Design and Art Australia Online

Born in Switzerland in 1975 , Monika Tichacek studied at the School of Visual Arts, Zurich before moving to Perth in 1994, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University, Perth (1994-96). In 2000, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales and, following sojourns abroad in New York and Prague, was living and working in Sydney in 2008.

In 2005, Tichacek staged her first major solo exhibition, The Shadowers, a video work that was shown at Artspace, Sydney; the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. A selection of photographic works only was also exhibited at Sherman Galleries, Sydney and Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne.

Tichacek has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, both locally and abroad, including the Anne Landa Award for Video & New Media Arts (2007), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Winner); Supernatural Artificial: Contemporary photo-based art from Australia , Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan (then toured various venues throughout Asia 2004-06); Australian Culture Now , National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (2004); I thought I knew but I was wrong – New video art from Australia , Australian Centre for the Moving Image and touring various venues throughout Asia (2004); Kiefer Hablitzel – Eidgenoessischer Wettbewerb Fuer Kunst , ART 33, Basel, Switzerland (2002); and Homecoming King , Performance Space, Sydney (2001).

Tichacek has received a number of grants and awards, notably the Anne Landa Award for Video & New Media Arts , Art Gallery of New South Wales (2007); Kiefer Hablitzel Stipendium from the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation, Zurich (2002); the Dyson Bequest , Art Gallery of New South Wales (2001); the Helen Lemprière Travelling Arts Scholarship , Ministry of the Arts, New South Wales (2001); and the Basil Muriel Hooper Scholarship , Art Gallery of New South Wales (2000).

In 2005 Tichacek featured on the cover of Australian Art Collector’s April – June issue and was included in the publication’s Australia’s Most Collectable Artists issue in 2004. Her work has also attracted substantial national media attention. When The Shadowers was exhibited at Artspace in 2005, the Office of Film and Literature Classification made calls arguing that video art should be subjected to classification before being screened in a public gallery space.

Writers:

Woodbury, Karen

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011