Elisa Jane Carmichael (b.1987) Ngugi woman of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island) studied at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology. She works across media including painting, weaving, textiles and public art projects. Her interests are ‘to revive, nurture, and preserve cultural knowledge and practice’.
Carmichael’s work Before the Gardens 2 and Before the Gardens 3 are both cyantypes - an analogue photographic printing process that produces images in a dark blue hue. Images are created by layering objects on paper or cloth, which is coated with a UV sensitive wash and then exposing it all to sunlight. Carmichael speaks of the process of layering like the tradition of creating middens on the shores of Minjerribah and the colour she says is ‘deep like the ocean’.
Recent group exhibitions include Busan Biennale 2022 (South Korea); Primavera 2021 (MCA); Naadohbii: To Draw Water, (Museum of Melbourne) and Winnipeg Art Gallery (Canada); Tarnanthi 2020: open hands at the Art Gallery of South Australia and Two Sisters a singular vision (Queensland Art Gallery, 2020). Carmichael participated in the Women’s Wealth Project as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial 9 (APT9) at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in 2018. ElisaJane Carmichael has also been a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA)exhibition in 2018 and in 2021 and 2023. Carmichael has also revealed her first public art installation, Water is Life (2021) at South Bank parklands (Brisbane, Qld).
Her work is held in private and public collections in Australia, including: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, The University of Queensland Art Museum, QUT Art Museum, Queensland Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Redlands Art Gallery, Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation, and the University of the Sunshine Coast.
