Amala Groom

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA2024

  Amala Groom is a Wiradyuri conceptual arts and cultural practitioner whose work proactively seeks to dismantle the Colonial Project by asserting the argument that colonialism is not just disadvantageous for First Peoples but is, in fact, antithetical to the human experience.

  Selected appointments include Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture; The University of Sydney: Nicholas and Angela Curtis Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellowship (2024); Create NSW First Nations Creative Fellowship w/ State Library of NSW (2022-24); University of Technology Sydney: Inaugural Artist in Residence Program (2021).

  Groom’s work is held by Artbank; Blacktown City Art Collection; Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre; Charles Sturt University; Deutsche Bank; and Western Sydney University.

  ISEA2019

  Amala Groom (b. 1979, Casino, New South Wales, Australia) is a Wiradjuri conceptual artist whose practice, as the performance of her cultural sovereignty, is informed and driven by First Nations epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies. Her work, a form of passionate activism, presents acute and incisive commentary on contemporary socio-political issues. Articulated across diverse media, Groom’s work often subverts and unsettles western iconographies in order to enunciate Aboriginal stories, experiences and histories, and to interrogate and undermine the legacy of colonialism. Informed by extensive archival, legislative and first-person research, Groom’s work is socially engaged, speaking truth to take a stand against hypocrisy, prejudice, violence and injustice. Recent shortlisted awards include 2018 Blacktown City Art Prize; Fishers Ghost Art Awards; 27th MIL-PRA AECG Exhibition; Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award 2018, w/ Dale Collier; Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize; Incinerator Art Award ; Sunshine Coast Art Prize, w/ Nicole Monks; 65th Blake Prize; 40th Alice Prize and the Wyndham Art Prize. Recent awards include the Mayors Choice Award, MIL-PRA AECG Exhibition the Southlands Emerging Art Award (2018) and the NSW Local Artists Award: King & Wood Mallesons Contemporary ATSI Art Prize, w/ Nicole Monks (2018). Groom’s current institutional commissions include ‘The Union’, The National 2019: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham; ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ w/Dale Collier, Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest, curated by Lee-Ann Hall; ‘how do you feel now?’ w/Nicole Monks, Vitalstatistix/ TARNANTHI curated by Nici Cumpston & Emma Webb; ‘Body Clock’ w/Nicole Monks, Connie Anthes & Rebecca Gallo, LIVEWORKS, Performance Space/ Carriageworks, curated by Jeff Khan and ‘UNIFORMITY’ w/ Dale Collier, Cementa Festival of Contemporary Art, curated by Dr Andrew Frost. Groom is a Director on the National Association for Visual Arts Board. Her work is held in the collections of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Blacktown City Art Collection and private collections.

Website:

• http://amalagroom.com/