Marley Dawson is a Sydney based artist born in 1982. Dawson studied at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) and completed his Bachelor in Fine Arts in 2002 with a major in Sculpture, Performance and Installation (SPI), completing Honours in 2003. After a year off Dawson went on to undertake his Master in Fine Arts (2005-07).
During 2004, the year between completing Honours and commencing Masters studies, Dawson worked as a Sculpture Technician at SCA. He continued to work with the SCA as a Workshop Technician and Experimental Drawing Tutor until 2007 and in 2008 and 2009 he lectured in foundation concepts.
Dawson practices mainly in installation and sculpture. His work has a D.I.Y/Lo-Fi atheistic and tends to look at contemporary ideas of masculinity as well as the construction process. In his process there is a crossover between art and labour: the work is the work.
Dawson’s career as a professional exhibiting artist began in 2001 with the group show entitled 'Origins’ at Newspace Gallery, Sydney. Dawson continued to exhibit in numerous group exhibitions in the years that followed. His work has been shown at galleries such as Firstdraft, Sydney; Chalkhorse, Sydney; Phatspace, Sydney; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Losckmith Project Space, Sydney; Gertrude St Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.
In the group show 'Oblivion Pavilion’ curated by Amanda Rowell and first shown at Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; Dawson’s installation Big One Liner made its debut. In this work Dawson has constructed a brick conveyor-belt, measuring 250×570×290cm, which dumps the bricks onto rolling beds, these in turn return the bricks to the start of the conveyor-belt. Controlled by a nearby switch, the viewer is invited to continue the pointless cycle or bring it to a halt. This work later appeared at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, at a re-showing of 'Oblivion Pavilion’ and also landed Dawson a place in the finals of the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship show held at Artspace Gallery, Sydney.
Aside from group shows, Dawson has also taken part in artist collaborations and had numerous solo exhibitions. In 2008, Dawson collaborated with Sydney based artist Christopher Hanrahan, producing the work ECR at Performance Space, Sydney. The artists created an installation of a miniature dirt bike racing track inside the space, with races taking place daily between members of the artistic community. Dawson has also collaborated with Sydney based artist Kate Mitchell, at times going under the collaborative title of Riki Tiki Tavi.
In Dawson’s self-titled solo exhibition at Chalk Horse Gallery, the artist installed a replica framework of his father’s tool shed within the gallery space. The show consisted of turned wood, power tools and sawdust. Visitors could even catch the artist turning wood in the space throughout the duration of the show.
In June 2009 Dawson travelled to Venice to help install the work of Australian video artist Shaun Gladwell for the 2009 Venice Biennale.
- Writers:
- Andrew Moran
Catherine De Lorenzo
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
International artists 1 user
