Karla Dickens

Bio

Karla Dickens (b.1967) is Wiradjuri. Born in Sydney in 1967, the same year as the historic Referendum recognising the existence of Aboriginal people as human in their own country. Dickens’ process of self-discovery, expressed through both hardship and humour, was also a journey to understanding her Aboriginal heritage, which Professor Djon Mundine OAM describes as “ironically and literally a truly dark but noble ‘Dickensian’ life”. A careful collector of racially and sexually-charged memorabilia, and other found objects, Dickens is a caretaker over material cultures that haunt. In her assemblages, photographic, sculptural, and video installations, Dickens’ works are made to bear witness. Dickens invites us to join her, to review and re-engage with stories and histories that cannot be forgotten. In 2022, Dickens was one of eight artists chosen as part of the inaugural and landmark commission for the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) | Sydney Modern Project, the largest commission in the institution’s 150-year history. She was the inaugural Copyright Agency Fellowship recipient for Visual Art in 2018, resulting in A Dickensian Country Show, presented at the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) and A Dickensian Circus at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, AGNSW (both 2020), and A Dickensian Sideshow, at Lismore Regional Gallery and Orange Regional Gallery (co-commissioned) in 2021–22. Dickens has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and abroad with major group exhibitions including, Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia (NGA) (2017–19); The National 2017: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, Sydney (2017); and Grounded: Contemporary Australian Art, NAS Gallery, Sydney (2016). In 2018, she was a finalist in the King & Wood Mallesons Contemporary ATSI Art Prize and received an Asialink residency which she undertook at Cemeti Art House, Indonesia and Artbank in the Northern Territory in 2015. In 2023 Dickens' major survey exhibition Embracing Shadows opened at Campbelltown Arts Centre, spanning thirty years of practice. Her work is held in almost all major public and private national and state collections including AGNSW, AGSA, NGA, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Museum of Australia, Australian National Maritime Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and the University of Canberra.

Language group

Based in

Resources