Meredith Turnbull
Meredith Turnbull’s practice concerns the world of things as the form-creating basis of culture. She is interested in making and material, and the experiential and temporal register of forms. Her practice engages various disciplines and approaches inclusive of making, writing and curating. Her artworks engage diverse scales, art historical traditions and genres – and manifest in connections between the body and sculpture, images, decorative objects and jewellery.
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Meredith Turnbull is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist, curator and writer. She completed a Bachelor of Art (Honours) in Art History at LaTrobe University in 2000, a Bachelor of Fine Art (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT University in 2005 and a PhD at Monash University in the field of Sculpture and Spatial Practice in 2016.
Turnbull has developed projects for the National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University. Recent projects include: Soft Words (Daine Singer, Melbourne 2023), Meredith Turnbull: Together (Bayside Gallery, Melbourne 2022), All Together (Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton 2022), the performance What does wearing something do? with Behn Woods (RMIT Design Hub 2019) and the exhibition SHE TURNS (c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne 2017). Her artworks have been acquired for numerous private and select public collections including MUMA, Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Ian Potter Museum at the University of Melbourne.
In 2022 M: 33 published Meredith Turnbull: Objects, a survey of 14 years of photographs of Meredith’s constructed tableaux. Featuring essays by Terri Bird and Lucreccia Quintanilla. -
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Meredith Turnbull (b.1977 Melbourne)
Education
2016 PhD, Sculpture and Spatial Practice, Monash University
2003 – 2005 Bachelor of Fine Art, Gold and Silversmithing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne
2000 Bachelor of Arts, Honours, Art History, La Trobe University, Melbourne
1996 – 1999 Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe University, Melbourne
1995 – 1996 Certificate of Photography, Photographic Imaging Centre – PIC, MelbourneSolo Exhibitions
2024 Hold, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2023 Soft Words, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2022 Meredith Turnbull: Together, Bayside Gallery, Melbourne
2022 All Together, Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton
2021 Material Community, Melbourne Design Week, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2020 Mood Mirror, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2018 Closer, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University
2017 Hardbody Sculpture, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2017 Softbody Sculpture, Pieces of Eight Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Co-workers: Complex Forms and Fragmentary Structures, Monash Faculty Gallery, Monash University
2014 Ensemble, Station, Melbourne
2014 Co-workers: Objects, Pieces of Eight, Melbourne
2014 Compositions, Bus Projects, Collingwood
2013 Co-workers, Interior World, The Other Side, Melbourne
2012 The Edible Woman, West Space, Melbourne
2012 Co-workers, Rae and Bennett2011 Target Practice, Centre for Contemporary Photography
2009 Some Become Strangers, Pieces of Eight Gallery, North Fitzroy
2008 Transmission, Slide, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces, Fitzroy
2008 I thought that love was science fiction, TCB art inc, Melbourne
2007 Happiness is a complex form, The Narrows, MelbourneDuo Exhibitions
2022 (All) Together, (with Ross Coulter and Roma Turnbull-Coulter), SOCIAL, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
2015 Reflections (with Anna Varendorff), Craft Victoria
2010 Scale Practice, (with Bridie Lunney), Craft Victoria
2010 You’ll be the death of me, (with Bridie Lunney), Platform, Melbourne
2009 The Body Electric, (with Ross Coulter), Conical, FitzroyGroup Exhibitions
2026 By Necessity, curated by Meredith Turnbull
2025 Glimmer, Toi Tauranga Art Gallery, Aotearoa/ New Zealand
2025 The Maquette: Sculpture Award, McClelland
2022 A thousand different angles, McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery
2021 Future Inheritance, Melbourne Design Week, Melbourne
2019 Shakespeare Grove Artist Studios: Selected Works
2019 Carlisle Street Arts Space, St Kilda Town Hall, City of Port Philip,
2019 Performance,What does wearing something do? with Kay Abude and Behn Woods, RMIT Design Hub
2019 Ode to Marion, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Winter Exhibition, Daine Singer
2018 Spring 1883, Daine Singer, The Windsor Hotel, Melbourne
2017 The Call of the Avant-Garde: Constructivism and Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art
2017 Spring 1883, Daine Singer, The Establishment, Sydney
2017 Material Politics, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Collingwood, curated by Meredith Turnbull2016 Spring 1883, Daine Singer, Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
2015 Return, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2015 Provisional Objects, Jam Factory, Adelaide
2015 Setting, Glen Eira Council Gallery, Melbourne
2014 The Sievers Project: Satellite at the Art Fair, Melbourne Art Fair, curated by Naomi Cass and Angela Brophy
2014 The Sievers Project, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy, curated by Naomi Cass and Kyla McFarlane
2014 Lifestyle Concept, Daine Singer, Melbourne
2014 Dusty Chair, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, curated by Alana Kingston and Brennan Olver
2013 Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2013 Art or Cunning, Watch This Space, Alice Springs, curated by Alice Buscombe
2013 Signature Style, curated by Nella Themelios and Kim Brockett, Craft Victoria, Melbourne2012 CLUNKY, LOOSE and TIGHT, with Ross Coulter and Sean Peoples curated by Ross Coulter, Sutton Project Space, Fitzroy
2012 The Telepathy Project: Veronica Kent, With very special guests, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Project 12: This is Not a Love Song, Anna Pappas Gallery, Prahran
2011 sushichampagnepaintingsculpture, curated by Madeline Kidd
2011 Telepathy and Love, curated by Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples, West Space, Melbourne
2011 Telepathy and Love, curated by Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples, Australia Council apartment, Calle Enrique Granados, Barcelona
2011 Annual Manual: A Guide to Australian Design Now
2010 Celebrating 20 years of Platform, Platform Public Contemporary Art Spaces
2009 someone looking at something..., curated by Kelly Fliedner
2009 De Architectura, curated by Kirsten Rann, Counterpoint @ MARS Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Monobrow, Hell Gallery, Richmond
2008 Folded, curated by Kyla McFarlane, Faculty Gallery, Monash Art and Design, Caulfield
2008 De Architectura, curated by Kirsten Rann, Counterpoint @ Level 17 Artspace, Victoria University, Melbourne2008 World’s End, Carlton Hotel & Studios, Melbourne
2008 The Space In Between: Book Project, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2007 The Space in Between, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Then AO, The Narrows at Peloton, Chippendale, Sydney
2006 Selekta, West SpaceCollections
Monash University Museum of Art
Ian Potter Museum of Art
Heide Museum of Modern Art
