Passages
Beatrice Magalotti

18 May - 8 June 2024
Opening Reception: Thursday 23rd May, 6 - 8 pm
West End Art Space

Artist Biography

Beatrice is a contemporary sculptor whose work engages with a range of themes including mythology (particularly Norse and Greek) and migration. Beatrice has been examining themes of migration, journey and travel in her practice for a number of years. The themes are inspired by contemporary events as well as more personal family histories. Her parents, like so many other Europeans, migrated to Australia in the aftermath of the Second World War. Traveling by boat, their journey took almost two months. Beatrice’s work explores the commonalities of the migrant experience: excitement, uncertainty and vulnerability. Her work is informed by her experience as a woman. Travel and life journeys are poetically evoked rather than described. The artist seeks to create a space for reflective and introspective dialogues, rather than simply engaging with clichéd narratives of migration (notably spectacular media images of suffering individuals and groups). The outcomes of this reflection are the bronze sculptures.

Beatrice also uses embroidery and needlework in her work. Traces of stitching and details of textures of fabrics - traditional female responsibilities - are visible on her bronzes. The delicate gestures of hand-crafting soft and ephemeral materials (fibre and fabric) are by a series of processes (moulding, casting, and patination) changed into hard and permanent materials. Her work is far broader than any specific migrant situation – it is about the human condition of most of the Australian population, and a global condition that crosses the centuries, a response to food scarcity, war and economic opportunities.

Prizes and Awards

2023 Valda Cuming Sculpture Award (MSWPS), (Winner)
2022 Sculpture Now Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA) member show, (Winner)
2022 Melbourne Society of Women Painters & Sculptors (MSWPS), Peer award (Winner)
2021 Elsewhere & Other Places (artaviso event) Main Prize Winner
2021 Rutherglen Art Prize (3D Winner)
2020 Inaugural Sculpture Award, MSWPS, (Winner)
2020 BONANZA, Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA) member show, (Winner)
2017 Annie Davison Oliver Award,(MSWPS), (Winner)
2017 Yering Station, Sculpture Prize, (Winner)

Residences

2023: Unnerud, Denmark (Nov-Dec)
2023: Assisi, Italy (Sept-October)
2019: Odense, Denmark
2018: Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland
2017: Stanley, Tasmania, Australia