Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her Sydney, Australia studio, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso's studio, Sydney, Australia, 2019.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her garden, Sydney, Australia, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her studio, Sydney, Australia, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso's studio, Sydney, Australia, 2019.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, studio research.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size II, Ed. 2/5 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2016, Pigment print on premium photo paper, 300 gr., 60 x 80 1/8 in. (152.4 x 203.6 cm.)
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size I, Ed. AP1 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2015, Pigment print on premium photo paper 300 gr., 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.)
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, On the Origins of Art II, (Edition of 3 + 2AP), 2016, Single channel HD video, hyper realistic sound with tactile dimension, Video: 6:54 min
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, On the Origins of Art I, (Edition of 3 + 2AP), 2016, Single channel HD video, hyper realistic sound with tactile dimension, Video: 6:54 min
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO (b. 1963, Colombia)
“The world has worlds within worlds, both smaller and bigger.”
As a child, María Fernanda Cardoso took long nature walks with her father. Carrying a magnifying glass, Cardoso would look closely at plants and insects, studying their intricacies. These walks sparked her curiosity about the natural world and trained her powers of observation. Throughout her career, she has continued to explore nature and its links to culture and science. Curator Carolina Ponce de León writes, “Cardoso’s installations, sculptures and videos seek to unravel the parodies, paradoxes and complexities that appear in the joints where cultural systems overlap.”
In the early 1980s, Cardoso studied architecture and the visual arts at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1987, she moved to New York to attend the Graduate Sculpture Program at Pratt Institute, and in 1990, she completed her MFA in Sculpture at Yale University. Her early projects make use of preserved animals such as lizards, starfish, earthworms, frogs, and snakes arranged in intricate, abstract compositions reminiscent of pre-Colombian forms. Other installations include flowers and stones turned into vertical gardens and funerary wreaths.
The Cardoso Flea Circus (1994-2000) was a six-year series of performances and installations in which Cardoso trained fleas to perform tasks and surprising feats of strength. She performed the Cardoso Flea Circus internationally, at venues including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sydney Opera House, Centre Georges Pompidou, Arts Festival Atlanta, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2003, she represented Colombia for the Venice Biennale. Cardoso moved to Sydney, Australia in 1997 and she currently lives and works there. In 2012, she received her PhD from Sydney College for the Arts.
2018 | On the Origins of Art, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA |
| While I Live I Will Grow,Green Square Community and Cultural Precinct, Sydney, Australia |
| Timeline - Apología a lo perecedero - Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogota |
| The Art Of Seduction, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, VIC |
| Naked Flora, Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art. The Jam Factory. Adelaide, Australia |
2013 | Undressing a Flower, Bill Wright Gallery, Sydney, Australia |
| Órganos Instromitentes, Galería Casas- RIegner, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Colección de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia |
2012 | 18th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Copulatory Organs (MoCO), Sydney, Australia (Performance) |
2011 | It’s Not Size That Matters, It Is Shape, ARC One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia |
| Masters of Disguise, Freemantle Arts Centre, Freemantle, Australia |
2010 | Organos intromitentes, Galeria Casas-Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Emu Wear at the Rodman Centre for the Arts, Brock University, Ontario, Canada |
| Emu Wear, Definitely Superior Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Canada |
2009 | Emu Wear, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia |
2008 | Mimicry, Berenice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL, USA |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia |
| Fashion and Mimesis, Definitely Superior Gallery, Thunder Bay, Canada (Performance) |
| Emu Wear, Berenice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL, USA (Performance) |
| Emu Wear, Casula Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia (Performance) |
2007 | Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Galeria Casas-Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia |
2006 | Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Death Becomes Her, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY, USA |
| Emu Next 5km, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA |
2004 | Maria Fernanda Cardoso, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso: 20 años, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Cara de Buseta (Bus Face), Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia |
2003 | Cara de Buseta (Bus Face), Casas-Riegner, Miami, FL, USA |
| ZOOmorphia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia |
| BIOgometries (BIOgeometras), Latincollector, New York, NY, USA |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Sheep, Artspace, Sydney; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C., USA |
2002 | Butterfly Drawings, Galeria Casas-Riegner, Miami, FL, USA |
| Dibujos de Mariposas (Butterfly Drawings), Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia |
2000 | Cardoso Flea Circus, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, USA (Installation) |
| Esculturas (Sculptures), Galería Sala Alternativa, Caracas, Venezuela |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland (Performance) |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival, Australia (Performance) |
1998 | Cardoso Flea Circus, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA (Video installation) |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris Quartier D’ete, Paris, France (Performance) |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Awesome International Children’s Festival, Perth, Australia (Performance) |
1997 | Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Arts Festival Atlanta, GA, USA (Performance) |
1996 | Cardoso Flea Circus, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA (Installation) |
1995 | Love Down Under, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA |
| Cardoso Flea Circus Live, San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, USA |
1994 | Submarine Landscape, Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Woven Water, Ruth Bloom Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA |
| Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Recent Sculptures, MIT List Visual Art Center, Cambridge, MA, USA |
1993 | Cemetery, Chapman University, Orange County, CA, USA |
| Gold, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY, USA |
1992 | Calabazas (Gourds), San Francisco Artspace, San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Botuto Guarura (Gourds), Sala Alternativa, Caracas, Venezuela |
| El Marmol Americano (American Marble), Ruth Bloom Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA |
1991 | Obra Reciente (Recent Work), Galeria Garcés y Velasquez, Bogotá, Colombia |
1987 | Nuevos Nombres (New Names), Casa de La Moneda, Bogotá, Colombia |
Artbank, Australia
The Arts Centre Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Australia
Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela
Daros Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá, Colombia
Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Pérez Art Museum, Miami Beach, FL, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
Tate Modern, London, UK
Anonymous female artisans from Chile, Tania Bruguera, Cristina Hernández Botero, Margarita Cabrera, Melissa Calderón, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Melba Carillo, Marta Chilindron, Alessandra Expósito, Iliana Emilia Garcia, Scherezade Garcia, Dulce Gómez, Carmen Herrera, Jessica Kairé, Carmen Lomas Garza, Evelyn López de Guzmán, Anna Maria Maiolino, Glendalys Medina, Ana Mendieta, Marina Núñez del Prado, Liliana Porter, Raquel Rabinovich, Nitza Tufiño
An academic publication by Lara Stephens focusing on deep dramaturgy and the making of the Cardoso Flea Circus and On the Origins of Art projects as subjects of these analyses.
Daily Telegraph, Sydney's Elizabeth Fortescue, Arts Editor, writes Weaving a tiny web of intrigue covering the artist's work with Maratus spiders
What was once a backyard swimming pool is now a murky pond with a budding ecosystem. In a corner of the overgrown garden rests a stone roughly hand-engraved with ‘‘TIME IS’’. The wild cacophony of nature continues inside with native flowers, a pair of preserved emu legs, butterfly wings, piles of rocks, animal skin, feathers and gum nuts scattered across benches, tables and side desks.
Sydney-based artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso will create a major new series of sculptures from a rare significant find of approximately 4,000 cubic-metres of ‘yellow Sydney’ sandstone, harvested and commissioned by TWT Property Group. TWT specialise in establishing quality residential communities with a commitment to art and architecture; they’re also the masterminds behind the TWT Creative Precinct – home to over 70 artists, making it the fastest growing creative precinct in the nation.
![Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size II, Ed. 2/5 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2016, Pigment print on premium photo paper, 300 gr., 60 x 80 1/8 in. (152.4 x 203.6 cm.)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.collageplatform.com.prod/image_cache/1010x580_fit/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/a5c96f653520abd2d8d64cee39a62a78.jpeg)
![Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size I, Ed. AP1 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2015, Pigment print on premium photo paper 300 gr., 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.collageplatform.com.prod/image_cache/1010x580_fit/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/532d55492b662bd1676aa9b51281f83d.jpeg)
