Martin Cole

environmental sculptor | installation artist | painter

Having fallen in love with Tasmania in 1991, for many years I lived and worked there, creating environmental installations and curating a variety of exhibitions. Currently, I am living on Dangar Island in the Hawkesbury, NSW where I am a founding member of the Dangar Island community Garden (D.I.G).  

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I see my work in the garden as part of my art practice. I consider it an installation, where I am bringing the elements of community, resources and environment together. They bind collectively and create solutions to wider issues of climate change, food production and community engagement.

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I studied fine art at Prahran Art College, Melbourne, majoring in painting; at Gippsland Institute, Victoria, majoring in ceramics and sculpture and at; the University of Tasmania, majoring in sculpture.

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During the 1980's, I worked in Melbourne as a freelance graphic artist designing band posters, record covers, political campaign posters and comics.

 

As founding member of a Tasmanian-based environmental installations collective, Shadows Art Group, I co-curated and contributed work to bi-annual exhibitions from 2005 - 2011.

 

I curated and exhibited "The Raw of Nature" for the ASLEC-ANZ, (International Environmental Writers), Literary, Ecology and Acoustic conference in Launceston, 2010, "Sounding the Earth".

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A frequent curator and exhibitor at festivals and events including Falls Festival at Marions Bay, Tasmania 2010 - 2013; Jackeys Marsh Forest Festival 2007 - 2011; Launceston Streets Alive Festival, 2013 and; Tasmanian Circus Festival 2015 - 2016. 

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As well as inclusion in regular group shows, my works are held in private collections throughout Australia.

Solo exhibitions include:

2009 - Arts Alive, "Wide Open Road"

2018-19 - Stillwater, "Love in a Coastal Village

2017 & 2018 - Dangar Island Depot

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