Born in Cairns, Queensland in 1977, painter and printmaker Lisa is of the Kokoberrin language group, located on Central West Coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. Her traditional homelands, on her Grandmother’s side, are known as Pinnarinch or Mudpaalanjen and stretch between Staaten River National Park and north to Nassau River, including Wyabba Creek and Dorunda Lodge area. Today the Kokoberrin mainly reside in Kowanyama, Normanton and North Queensland communities. Pinarrinch encompasses several creation places, with Lisa’s totem name Ko-manggén being one of them. Lisa was given her totem name Ko-manggén in 2005 by her great-grandfather who was the most senior Kokoberrin elder and lore man and named Lisa after his cousin, Fannie Bruce.
Michl stated in November 2007 that she uses “colours, texture and design along with my thoughts and feelings to create my works. My paintings express elements of our creation stories, traditional practices and our everyday lifestyle.” Michl, like her brother and fellow artist, Shaun Edwards Kalk, is a graduate of the Banggu Minjaany Art and Cultural Centre at Cairns TAFE gaining an Advanced Diploma of Visual Art in 1997.
Michl has participated in a number of exhibitions including “Story Place: Indigenous Art of the Cape York and Rainforest” in 2003 at the Queensland Art Gallery and “Out of Country” in 2004 in Washington DC, USA. Since 2005, Michl has shown her work in commercial galleries including Andrew Baker Art Dealer in Brisbane, Queensland, Hogarth Galleries in Sydney, NSW, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra, ACT and Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA.
Michl has been a finalist three times in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards held each year at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin – in 1993, 2005 and 2007. She was also the 2006/2007 recipient of the Ivyon Coen Indigenous Youth Art and Leadership Award presented by the Wilin Centre at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Victoria.
Since 2000 Michl has worked in the Indigenous arts industry within North Queensland holding down positions with TANK Arts Centre in Cairns and has been a Board Member of the Indigenous Environment Foundation (IEF) Queensland, the Indigenous Arts Marketing, Export Agency (QIAMEA). Michl sits as a member of the National Indigenous Reference Group (NIRG) for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and at the time of writing Michl was the Chairperson for Umi Arts Pty Ltd in Cairns.
- Writers:
- Allas, TessNote:
- Date written:
- 2007
- Last updated:
- 2011
- Status:
- peer-reviewed
