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Painter, mixed media and installation artist born in 1954 in Nhill, Victoria, Borgelt grew up on a farm and it was these surrounding natural environments that inspired and informed her early abstract work. Borgelt gained a Diploma of Fine Art from the South Australian School of Art in 1976, when she was awarded the Harry S. Gill medal for the most outstanding final year student. In 1977 Borgelt received a Diploma of Education from Torrens College, also in Adelaide.

Following the award of the Peter Brown Memorial Travelling Art Scholarship in 1978, Borgelt moved to New York for postgraduate studies. She spent the next two years (1979-80) at the New York Studio School, studying under George McNeil, Jake Berthot and Alan Cote. Concerning Borgelt’s most valuable New York experience, as relating to her work and professional development, the artist states:

“Surprisingly, I felt that the rigorous work schedule of 9am – 4pm. at the New York Studio School gave me the sense that being an artist was just like a job – you went to work every day and whilst in the studio you worked. It was very much a routine, although you were your own boss and the subject matter you focused on was that of your own choice. I learnt the nature of discipline whilst studying at the Studio School and this served me well for many years to come.” (Marion Borgelt in private correspondence with Katharine Buljan, February 2007, Sydney).

Borgelt exhibited her New York works in Australia for the first time on her return in 1980. The occasion was the group exhibition 'South Australian Centenary’, held in the Art Gallery of South Australia. The works were shown again in Sydney in 1981 at the David Reid Gallery – her first solo Sydney exhibition.

Borgelt had begun exhibiting during her first year of study at the South Australian School of Art in 1973 and, from the late 1970s, has exhibited regularly in both group and solo exhibitions, often simultaneously.

In 1975, a year before completing her Diploma of Fine Art, Borgelt won her first art award, the Channel 10 Young Artist Award. The 1982 Sydney Biennale - Vision in Disbelief marked her first significant group exhibition. 1982 also marked the beginning of Borgelt’s seven year professional association with RoslynOxley9 Gallery in Sydney before a highly productive relationship with Sherman Galleries that ended in 2007 with the close of the gallery. Borgelt exhibited in Melbourne for the first time in 1984 in the Christine Abrahams Gallery, where she exhibited regularly until 2006 and in 2008 Thirtyseven Degrees – Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in Sydney began to represent her.

Before and after New York, Borgelt taught art at various Australian institutions. In 1979 she taught at the Mercedes College in Adelaide and after New York, she taught for four years (1985-89) at the East Sydney Technical College, Canberra School of Art, the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales, and as a private art tutor in Sydney.

The trip to New York in 1979 was the first of many overseas trips undertaken during Borgelt’s artistic career and from which she continues to draw inspiration. Awarded a Special Projects Grant by the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts in 1984, Borgelt travelled again in 1985 to New York and then to London, France and Italy to undertake art research. On this occasion, she also exhibited in Italy and the former Yugoslavia. Upon her return to Sydney, Borgelt participated in another important art event – the 'Australian Perspecta 1985’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

In 1986, Borgelt, together with Jenny Watson, was chosen to represent Australia at the Sixth Indian Triennalein New Delhi, where she again found inspiration, returning to India several times to do research. 1988 was a significant year for Borgelt – not only did she hold a solo exhibition and participate in a number of group exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand, but also won three awards – the Faber Castel Art Award, the University of Technology Purchase Prize and the Muswellbrook Open Prize. She also received another grant from Visual Arts/Crafts Board. In 1989 the artist was awarded a French Government Art Fellowship and transferred to Paris, where she stayed for the most of the following decade. Even from Paris however, Borgelt continued to exhibit regularly in Australia. In the first year of her French residency she received a commission from the New South Wales Cancer Council and worked on it with master printer René Tazé. It was during the middle period of her stay in Paris that Borgelt began exhibiting with Sherman Galleries.

During Borgelt’s time in Paris, the artist’s focus was on various themes, including the void and the primordial. Remarkable examples from this period include Void Suite No. XV (1993), Void Series: Equilibrium (1994) and Primordial Logic (1996). For a certain period of time the artist maintained an interest in the Jungian theory of archetypes. Upon Borgelt’s return from Paris in 1999, she became engaged in a series of public, corporate and private commissions. These include Primordial Alphabet and Rhythm - a 1998-99 commission for the foyer of the News Limited Building (Surry Hills, Sydney), 55 Ring Maze – a 1999-2000 commission to design a 1.5-hectare cornfield maze (Mornington Peninsula, Victoria) and the Mirror Matter Trilogy – a commission for a Conference Centre (Cyprus Lakes, Hunter Valley) in 2000.

Consequent commissions include the 2005 site-specific commemorative installation Man’s Destiny Resides in the Sole, created for the Bata Shoe Museum (Toronto), Liquid Light: Double Wave Trilogy and Lunar Warp created for Boardroom, Goldman Sachs (Sydney) and the site-specific sculptural installation Round Up Maze in Hay (NSW), created in collaboration with Andrew Crick.

In 1996 Borgelt became the first Australian artist to receive the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award. She was also selected three times to participate in the prestigious Moet and Chandon exhibition (1987, 1988, 1990). In 2001-2003 Borgelt was awarded a highly significant two-year Australia Council Fellowship. In 2006 she received a New Work Grant (Visual Arts Board) and the following year was awarded an Art Angels Residency in Perth.

Borgelt has given numerous radio and television interviews: in 2004 she was filmed for Ovation Channel in Art In Reverse, produced by Carolina Totterman and Liz Courtenay; in 2006 and 2007 she was interviewed by Sylvia Rosenblum for Eastside Radio and in 2007 she was filmed for ABC Sunday Arts, produced by Tash Murray. Borgelt has also been involved in a number of art prizes. She was on a Judging Panel for the Campbelltown City Bicentenary Art Gallery Prize in 2003 and in 2005 was on a Judging Panel for the well-known Blake Prize for Religious Art, becoming a board member of the prize in 2007.

In relation to art-making, the artist states: “Making art for me is an activity about conveying ideas. The work develops a language that communicates understandings and attitudes about the world at large. This is an important pretext behind my whole practice.” (Marion Borgelt in private correspondence with Katharine Buljan, November 2007). As a creative individual Borgelt has countless ideas. On the question how she decides that some ideas bear more significance than the others and which once will be visually expressed, the artist states:

“As far as I’m concerned, every idea brings a multitude of associations. For example, if I am thinking about doing a sequence that expresses something about 'time’ or something about cyclical phases, then a number of questions about material, scale, colour, etc, also arise at the same moment. For me an idea is inseparable from the way I see it being expressed in material or real terms. Let me rephrase that: the materiality of a work of art is inseparable from the idea. So if all the factors 'lock’ together in my head or in the drawings (if the work is a large scale piece) then there’s a good chance I’ll set about creating it. Many ideas fall by the wayside if they don’t have the substance of thought behind them or I can’t visualise how to actually create them.” (Borgelt in private correspondence with Katharine Buljan, March 2008).

In Borgelt’s 1990s mixed media works, the artist frequently used a vast number of materials, such as beeswax, bitumen, wood and papier mâché. This choice has recently been extended to the use of glass, as seen in Borgelt’s new sculptural installations created during her residency in Italy. During her French period, Borgelt’s palette contained mostly reds, blacks and whites. This changed in the 2000s as she introduced colours such as greens, yellows, oranges and purples. This shift is reflected in works such as Liquid Light: 31 Degrees (2004) and Strobe Series No. 6 (2007). Borgelt’s thematic repertoire is vast and constantly changing.

In 2008 the artist was living in Sydney, NSW

Writers:

Buljan, KatharineNote:

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed