Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her Sydney, Australia studio, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso's studio, Sydney, Australia, 2019.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her garden, Sydney, Australia, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso in her studio, Sydney, Australia, 2020. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso's studio, Sydney, Australia, 2019.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, studio research.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size II, Ed. 2/5 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2016, Pigment print on premium photo paper, 300 gr., 60 x 80 1/8 in. (152.4 x 203.6 cm.)
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size I, Ed. AP1 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2015, Pigment print on premium photo paper 300 gr., 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.)
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, On the Origins of Art II, (Edition of 3 + 2AP), 2016, Single channel HD video, hyper realistic sound with tactile dimension, Video: 6:54 min
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, On the Origins of Art I, (Edition of 3 + 2AP), 2016, Single channel HD video, hyper realistic sound with tactile dimension, Video: 6:54 min
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, "While I Live I Will Grow," Greensquare, Sydney, 2016. Commissioned by Sydney City Council, and produceed in collaboration with Sydney Design Collective and Bates Landscapes
MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO
[1963, Colombia]
“The world has worlds within worlds, both smaller and bigger.”
As a child, María Fernanda Cardoso took long nature walks with her father. Carrying a magnifying glass, Cardoso would look closely at plants and insects, studying their intricacies. These walks sparked her curiosity about the natural world and trained her powers of observation. Throughout her career, she has continued to explore nature and its links to culture and science. Curator Carolina Ponce de León writes, “Cardoso’s installations, sculptures and videos seek to unravel the parodies, paradoxes and complexities that appear in the joints where cultural systems overlap.”
In the early 1980s, Cardoso studied architecture and the visual arts at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. In 1987, she moved to New York to attend the Graduate Sculpture Program at Pratt Institute, and in 1990, she completed her MFA in Sculpture at Yale University. Her early projects make use of preserved animals such as lizards, starfish, earthworms, frogs, and snakes arranged in intricate, abstract compositions reminiscent of pre-Colombian forms. Other installations include flowers and stones turned into vertical gardens and funerary wreaths.
The Cardoso Flea Circus (1994-2000) was a six-year series of performances and installations in which Cardoso trained fleas to perform tasks and surprising feats of strength. She performed the Cardoso Flea Circus internationally, at venues including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sydney Opera House, Centre Georges Pompidou, Arts Festival Atlanta, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2003, she represented Colombia for the Venice Biennale. Cardoso moved to Sydney, Australia in 1997, and she currently lives and works there. In 2012, she received her PhD from Sydney College for the Arts.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s works are represented in several major collections including The Arts Centre Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Australia; Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, Florida, USA; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, New York, USA; Daros Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá, Colombia; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA; and Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom.
2021
Gumnuts and Sandstone, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia
2018
On the Origins of Art, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
While I Live I Will Grow, Green Square Community and Cultural Precinct, Sydney, Australia
Timeline, Apología a lo perecedero, Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogota
The Art Of Seduction, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Naked Flora, Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, The Jam Factory, Adelaide, Australia
2014
Sandstone Pollen, International Convention Centre ICC, Darling Harbour, commissioned by Lend Lease, Sydney, Australia
2013
Undressing a Flower, William Wright Artist Projects, Sydney, Australia
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Organos Intromitentes, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Colección de Arte del Banco de La Republica, Touring to the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango Bogota, Medellin, Bucaramanga, and Cucuta, Colombia
2012
Museum of Copulatory Organs (MoCO), 18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2011
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: It’s Not Size That Matters It Is Shape, ARC One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Masters of Disguise, Freemantle Arts Centre, Freemantle, Australia
2010
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Garden of Insects, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia
Emu Wear at the Rodman Centre for the Arts, Brock University, Ontario, Canada
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Fashion and Mimesis, Rodman Centre for the Arts Brock University, Ontario, Canada
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Fashion and Mimesis, Definitely Superior Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Canada
2009
Emu Wear, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2008
Mimicry, Berenice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Fashion and Mimesis, Definitely Superior Gallery, Thunder Bay, Canada (Performance)
Emu Wear, Berenice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL, USA (Performance)
Emu Wear, Casula Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia (Performance)
2007
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Emu, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia
2006
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Death Becomes Her, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY, USA
Emu Next 5km, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2004
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, GRANTPIRRIE Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: 20 años, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia
Cara de Buseta (Bus Face), Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia
2003
Cara de Buseta (Bus Face), Casas-Riegner, Miami, FL, USA
Zoomorphia: Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, Australia
Biogeometrias / Biogeometries, Latin collector, New York, NY, USA
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia
Sheep, Artspace Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Sheep, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C., USA
2002
Dibujo de Mariposas / Butterfly Drawings, Galeria Casas-Riegner, Miami, FL, USA
Dibujos de Mariposas / Butterfly Drawings, Galeria Diners, Bogotá, Colombia
2000
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performances, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival 2000, Australia
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performances, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
Cardoso Flea Circus, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, USA (Installation)
Sculptures, Galeria Sala Alternativa, Caracas, Venezuela
Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland (Performance)
Cardoso Flea Circus Live, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival, Australia (Performance)
1998
Cardoso Flea Circus, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA (Video installation)
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performances, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris Quartier D’ete Festival, Paris, France
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performances, Awesome International Children’s Festival, Perth, Australia
1997
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performance and exhibition, Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA, USA
1996
Cardoso Flea Circus, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
1995
Love Down Under, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Cardoso Flea Circus, live performances and exhibition, San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, USA
Cardoso Flea Circus live performance, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Cardoso Flea Circus Live, San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, USA
1994
Submarine Landscape, Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA, USA
Woven Water, Ruth Bloom Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Recent Sculptures, MIT List Visual Art Center, Cambridge, MA, USA
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Orange County, CA, USA
Gold, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1993
Cemetery, Chapman University, San Francisco Artspace, San Francisco, CA, USA
Gold, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Botuto Guarura / Gourds, Sala Alternativa, Caracas, Venezuela
El Marmol Americano / American Marble, Ruth Bloom Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
1992
Calabazas / Gourds Recent Sculptures, San Francisco Art Space, San Francisco, CA, USA
Botuto Guarura (Gourds), Sala Alternativa, Caracas, Venezuela
El Marmol Americano (American Marble), Ruth Bloom Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
1991
Obra Reciente / Recent Work, Galeria Garces y Velasquez, Bogota, Colombia
1987
Nuevos Nombres / New Names, Casa de La Moneda, Bogota, Colombia
Artbank, Australia
Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA
Colección de Arte Banco de la Republica, Bogotá, Colombia
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela
Daros Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland
Gold Coast Art Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá, Colombia
Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Cooks Hill, Australia
Pérez Art Museum, Miami Beach, FL, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
Tamworth Regional Art Gallery, Tamworth NSW, Australia
Tate Modern, London, UK
The Arts Centre Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Australia
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
The Space Collection, Irvine, CA, USA
Anonymous female artisans from Chile, Tania Bruguera, Cristina Hernández Botero, Margarita Cabrera, Melissa Calderón, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Melba Carillo, Marta Chilindron, Alessandra Expósito, Iliana Emilia Garcia, Scherezade Garcia, Dulce Gómez, Carmen Herrera, Jessica Kairé, Carmen Lomas Garza, Evelyn López de Guzmán, Anna Maria Maiolino, Glendalys Medina, Ana Mendieta, Marina Núñez del Prado, Liliana Porter, Raquel Rabinovich, Nitza Tufiño
Colombian-born Australian artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso works with vegetal elements. One of her public art installations draws upon 19th-century traditions of scientific observation, whilst also engaging with the conatus and agency of the bottle tree. This paper proposes that Cardoso’s ‘magical’ planting of bottle trees creates a circle of discourse regarding pre-human earth life, whilst gesturing towards speculations on post-human earth life. If we could hear the voices of the bottle trees, would they be a mournful weeping for lost habitats, or instead could they be an incantation for unknown futures? This research draws upon the dual cultures of both the artist and the bottle tree, to present a new way of listening to the earth.
An academic publication by Lara Stephens focusing on deep dramaturgy and the making of the Cardoso Flea Circus and On the Origins of Art projects as subjects of these analyses.
Daily Telegraph, Sydney's Elizabeth Fortescue, Arts Editor, writes Weaving a tiny web of intrigue covering the artist's work with Maratus spiders
What was once a backyard swimming pool is now a murky pond with a budding ecosystem. In a corner of the overgrown garden rests a stone roughly hand-engraved with ‘‘TIME IS’’. The wild cacophony of nature continues inside with native flowers, a pair of preserved emu legs, butterfly wings, piles of rocks, animal skin, feathers and gum nuts scattered across benches, tables and side desks.
Sydney-based artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso will create a major new series of sculptures from a rare significant find of approximately 4,000 cubic-metres of ‘yellow Sydney’ sandstone, harvested and commissioned by TWT Property Group. TWT specialise in establishing quality residential communities with a commitment to art and architecture; they’re also the masterminds behind the TWT Creative Precinct – home to over 70 artists, making it the fastest growing creative precinct in the nation.
![Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size II, Ed. 2/5 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2016, Pigment print on premium photo paper, 300 gr., 60 x 80 1/8 in. (152.4 x 203.6 cm.)](https://www.sicardi.com/media/cache/resolve/1010x580_fit/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/a5c96f653520abd2d8d64cee39a62a78.jpeg)
![Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Actual Size I, Ed. AP1 [Edition of 5 + 2AP], 2015, Pigment print on premium photo paper 300 gr., 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm.)](https://www.sicardi.com/media/cache/resolve/1010x580_fit/5ab12bb7a09a72340a8b4568/532d55492b662bd1676aa9b51281f83d.jpeg)
