Photo by Barry Alsop Eyes Wide Open
BIO + CV
Sunshine Coast-based artist and place-maker Mieke van den Berg creates site-responsive installations experimenting with materials and processes using recycled wood, paper and thread. Van den Berg’s process-based practice investigates how we navigate through and connect to places and others. She plays with light, sound, airflow, and architecture and creates textural interventions that change the meaning and perception of familiar and unfamiliar spaces. The immersive installations invite the audience to have a sensory and mindful experience and build a connection with the site. A lot of her installations are interactive and offer the opportunity for people to be a part of the creative process.
Originally a mural artist, Mieke extended her thirty-year experience painting large walls with sculptures, installations, and performances and rekindled her passion for drawing. During seven years of research, Mieke has seen her work evolve from figurative to conceptual - consisting of layers filled with meaning and metaphors using found objects and materials.
Currently, Mieke’s practice engages with accumulative, time-consuming and repetitive processes where domestic materials and textiles carry metaphors and build layers of meaning, acknowledging mundane household duties. Hereby she subverts the hierarchy of the arts and the sexual categories of male and female. She approaches textile craft making from new perspectives uncovering unrivalled relationships between the invisible labour in the home and drawing parallels in the masculine art world.
Mieke holds an Honours in Fine Art at the Sunshine Coast University. She won the Local Artist Award in Sculpture on the Edge 2023. In 2020, she was an excellence award winner in the Local Artist - Local Content Art Prize and was a finalist in the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize. Her art has been showcased in group and solo exhibitions across the Sunshine Coast. She participated in residencies in Australia and the UK.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024/25 One Thread Many Loops: The encoded materiality of home, Noosa Regional Gallery, Noosa
2021 In-Between: [Re]Winding Life’s Thread, Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
Hiatus, The Old Lock Up, Maroochydore
COLLABORATIONS
2024 Long Listen, with Libby Derham, Eudlo Hall, Eudlo
2021 Waiting Game, With Mira Chorik, Old Lock Up, Maroochydore
Between Spaces, Collaboration with Temmah (Rebecca Hammett), UK & AU
Liminal States, Curator in collaboration with June Satracom, Petalia Humphreys and Nicole Voevodin-Cash,
The Old Lock Up, Maroochydore, AU
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Latest & Greatest II: Sunshine Coast Art Collection new acquisitions, Caloundra Regional Gallery, Caloundra
2021 Constant Conversation, Northgate
Howard Street Gallery Wall Project, Nambour
2020 Harmony by AVID Property Group, Outdoor Gallery, Palmview
Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize 2020, Noosa Regional Online Gallery
Local Artist Local Content Prize 2020, Caloundra Regional Gallery
2018 Unframed, Coolart, Coolum
2017 BSAF Satellite Exhibition, Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
2016 Long Gallery, Howard Street, Nambour
Spiral Artworkz Exhibition, Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
PRIZES, AWARDS, RESIDENCIES & GRANTS
2024 Swell Sculpture Art Prize, Currumbin (Finalist)
Sculpture on the Edge, (winner Local Artist Award)
2023 One thread Many Loops, Regional Arts Development Fund
2023 Recipient Gifted Program, Sunshine Coast Arts Foundation,
2021 Artist in Residence, Arts Grant, Regional Arts Development Fund
Creative Spaces Artist in Residence, Old Lock Up, Maroochydore
In-Site, InxOLU Residency, Old Lock Up, Maroochydore
2020 In-Between, Residency Creative Spaces (in-Residence) Collaborators
2020 Between Spaces, Arts Grant, Regional Arts Development Fund
Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize 2020 (Finalist), Noosa Regional Gallery
Local Artist Local Content Prize 2020 (Excellence Award Winner), Caloundra Regional Gallery
2019 Individual Development Grant, Draw to Perform, Regional Arts Development Fund
Draw to Perform, Residency, Brighton, UK
2018 Regional Arts Development Fund, Beerwah Library mural project
2017 Hackfest Sunshine Coast Council, (Winner Smart Region Award)
Hackfest Sunshine Coast Council, (Special commendation Digital Arts Challenge)
PERFORMANCES
2024 Long Listen, with Libby Derham, Eudlo Hall, Eudlo
2020 In-Between (Performance for the camera), In-Residence Creative Spaces UK & AU
2019 Invisaline (Performance for the camera), MIC, Forest Glen
Taint (Performance for the camera), MIC, Forest Glen
Wipeout (Performance for the camera), MIC, Forest Glen
Projection (Performance for the camera), MIC, Forest Glen
Swell (Performance for the camera), MIC, Forest Glen
Matter of Time (public performance), Point Cartwright
Now you see me; now you don’t (public live drawing performance), Brighton, UK
Tunnel Gaze (studio live drawing performance), Copperdollar Studios, Brighton, UK
Connected Gazes (public live drawing performance), Brighton, UK
Mind Space (Performance for the camera)
Line of Fire (Performance for the camera)
2018 Purge (Performance for the camera)
PRESENTATIONS
2023 The Pitch, the Refinery
2019 Pecha Kucha, Vol 29: Transform, Maroochydore
QUALIFICATIONS
2023 Bachelor of Creative Industries (Class 1 Honours, Fine Art), University of the Sunshine Coast
2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Open Universities Australia (Curtin University)
2000 Secondary Vocational Education, Graphic Design, Level 4,
Vaktechnisch Lyceum Utrecht, NL