Artists

Michael Eather

Bio  /  CV

Original Stingray

The languid form and movement of the stingray as a glimpse of natural beauty has long held my attention; its appearance representing something of an epiphany. Over the years, many people that I’ve spoken to have described their own stingray story. Born in Tasmania I knew something of rays and skates but, at twenty-one, over forty years ago, I found myself travelling to the top end of the country for new encounters on the beaches of Arnhem Land of the Arafura Sea.

Dry Season 1985: I had been sleeping on beaches and wading through tropical mangroves for weeks on end with a handmade spear, about to become a father. Hunting stingrays–this strange species—for food, I became transfixed. Memorable incidents and close shaves included spearing six stingrays one July morning, with one escaping my spear by fleeing between my outstretched thighs.

This breakfast bounty heralded another fate. We were interrupted by (my then partner) Helen’s labour pains, culminating in the birth of our daughter Noni, the same evening … a signifier that we were surely tumbling through another age-old passage, surging from one world into another.

Standing waist deep in the warm tropical waters, I found myself at the edge of looming chaos, gazing at all its beauty and form, drama and mystery. Poised right there, I hadn’t invented any meaning but had discovered something of it. I was explicitly told (up there) that artists have only one story to tell, so I assumed mine was beginning to take shape. I immediately began working with the allegorical symbolism of the stingray, often contextualised as a messenger that embodied what felt like a transcendent experience. To find myself crossing cultures was an encounter implicitly acknowledged and put into a story place for my five children, the eldest three with Helen. The culmination of these elements and events began crafting my identity. On a broader philosophical level, it represented a way of being in the world.


Michael Eather
1963                 Born Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
1980-84            Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture Major) & Visual Arts Teaching Tasmanian School of Art  University of Tasmania, Hobart

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)
2024                 It is as if the ocean reached out to feed us Nura Gallery Sorrento
2024                 The Anticipation Project Brunswick Street Galleries Melbourne
2022                 Adventure Play Ground  Newstead Studios Brisbane
2014                 The Endless Sea  Heiser Gallery  Brisbane
2011                 The Blue Cabin  Maunsell-Wickes Gallery  Sydney
2011                 Are we still crossing over?  Despard Gallery  Hobart
2010                 Stingray Sculptures & other studio works  11 Stratton Street Studios Brisbane
2009                 The Bay of Men  Heiser Gallery  Brisbane     2007                 Sleeping Arrangements  Heiser Gallery  Brisbane
2005                 The Secret Chord  Despard Gallery Hobart
2005                At the end of the day  Heiser Gallery Brisbane
2004                 Michael Eather: New Sculpture  Maunsell-Wickes Gallery  Sydney
2003                 Black and White  ARTstation  Kollmitzberg  Austria
2002                 The White Desert II  Bellas Gallery  Brisbane
2001                 The White Desert I  Bellas Gallery  Brisbane|
1989-99             Recent Dilemmas (+ 4 other solos)  Bellas Gallery  Brisbane

RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)
2025                 Sunshine Coast Art Prize (Invitation) (with Walala Tjapaltjarri) Caloundra
2025                 Toorak Village Sculpture Prize Toorak
2024                 The White Desert (with Walala Tjapaltjarri)  FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2024                 Lifeblood Despard Gallery Hobart
2024                 (between) Heaven and Earth Redbase Contemporary Art Space Sydney
2023                 The Local Museum of Brisbane
2023                 Latest & Greatest II Caloundra Regional Gallery
2023                 The Dingo Project Hervey Bay Regional Gallery
2022                 The Dingo Project (The Adventures of X and Ray with Lin Onus) Ngununggula Retford Park Southern Highlands Regional Gallery Bowral
2021-22             Lin Onus The Land Within (Flotilla with Lin Onus, Tiriki Onus and friends) Shepparton Art Museum
2021-22             Despard Gallery 35th Annual Summer Show Hobart
2021                 Sunshine Coast (Invitation) Art Prize Caloundra Regional Gallery
2021                 Shorelines -Lockhart River Collaborations, FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2019                 Sculptors Exposed  Pine Rivers Art Gallery
2018                 Boundless Volumes Parliament House Canberra
2017                 Group Show Heiser Gallery Brisbane
2017                 Less Than: Art and reductionism QUT Art Museum Brisbane
2016                 Redland Art Awards 2016 Redland Art Gallery Cleveland
2016                 Black White & Restive  Newcastle Art Gallery
2016                 Ephemeral Traces – Brisbane artist-run scene in the 1980s UQ Art Museum Brisbane

ART COMMISSIONS (SELECTED)
2024                 Big Diagonal Private Residence Brisbane
2023                 Island Life Juhasz Residence Stradbroke Island
2021                 Blue Family Cluster Buckley Residence Brisbane
2018                 Lambourghini Angel, Backspace, Brisbane Private Hospital

COLLECTIONS
National Museum of Australia Canberra, Parliament House Collection Canberra, Melbourne Museum, QAGOMA, Queensland Museum, UQ Art Museum Brisbane, QUT Art Museum Brisbane, Griffith Artworks Griffith University Brisbane, Museum of Brisbane, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Townsville, Artbank, Commonwealth Courts Brisbane

Work