For Dwyer, it is always about the return-of-the-repressed. As much as formalism seeks to drive out the amateur, the infantile, the feminine, and the irrational, in her work they always come back to haunt it.
Exhibition Dates: 2 February – 3 March 2012
In the 1990s, Sydney artist Mikala Dwyer became famous for creating playful installations that provocatively conflated pedigreed modern art with the amateur, the infantile, and the feminine. Since her 2000 retrospective at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, her works have moved off in a new direction, increasingly mining the irrational, the paranormal, the occult. Dwyer has convened circles of anthropomorphic, totemic objects, suggesting seances and covens; has toyed with black-arts paraphernalia, including candles and Ouija boards; has employed clairvoyants to serve gallerygoers; has made art professionals dress up as crystals; and has collaborated with neodadaist Justene Williams to channel spirits of female convicts of yesteryear. For Dwyer, it is always about the return-of-the-repressed. As much as formalism seeks to drive out the amateur, the infantile, the feminine, and the irrational, in her work they always come back to haunt it.
Group Show, A Fictional Retrospective: Gertrude’s First Decade 1985–1995
Gertrude Contemporary, 2025
Mikala Dwyer Skyring
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Mikala Dwyer Shelter of Hollows
1 Elizabeth, Martin Place Station Sydney Metro, Sydney, 2024
Mikala Dwyer Continuum
Martin Place Station Sydney Metro, Sydney, 2024
Group Show, The First 40 Years
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Group Show, nightshifts
Buxton Contemporary, 2023
Mikala Dwyer Penelope and the Seahorse
Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2023
Mikala Dwyer Chromakinda
Kids Gallery, MAMA, 2022-23
Mikala Dwyer Mikala Dwyer: The silverings
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2022
Group Show, Still Life
Buxton Contemporary, 2022
Group Show, Pliable Planes: Expanded Textiles & Fibre Practices
UNSW Galleries, 2022
Group Show, The Great Invocation
Garage Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2021
Mikala Dwyer Bird
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2021
Mikala Dwyer Wishing Wells
Ichiahara Art+Mix Triennale, Japan, 2021
Mikala Dwyer Phantom
animation on Hologauze, MUMA, Monash University, 2021
Mikala Dwyer Bay of Sick
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2020
Group Show, Idol Worship
Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW, 2019
Group Show, Mondspiel
Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, 2019
Group Show, Workshop
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2019
Mikala Dwyer Earthcraft
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre, New Zealand, 2019
Mikala Dwyer Soft Relics
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2018
Group Show, The shape of things to come
Buxton Contemporary, 2018
Group Show, State of Play
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2017
Mikala Dwyer A shape of thought
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2017-18
Group Show, Soft Core
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 2016
Group Show, Wonder: Contemporary Art for Children
Hazelhurst Arts Centre, 2016
Group Show, Dämmerschlaf
Artspace, Sydney, 2016
Mikala Dwyer Square Cloud Compound
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2015-16
Mikala Dwyer The Letterbox Marys
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2015
Group Show, Dead Ringer
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, 2015
Mikala Dwyer Hall of Half-Life
GrazMuseum, Austria, 2015-16
Mikala Dwyer Magnetism
Hazelwood, Sligo, Ireland, 2015
Mikala Dwyer Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize
National Art School Gallery, Sydney, 2015
Mikala Dwyer The Garden of Half-life
University of Sydney Art Gallery, Sydney, 2014-15
Mikala Dwyer The Hollows
19th Biennale of Sydney, 2014
Mikala Dwyer Goldene Bend'er
Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2013
Group Show, Future Primitive
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2013-14
Group Show, Ten Years of Things
UQ Art Museum, 2012-13
Mikala Dwyer Eggswing
Royal Hospital for Women Park, Sydney, 2012-13
Mikala Dwyer Divinations for the real things
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2012
Mikala Dwyer Drawing Down the Moon
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2012
Group Show, Panto Collapsar
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 2012
Mikala Dwyer Windwatcher
Central Park, Sydney, 2011
Mikala Dwyer An Apparition of a Subtraction
17th Biennale of Sydney, 2010
Mikala Dwyer Mary's Place Lamp
Surry Hills, Sydney, 2010-13
Mikala Dwyer Before and After Science
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2010
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2009-10
Mikala Dwyer Outfield
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2009
Mikala Dwyer Moongarden, Aratoi
Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, New Zealand, 2008-09
Group Show, Lucky Town
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2008-09
Mikala Dwyer Black Sun Blue Moon
Spielhaus Morrison Galerie, Berlin, 2007
Mikala Dwyer Swamp Sculpture
Omi Sculpture Park, New York, 2006
Group Show, IOU
Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, Melbourne, 2002
Mikala Dwyer
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2000
Mikala Dwyer Primavera
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 1992
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