Megan Cope

Megan Cope (born in 1982 in Brisbane) is an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Quandamooka people. on Stradbroke Island, which is also referred to as Minjerribah in South East Queensland. Her site-specific sculptural installations, video work and paintings investigate issues relating to identity, the environment and mapping practices.She has managed and curated many artist run projects and events including tinygoldand the BARI (Brisbane Artist Run Initiative) FestivalCope is also a member of Queensland's leading contemporary Indigenous art collective ProppaNOW.

Megan Cope creates video, installation, sculptures, and paintings which often resist prescribed notions of Aboriginality and become psychogeographies across various material outcomes that challenge the grand narrative of‘Australia’ as well as our sense of time and ownership in a settler colonial state.Locations for her work include the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Melbourne Museum, as well as many other public and private collections throughout Australia. A main focus of Cope's artwork is to shed light on colonialism and the myths and facts that come along with it.

Video

• The Blaktism looks at culture and identity as well as racism.
• Nimbulima Ngolongmai
• Boykambil
• Yugambeh

Exhibitions

• 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, Art Gallery of South Australia and Adelaide Botanic Garden (29 February - 8 June 2020)
• Water, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (7 December - 26 April 2020)
• My country, I still call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (1 June - 7 October 2013)
• Curator for Art with Attitude at the Airport Village in Australia in 2012.
• Curator of Nine Wives Exhibition in 2011.
• Curated for the BARI Festival in King George Square in 2010.
• Desperate Spaces was a fundraising event curated by Megan Cope in Brisbane, Australia.

Sculptures

• Megan Cope's most well known art project is the glow in the dark ground installations found at Charlish Park in Redcliffe, Australia. This ceramic installation is present in the pathway and shows mapping techniques of historical events, glowing in the dark at night.
• The Tide is High is a project that represents the loss of geography in Australia due to colonialism. It was created in 2013 and hgihglights ideas of colonialism such as erasure of indigenous culture, jobs, and land.
• Fluid Terrain was created in 2013. It is an installation found at the Queensland Art Gallery and connects the Quandamooka people with historical maps. This is Cope's largest project she has done thus far.

Paintings

Cope's paintings were done using synthetic paint as well as Indian Ink.

• Mining Boom created in 2013.
• Mining Boom Part Two created in 2013.
• Yalukit William created in 2014.
• Boon Wurrung created in 2014.

Megan Cope was the winner of the Western Indigenous art award in 2015, winning $50,000 for her project The Blaktism.

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art purchased 'Re Formation' 2016-2019 in 2019. This work is included in the Water exhibition (07 December 2019 – 26 April 2020) at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.