Maria Kozic is B-ecoming Part of Neon Parc

The Melbourne gallery has added an indomitable feminist artist to its stable.

Words: Erin Irwin

Neon Parc has revealed its newest family member is none other than Maria Kozic. The multidisciplinary artist has been practicing for decades, and is most well known for her feminist works that utilise pop culture and gender politics to entertain and shock her audience.

In our Collector’s Dossier from 2022 on Kozic, Dr. Helen Hughes said that “One of the most critically important aspects of Kozic’s work is the way it examines how identity – how people themselves – are constructed from and shaped by the things they culturally consume”. “Kozic’s work”, she continues, “has addressed these issues for decades with rigour, poise, and, most disarmingly, a slightly warped sense of humour.”

Having made a name for herself in the late 1970s as part of the performance group Tsk-Tsk-Tsk alongside Phillip Brophy, the artist soon turned to cinema, advertising and art history. Some of her most well known works include The Birds, referencing Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller of the same name, and the series Bitch.

The artist has previously exhibited with Neon Parc in 2022, with her show Wonderland, and 2023 alongside Darren Sylvester. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, among many others both in within Australia and overseas, and has been included in a staggering amount of group exhibitions. Her works are held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.

Kozic is set to exhibit once more with Neon Parc in a solo exhibition scheduled for 2024.

This article was posted 17 December 2023.

Image: Maria Kozic, Maria Kozic is Bitch, 1990. Billboard, 600 x 900 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne.

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