Maria Fernanda Cardoso receives 2020 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship for spider portrait series
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, a Sydney-based artist, has received the 2020 NSW Visual Arts (Established) Fellowship. This fellowship, a collaboration between Create NSW and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, offers a grant of up to $50,000 to support New South Wales artists. Originally from Bogota, Cardoso studied at Yale University in 1997 before moving to Sydney. Her diverse artistic practice includes sculpture, installation, performance, and photography, often exploring the interplay of nature, culture, and science. With the fellowship funds, she intends to create a new series of large-scale digital portraits of Maratus spiders, native to Australia. Cardoso gained acclaim for her 2012 project, Museum of Copulatory Organs, featuring trained fleas like Harry Fleadini and Brutus.
Key facts
- Maria Fernanda Cardoso is the 2020 NSW Visual Arts (Established) Fellow
- The fellowship is jointly awarded by Create NSW and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
- It offers a grant of up to $50,000
- Cardoso was born in Bogota and studied at Yale University in New York in 1997
- She is now based in Sydney
- Her practice includes sculpture, installation, performance, and photography
- She will create large-scale digital portraits of Maratus spiders
- She is known for the 2012 Museum of Copulatory Organs flea circus
Entities
Artists
- Maria Fernanda Cardoso
Institutions
- Create NSW
- Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
- Yale University
Locations
- Bogota
- New York
- Sydney
- Australia
- New South Wales