contact kym.yvette.maxwell {at} gmail {dot} com
Kym Maxwell is an interdisciplinary artist and author living on unceded Wurundjeri Country in Naarm.
Maxwell’s arts practice and projects realise the relationship between education and social spaces. Previously, Maxwell has taken responsibility for larger arts projects that borrow from theatre, choreography, and contemporary art history to create a playful mode of presentation for group work in response to education and identity. Since 2012 Maxwell’s work has achieved curatorial, social, or material formats although since 2025 her arts practice has become increasingly sculptural, photographic, or hand drawn which is a change from her publication, performance, or a group web-based arts practice. Throughout these transitions Maxwell continues to communicate about territories and the hidden languages of relational and in some cases institutional frameworks.
Maxwell was the recipient of the 2019 Australia Council Career Development grant and 2018 Ian Potter Cultural Trust’s Emerging Artist Travelling Scholarship. She holds a Masters of Fine Art (Research) at Monash University, 2017 and a Masters of Education (Teaching) at RMIT, 2007.
In 2018 and 2019 Maxwell produced a major new commission for MUMA, Objects of Longing, with Dandenong Primary School for international exhibit Shapes of Knowledge, at Monash University Museum of Art with support from Creative Victoria and Gandel Foundation. This culminated into an outdoor theatre work Objects are a Limbic System Embrace their Logic, with sound composer Daniel Jenatsch that was performed at the Ian Potter Sculptural Forecourt at MUMA. In conjunction, the publication A Wharfie’s Story - play, protest and consequence: Kym Maxwell and the Collingwood College Theatre Troupe was launched at MUMA by Charlotte Day. It explores the field of pedagogic projects and their relationship to contemporary art discourse. It is available at Perimeter Books, MCA Store and Amazon. In 2017 Maxwell presented four solo installations: Refraction, at Kingston Arts Centre, storyboard poetics and pedagogic process (with imagery from the Collingwood College Theatre Troupe) at West Space Gallery; Informal Learning, at George Paton Gallery; and Learning Labour, at MADA Monash University. Her curatorial work La La Hi Prism (2000) was featured in National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibit, Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art from the 1990s (2017). Maxwell curated a film program in Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art and Feminism (2017- 2018) based on her extensive research on artists works from 1995-2005.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Ai Pioppi: beautiful chaos, taboos and conventions, Project Space, Melbourne
2017 Refraction, Kingston Arts Centre, Melbourne
Storyboard poetics and pedagogic process, West Space, Melbourne
Informal Learning, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne University, Melbourne
Learning Labour, (MFA Exhibition), Monash University, Caulfield Campus B.6, Melbourne
2016 Parenting is Political, Bus Projects (with Angela Brennan), Melbourne
2015 If Transmission Were Material, Mural Hall, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
2014 Liberty of The Screen, Malahang Reserve intervention, sponsored by Banyule City Council, curated by Claire Watson, Melbourne
2013 GOODWILL (Exhibition and Publication Launch), Top Shelf Gallery, Melbourne
GOODWILL: Memoirs of Yard Play, Research installation, Perimeter Books and Small Block Cafe, Melbourne
Marble Run Two: The Materials are Listening with Dirk Leuschner, C3 Artspace, curated by Jon Butt, Melbourne
1999 A Rock Performance in 3 Stances, TCB Gallery, Melbourne
Street Talk, Phyco Gallery, Melbourne
1998 I Like You, You're Natural, Phyco Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Love Poem, Phyco Gallery, Melbourne
Videowall (curator/artist), Tenement Gallery, Melbourne
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Making Mobile, Free Association online, curated by Anita Spooner
2019 Shapes of Knowledge, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, curated by Hannah Mathews
The Turn (w/ Ali McCann), Boadle Hall Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Un Projects 13.2: Artist Page Commission edited by Thomas Ragnar and Bobaq Sayed
Darebin Arts Prize, Bundoora Homestead, Victoria
2018 A Quiet Game of Disobediences at the New Student Precinct, Melbourne University, curated by Anita Spooner
2017 West Space Fundraiser, West Space Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Steiner Verse with the children of Sophia Mundi Steiner School (Class 6 and pedagogue Tanya Rao). Presented at Abbotsford Convent as part of the Liquid Architecture event 'Polyphonic Social.' Funded by the City of Yarra, curated by Emily Siddon and Joel Stern, Melbourne
2015 Video Visions, ACMI, Channels Video Art Festival, presentation of video Nasa and Moonglow, curated by Nikki Lam, Melbourne
Embodied Sound by the Collingwood College Sound Collective for Liquid Architecture, Westspace, curated by Danni Zuvela, Melbourne
International Women's Day Video Screening Program, VCA HUB, curated by Elizabeth Gower and Lisa Radford, Melbourne
Tele Visions Screenings, EXPERIMENTA Biennial, RMIT Gallery (2015-2016), curated by Steve White, Regional and National locations
2014 Faux Museum, C3 Contemporary Art Space, curated by Melissa Loughan, Kate Tucker, Anusha Kenny and Ace Wagstaff, Melbourne
Liberty of Imagination: Duelling Spheres (GOODWILL object research), Banyule Contemporary Art Fair, Hatch Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
Re-Raising Consciousness, TCB Gallery, curated by Fayen d'Evie, Katherine Hattam, Harriet Morgan, Melbourne
Activist Arts Festival, Ballroom, Trades Hall, Melbourne
Uneducated (curator/artist), Group show with 13 local and 3 international artists, Counihan Gallery, curator and artist, Melbourne
This Is Not the Work, QUT Gallery, Creative Industries Precinct, curated by LEVEL, Queensland
Finalist Substation Contemporary Art Prize, Substation, Newport, Melbourne
Channel G Radio - sound score as part of live broadcast, Das Boot Fair, Next Wave Festival: Channel G organised by Sean Peoples, Melbourne
La La Hi Prism Videolabel, (as part of Minor Developments) Slopes, curated by Jared Davis, Melbourne
BackFlip: Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art, Sydney College of the Arts, COFA, curated by Laura Castagnini, Sydney
Industrial Estate (curator/artist), an exhibition set within a fine furniture factory in Heidelberg West, self-curated, Melbourne
2013 TeleVisions (screening), CarriageWorks: festival of video performances and art, Sydney
BackFlip: Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, curated by Laura Castagnini
2011 The Brunswick Project part of Slow Art Collective's curatorial project for Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Works Backyard, Sunshine and Grease Gallery, curated by Patrick O'Brien, Melbourne
2008 Skin and Bones, L’Oreal fashion Week, Bus Gallery, curated by Patrick O'Brien, Melbourne
Documenting Possibilities, Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange (REAIE), Documentation Centre, Hawthorn, Melbourne
2000 One2phree4, Westspace, curated by Laila Marie Costa, Melbourne
1999 Videosonic (artist/ curator), Large live public outdoor event, presented on Alt TV (20 x 12 metre screen) crn Swanston and Bourke Sts, Melbourne, May 19th. 4 sound artists and 11 video artists, Melbourne
1998 Video Performance, Synesthesisa Records, Melbourne
URC (ULTIMATE RECORD COVER) 12", Phyco Gallery, Melbourne
50 Record Players, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and Tenement Gallery, Melbourne, curated by Dylan Martorell and Nathan Gray
1997 Trans, Soapbox Gallery, Brisbane, curated by Charles Robb
50 Record Players, Tenement Gallery, curated by Dylan Martorell and Nathan Gray
Don't Stop Now Precious Keep on Walking with Pegs Marlow, Phyco Gallery
Shinjuku Drummer, video performance, Tenement Gallery
1992 Award Show, Norma Bull Naturalistic Portraiture Arts Scholarship, Victorian Artist Society
Kartell, George Paton Gallery, co-curated with Charles Robb and Courtney Pedersen
EDUCATION
2017 Masters of Fine Art (Research) Monash University
2007 Masters of Education (Teaching) RMIT
2007 Graduate Diploma in Education (Primary) Murdoch University
1993 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing) VCA
1988 Advanced Certificate in Art and Design Outer Easter College of Tafe
AWARDS / SCHOLARSHIPS/ RESIDENCIES
2019 Bundanon Trust Residency, NSW: to explore sculptural researchfunded by the Australia Council.
2019 Australia Council, Career Development Grant: a mentorship with artist pedagogue Jordi Ferreiro, Barcelona, Spain, and research of Ai Pioppi, a kinetic playground in Vento, Italy.
2018 Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Emerging Artist Travelling Scholarship, mentorship and residency in Italy and Spain, June/July.
2018 Gandel Philanthropy Grant, MUMA Commission, Objects Are a Limbic System Embrace Their Logic (performance) and the Objects of Longing (exhibition) at Monash University Museum of Art with Dandenong Primary School, 2018- 2019.
2018 Creative Learning Partnerships, Creative Victoria in partnership with Monash University Museum of Art and Dandenong Primary School.
2018 City of Greater Dandenong, Small Project Grant
2017 Monash Masters Kingston Arts Centre Exhibition Award, Kingston Arts, Melbourne
2015 Australian Post Graduate Award, Monash University, Melbourne
City of Yarra Small Project Grant on behalf of Collingwood College Theatre Troupe, Melbourne
2014 Ephemeral Public Art Commission, Banyule City Council, Malahang Reserve Playground, Melbourne
Artist in Residence, Hatch Contemporary Art Space, Ivanhoe, Melbourne
Artist in Residence, Charles La Trobe College, Heidelberg West, Melbourne
Pinpoint Ambassador, (Visual Arts), Banyule City Council, Melbourne
Finalist, Substation Contemporary Art Prize, Substation, Newport, Melbourne
2013 Community Arts Grant, Banyule City Council for the Industrial Estate curatorial project, Melbourne
2012 Teaching Professional Leave, Awarded by DEECD to focus on bringing the Reggio Emilia inspired approach to my teaching and learning throughout 2012 and also attend the Reggio Emilia Conference, Reggio Emilia, Italy
1992 Norma Bull Travelling Scholarship for Naturalistic Portraiture, Victorian Artist Society, East Melbourne
THEATRE
2018/2019 Objects Are A Limbic System Embrace Their Logic with Dandenong Primary School, sound artist Daniel Jenatsch, choreography Rebecca Jensen, script support Georgina Criddle, photography Keelan O'Hehir, video Lara Gising and Sam Hardeman. Funded by Creative Learning Partnerships, Creative Victoria and the Gandel Foundation
2016 YOUNG PUBLICS THEATRE TROUPE, weekly classes at the Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
2015 A Wharfie's Story by the Collingwood College Theatre Troupe. Sound Artist: Joel Stern, Choreographer: Gerard Van Dyke. Presented at Library at the Docks, Docklands with financial assistance from City of Yarra in collaboration with Collingwood College, Melbourne
PUBLICATIONS
2019 A Wharfie’s Story - play, protest, consequence: Kym Maxwell and the Collingwood College Theatre Troupe. 320 pp. Edited by Kym Maxwell. Designed by Paul Mylecharane and Beayizt Worou. Copy Editor Sarah Gory. Texts by Rosemary Forde, Lisa Radford, Jim Beggs, Anais Ahkin, Kylie Wilkinson. Self-published with Ingram Press, Melbourne. Available at Perimeter Books, World Food Books, MCA Store and Amazon.
2019 Science Makers: Making with Sounds, by Anna Claybourne, published by Hachette Press, UK.
2014 Industrial Estate, 16pg. broadsheet publication. Designed by Ziga Testen, Limited edition 300. Printed in London and Melbourne, newsprint and Risograph insert. Essays by Lisa Radford and Harriet Morgan. Funded by Banyule City Council. Available at World Food Books.
2013 GOODWILL: Memoirs of Yard Play , A5, 52 page publication. Designed by Ross Paxman. Limited edition 100. Introduction by Helen Hughes, Printed in Melbourne, card and rag paper, Australia.
1998 URC 12" Pycho Zine, 20 page self published book
Phyco Zine N# 1,2, 3, 4 Black and White editions of 50, sold at Polyester Books
Lust and Trust, A3, 10 page zine, Photocopies
1997 Yuki-Yakimo 10 page home made book of drawings compiled by Jac Valdman, Limited Edition 20.
WRITING
2019 Text Commission: Collectors and Data Deaths, Channels Festival Publication, edited by Laura Couttie, Directed by Kelli Alred
2019 Bauhaus to Nowhaus w/Meredith Turnbull, Art Monthly, June edition
2013 Un. Magazine, Edition 7:1 ‘Experience and Perceptions of ‘Children’s Research’ and the Educational Turn’
2013 Stamm Online Journal with Lisa Radford, Sept/Oct edition ‘Social Space = PublicArt: Sean People Channel G TV’
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2018 Curatorial selection of 5 video works for 1995-2005 for Unfinished Business: perspectives of art and feminism, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, curators Max Delany, and Anna Kristensen. Included La La Hi Prims Videolabel Series 2: Stylee, Destiny Deacon, and Virgina Fraser, Sue Dodd, Tracey Moffatt and Barbara Campbell
2017 La La Hi Prism videolabel Series 1: New Model in Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art from the 1990’s, National Gallery of Victoria, curators Pip Wallis and Jane Devery
2016 Parenting is Political online platform (ongoing) to accompany exhibition Parenting is Political, Bus Projects.
2014 Uneducated, Group exhibition and website with 13 local and 3 international artists. With three public program events and the re-curation of the exhibition between Emily Floyd and the children of Collingwood College, Counihan Gallery.
2014 Industrial Estate Site: Woodcraft Mobiliar, 11 visual and 3 performance artists utilise the fine furniture factory as presentation site for works about the labour of art and fuctional design production.
2000 - 2001 La La Hi Prism Videolabel series, for sale at 200 Gertrude St, ACCA, CCP, MCA, Fat 52, Alice Euphemia and Art Salon (for further details see History and Media Work)
1999 Videosonic — Alt TV presentation on Alt TV, May 19th, crn Swanston and Bourke St open air live music and video event with sound and video artists. Liased with Melbourne City Council, Yarra Trams and Melbourne Police to hold a public road blocking event that lasted 90 mins.
1998 URC 12" (Ultimate Record Cover) — Phyco Gallery, 25 visual and sound artists create their ultimate record cover, opening with additional live performances in gallery
1997 Video Wall — Tenement Gallery an assemblage of 20 TV screens playing simultaneously 20 video works from Australia, NZ and U.S artists, varying lengths. A select screening and talks were held in gallery February 19th - 21st, 1997. Special guest Cathy Scott from Paper Tiger TV.
TALKS
2019 Social Practice and Education in Contemporary Art – in conversation with Mary Mattingly and Kym Maxwell, Australian Center for Contemporary Art: facilitators, Hannah Mathews, Senior Curator MUMA and Daniel Riley, Principal of Dandenong Primary School.
2019 Reflecting on the Objects of Longing Project with Harvard University’s Project Zero educator Flossie Chua, MUMA and Independent Schools Victoria
2016 Pedagogic Project at Box Copy, Brisbane, funded by Australia Council
Shared Discussion with Eugenia Lim, Tai Snaith and Jo Scicluna, regarding Snaith's exhibition 'Work/Life Balance' at The Other Side Gallery
2015 'Embodied Sound and the Shoreditch Experiment’, Westspace, for Liquid Architecture, regarding the The Collingwood College Sound Collective
What is the future of Video art?, ACMI, Channels Video Art Festival
2014 How to Develop an Exhibition, Hatch Contemporary Art Space
CONFERENCE PAPER
2014 A reflection of Palle Nielsen's 'Model for a Qualitative Society' in light of authority and risk pertaining to the Image of the Child. Authority and Knowledge Conference, Department of Education, Melbourne University.
REVIEWS and Press
2019 Hannah Mathews, 3RRR Radio Interview Shapes of Knowledge and performance, Smart Arts with Richard Watts
2019 Shapes of Knowledge - Objects of Longing , Gandel Philanthropy website
2019 Objects of Curiosity, Dandenong Star Journal, February 15th, 2019
2019 Georgina Criddle, A Lesson from the Playground, Shapes of Knowledge Exhibition Publication, MUMA and Perimeter Editions, 318pp, 2019
2018 Artist Profile, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, 2018 Grantee, Ian Potter Cultural Trust website
2016 Tiarney Miekus, The polyphony of polyphonic, Un Magazine, 10.2
2015 Dylan Rainforth, Wharfie's Story inspires collaboration between artist Kym Maxwell and Collingwood College, The Age, November 18th
2014 Sarah Werkmeister, Faux Museum, threethousands.com.au November 26th
Dan Rule, 'Uneducated', Around the Galleries The Age, October 3rd
Dylan Rainforth, 'Uneducated Well-Hung in Counihan Gallery', Space: Around the galleries, The Age, p.40, September 24th
Maura Edmond, 'Kym Maxwell Uneducated @ Counihan Gallery', Primer website, September 12th
Emily Sexton, 3RRR Radio interview, 'Smart Arts' - Industrial Estate, January 9th, 11:00am
Dan Rule, 'Factory makes way for fine arts in Heidelberg West factory exhibition Industrial Estate', The Age, Arts Feature, pg. 20, Jan 8th
2013 Sarah Booth, The Thousands June Calender Event — Small Block Cafe and Perimeter Book
Penny Mondra, The Thousands, Speeding Bulletin Issue 2 — GOODWILL
Concrete Playground Melbourne, C3 Contemporary Art Space exhibition 51
2000 Kerri-Dee Johns, New Video Art Label: An Interview with Kym Maxwell of La La Hi Prism VideoLabel' Like Art Magaine Winter #12.
WEBSITE PROJECTS:
http://parentingispolitical.com, designed by Robert Janes and Ziga Testen
http://uneducated.co, designed by James Oates
http://industrialestateart.tumblr.com, designed by Kym Maxwell
WORKSHOP and RESIDENCY
2019 Victorian Secondary College for the Arts, Talk and workshop, MUMA
2018 A Quiet Game of Disobediences at the New Student Precinct, Melbourne University, curated by Anita Spooner.
2016 Cultural Capital and the Social Contract: Mechanics Institute, Melbourne Biennial Lab at Queen Victoria Market, Public Art Melbourne
iDARE 2016 (Creative Arts Research and the Ethics of Innovation exhibition), Victoria College of the Arts, Student Gallery
2014 Utopian Play Workshop with Emily Floyd, C3 Artspace Fundraiser
Utopian Landscape Workshop, July 3rd, MOMA at Heide
Choreography of Play, Artist in Residence at the Olympic Village Campus (Heidelberg West) Charles La Trobe College, sponsored by the Anti-graffiti campaign Banyule City Council.
PEDAGOGIC PROJECTS
2019 Stories of the Stars, theatre performance with students and colleagues Reservoir East Primary School, at Reservoir High
2018 Objects of Longing , long term project and theatre performance Dandenong Primary School - a Creative Learning Partnership and Gandel Philanthropy, Creative Victoria, 2018
2015 Collingwood College Sound Collective series of process based workshops regarding sound, imagery and listening contractions. As part of the Liquid Architecture program What Would a Feminist Methodology Sound Like? In collaboration with harpist and composer Clare Cooper. September 11th - 28th, 2015. Westspace
2014 Collingwood College Curation Project program and workshop with Emily Floyd, a child facilitated re-curation of exhibition Uneducated, Counihan Gallery September 11th - October 4th, 2014.
MEDIA WORK
2000- 2001 Director ’La La Hi Prism Videolabel’ Series of 5 artists 2000 Electra Damp, Eliza Hutchinson, David Noonan, Guy Benfield; Stylee, Patricia Piccinni, Jacinta Schreuder, Nat and Ali, Hayley Arjona and Violet Faigan (Writer Lara Travis) Launched at the Empress Hotel with live music, and New Model Lane Cormick, Ricky Swallow, James Lynch, David Noonan and Stephen Honegger (Writer Andrew Mc Qualter) 2000 launched at Fat 52 Prahran
1999 Curator/Artist Videosonic an open-air live music and video event can of Swanston St and Bourke St on Alt TV, 1999.
DIRECTOR
2000 - 2001 La La Hi Prism, Videolabel Owner, producer / director (see History-LLHP)
1997 - 2000 Phyco Gallery, Melbourne City, director / curator
1995 - 1996 ‘Media Subway’ for Channel 31, director / producer
COLLECTIONS
Works held in Private Collections
BLOGS:
visual and research- http://lalahiprism.blogspot.com.au text and video- http://kymmaxwell.tumblr.com
Publicity — Radio: PBS, 3CR and RRR Press: EG, Beat, Impress. Invited by ABC to produce pilot Casey's Fire for the Recovery program
Arts Groups
1999-2000 DAMP
Lived outside the island
New York 1994 - 1995 (hard)
Taipei 2001 - 2003 (great)
Tokyo 2004 - 2005 (okay)
Guatemala 2005 - 2006 (fabulous)