melbourne art

In the mid 1980s, Natalie King was in her late teens; she was restless and searching. Uninspired by law school and unsure of what to do 'when she grew up', King undertook a gap year to Italy. The experience proved transformative. She fell in love with  Florence's legendary musuems and galleries and returned to Melbourne with a better idea of what to do next: curatorship.

In the 30 plus years since, King has gone on to become an internationally recognised art curator, specialising in contemporary art and visual culture. In 2017, she was appointed to curate the Australian Pavilion at the 57th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale.  In a rare honour, King will curate at the Biennale a second time: supporting first Pacific and transgender artist, Yuki Kihara, to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale, 2021. 

Few people can lay claim to changing a city forever – it's food, art and culture – but Mirka Mora can. The Holocaust survivor fled war-torn France for Australia in 1951. Together with her husband, Georges, she brought a cosmopolitan sensibility and aesthetic missing from dour, provincial Melbourne. In a 60-year artistic career she painted on canvases big and small and collaborated with everyone from VicRail to fashion designers Gorman. Mirka's life reflected her art: bold, energetic and colourful. A new exhibition of  Mirka's work tells both her life story and  legacy through paintings, sound recordings and film. William Mora, her son and art dealer, joined us to discuss the exhibition and remember his late mother.