennial brings us closer to our fearsby Catherine Speck on The Conversation
• Review: Monster Theatres – 2020 Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of SAby Gina Fairley on ArtsHub
• Adelaide biennial: the fright stuff by John McDonald on Brisbane Times
• James Cook University central plaza completeon Architecture AU
• New $5 Million Plaza Opens at JCU Campus in Townsville Bulletin
• JCU’s stunning Central Plaza openson Mirage News
• Cook through the eyes of five curatorsby Gina Fairley on ArtsHub
• 250 years on, Cook’s legacy examined in art on Mirage News

2019

• Water exhibition in Brisbane proves a wellspring of ideas for positive action against climate change. By Dee Jefferson. ABC.
• Water: the universal solvent, on ABC Radio National
• How a peaceful Aboriginal artist got on with the Australian forces in the Middle East. Canberra Times. Steve Evans
• Sacred ground. Phil Brown. Brisbane News

2018

• Resistance Reviewed. Natalie Furnas. Fine Print.

2017

• A City Built On Shell Middens. Video. ABC TV
• Artist profile: Megan Cope. Video. ABC Arts.
• Invisible Agency: An interview with Megan Cope. Mariam Arcilla, Runway, November 2017
• Material Politics. Review. Lu Forsberg. UN PROJECTS
• Upside down/right way up: Historiography of contemporary ‘Australian’ art. Essay. Helen Hughes. The National.
• Material Politics. Review. Henrietta Wilson. Art Asia Pacific, 2017
• Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial. Review. Sasha Grishin. The Age

2016

• Megan Cope's Blaktism. Review. Graham Mathwin, Nov 2016
• Megan Cope, Art Collector, Issue 75, Jan-Mar, p160
• When volcanoes clash: Transcendence tells Australia's history through Indigenous eyes. Andrew Stephens. The Age.
• Studio: Megan Cope. Toby Fehily. Art Guide Australia, 11 Feb

2015

• Frontier Wars between Indigenous people and settlers the focus of Wyndham Art Gallery exhibition. Dylan Rainforth. Sydney Morning Herald
• WA Indigenous Art Award: Megan Cope's The Blaktism questions authenticity obsession. Dylan Rainforth. The Age.
• WA Indigenous art award winner explores Aboriginal identity and authenticity. Chloe Papas. ABC Radio Perth
• Megan Cope's 'Blaktism' video wins top indigenous art award. Victtoria Laurie. The Australian

2014

• Artist Megan Cope takes a fresh look at the question of identity. Kylie Northover. The Age.
• The Blaktism. Essay. Professor Steve Larkin. Metro Arts 2014

2013

• Toponymic Interventions #2. Essay. Sarah Werkmeister. Level ARI. 2013

Interview with Julianne Cordray, ArtConnect Magazine

Adelaide biennial, The Guardian

Artwork Commission James Cook University, Architecture AU

Upside down/right way up: Historiography of contemporary ‘Australian’ art, Helen Hughes

Material Politics Review, Art Asia Pacific