Michelle Hamer

Discipline: Visual Arts

Based In: Collingwood, Victoria, Australia

Year at Millay: 2018

Awards/Honors: Grant Recipient, Creative Victoria (formerly, Australia Council), Melbourne, Australia (2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2011, 2006); Finalist, Sunshine Coast National Art Prize, Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Caloundra, Australia (2023, 2020, 2013, 2011, 2008); Participant, International Triennial of Tapestry, Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź, Poland (2022–2023); Finalist, Invitational Art Prize, "15 Artists," Redcliffe Art Gallery, Redcliffe, Australia (2022); Winner, Macability Prize, Fisher's Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, Australia (2022, 2019, 2013); Finalist, Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Wangaratta, Australia (2019); Finalist, Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize, Gordon, Australia (2019); Finalist, Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art Gallery, Werribee, Australia (2019); Winner, Tapestry Design Prize for Architects, Australian Tapestry Workshop, South Melbourne, Australia (2015); Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize, The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia (2015, 2013, 2012); Artist-in-Residence, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia (2014); Finalist, Gold Coast Art Prize, The Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia (2013, 2012).

Website: http://www.michellehamer.com/

Michelle Hamer explores the profound significance of language and the ways we communicate. Darkly humorous and familiar, her artwork includes hand-stitched, drawn, LED, screen-prints, and video works. Based on her own photographs and collected text, it is concerned with being present in the complexities of contemporary narratives. She is interested in the way that messaging can define space and reflect personal, local and global beliefs. Her works oscillate between fast and slow; past and present; analogue and digital; 2D and 3D; personal and political, and become markers of rarely captured but revealing moments of ‘everyday’ aspirations and fears.

The works Hamer was creating whilst at Millay have been exhibited multiple times around Australia and were part of the 2022-2023 Łódź Tapestry Triennial in Poland.