Sarah Tomasetti

Dr Sarah Tomasetti is a Lecturer in the School of Art and currently co-lead of the Painting Area. She is a specialist in medieval material technologies such as fresco, encaustic, sgraffito and stucco lucido, holding a technical qualification from Laboratorio Tintori in Prato, Italy. Her doctoral research examines how working with the matter-energy of slaked lime that requires the slow sensing of moisture, temperature and molecular interaction, can constitute a correspondence and entanglement with the living world through making. Recent works explore diverse mountain imaginaries, examining how cultural narratives inflect the ways imagine, traverse, worship and destroy mountainous regions, and how engaging ancient material agencies through art practice can re-sensitise relations with the more than human world.

EDUCATION

2023    Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art, RMIT University

1999    Master of Arts in Fine Art by Research, RMIT University

1995    Professional Qualification in `Tecnica Pittura Murale’ Laboratorio Tintori

1994    Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, RMIT University

            Graduate Diploma in Italian Studies, La Trobe University (fluent speaker of Italian)

1988    Bachelor of Fine Art, Drawing Major, Victoria College, Prahran Campus

EXHIBITIONS

2025    Upcoming, Sediment, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

2023    Breathing Stone, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

2022    Celestial Ground, Beaver Galleries, Canberra

2019   Wayfaring, Beaver Galleries, Canberra

2018    Postcard from the Roof of the World, Australian Galleries

2018   Silver Mountain, The Art Vault, Mildura

2016    Influxus, Beaver Galleries, Canberra

2015   Traverse, Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney

2014    Quiet/Disquiet, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

2013    Surface of Last Scattering, Beaver Galleries, Canberra

2011    At the Edge of the Known World Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney

2009   Liminal, Janet Clayton Gallery, Sydney

2008    Penumbra, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne

2006    Between Worlds, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne

2004    Nostalgia, Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery & Grafton Regional Gallery

2003    Temporality, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne

2001    Sarah Tomasetti, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne

Selected GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024    Stone Heart, VVREN Gallery, Carlton, Melbourne

2024    The Anxiety Project, The Art Room, Footscray and the DAX centre, University of Melbourne

2023    Rituals of Embodied Knowing, cbOne Gallery, Melbourne (CURATOR)

2022    The Living Birrarung, Chapman and Bailey Gallery, Melbourne

2017     Flow. Counihan Gallery, Melbourne. Part of ClimARTe 2017

2016     Group exhibition with Hanna Kay and su Archer. Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre and Tamworth Regional Gallery NSW

2015.    The Warming, Art+Climate=Change event across 23 Victorian Venues including Australian Galleries in collaboration with ClimARTe.

2013.    Reading the Space: Contemporary Australian Drawing #3, Studio School, New York. Curator Irene Barberis.

2012.    From Paper, Janet Clayton Gallery at Beijing Artspace, Beijing China

2012.    Contemporary Austrlian Drawing 2: Drawing as notation, text and discovery, University for the Arts, London

2011     Salon des Refuses, SH Erwin Gallery, Sydney

2010.    Copntemporary Australian Drawings !, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.

2010.    Salon des Refuses, SH Erwin Gallery, Sydney

2001.    Insap III, Palermo, Italy

1999.    RMIT Fine Art, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong

1998     Affreschi, Galleria del Commune, Monterchi, Italy

1994.    Indwelling, Temple Studios, Melbourne.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Tomasetti, S. (2024) Seven Minutes to an Authentic Response. "How a generative writing practice can decenter curriculum and resist the generic seductions of AI generated text." ACUADS conference Regeneration, Repair and Care. Held Online

Tomasetti, S. (2022) The Language of Art and Ritual. Templeton Project conference. ACU Rome Campus

Tomasetti, S. (2021) Material Repetition on the Threshold of the Unknown. The European Council of World Religions. Held Online.

Tomasetti, S. and Hesterman, H. (2015). Deep Time: A collaborative reimagining of the familiar through contemporary art practice. AEV Annual Conference, National Gallery of Victoria.

RESIDENCIES

2024 – The Kenneth Myer Residency at Whare Kea Chalet, New Zealand

2019 – to Uttarakhand with anthropologist Dr Jane Dyson from the University of Melbourne, funded by ARC Discovery Project.

2018 – The Art Vault, Mildura, to develop the intersection of printmaking and the new form of the fresco skin.

1992 – Bookbinding internship at the University of Ann Arbor, Michigan

1989 – 6 month residency with Monash University on Qamea island, Fiji.

GRANTS

2021-2022 Art Seeking Understanding. A project funded by the Templeton Trust investigating the enactment of ritual in artistic practice.

2014     Artists in Schools Grant with Heather Hesterman and Spensley St Primary School. Arts Victoria and the Victorian Education Department

1995    Scholarship from the Region of Tuscany to study fresco and restoration techniques at the Laboratorio di Vainella in Prato, Italy.

AWARDS

2024   Shortlisted, The Fleurieu Prize for Landscape, McLarenvale, SA

2021   Shortlisted, The Gosford Art Prize Gosford Art Gallery, NSW

2020    Shortlisted, The Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton NSW

2020    WINNER, The John Leslie Prize for Landscape, Gippsland Art Gallery

2019    Shortlisted, The R&M McGivern Prize, Maroondah Art Gallery

2018   Shortlisted, John Leslie Prize for Landscape, Gippsland Art Gallery

2018   Highly Commended, Fleurieu Prize for Landscape, South Australia.

2017   Invited The Kedumba Drawing Award  Orange Regional Gallery, NSW.

2016   Shortlisted, John Leslie Prize for Landscape, Gippsland Art Gallery

2014    Shortlisted, Paul Guest Prize for Drawing, Bendigo Art Gallery

            Shortlisted, John Leslie Prize for Landscape, Gippsland Art Gallery

2013    Shortlisted, Fleurieu Prize for Landscape, South Australia

The 42^nd Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre NSW

2011    Selected Salon des Refuses, SH Erwin Gallery, Sydney

            Shortlisted, Tattersalls Landscape Prize, Brisbane

2010    Selected Salon des Refuses, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2009    Shortlisted The Heysen Prize, The Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, SA

2005    Shortlisted ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award Exhibition

2003   Shortlisted, Nillumbik Art Prize, Nillumbik, VIC