Rox De Luca
Rox De Luca (born 1963) is an Australian visual artist who makes sculptural objects and installations predominantly from found plastics. She currently lives on Gadigal Land, in Bondi NSW.[1] Since the mid-1980s De Luca has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, nationally and internationally.[2]
Personal life
De Luca's parents came to Australia from Italy.[3] She has three sisters.[3] Her mother, Anna De Luca was an artist and has work in the National Gallery of Australia collection.[4]
De Luca has a Bachelor of Arts (Visual) from Canberra School of Art/ANU (1985) and a Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration, University of NSW (1988).[5] At the Canberra School of Art De Luca's peers included Stephanie Radok and EX de Medici.
Practice
De Luca's practice involves collecting kilos of plastic waste debris from the shores of local beaches such as Bondi Beach or Rose Bay in Sydney.[3] At her studio the plastics are sorted and threaded using strings of wire into sculpture works that speaks to consumption, abundance, plastic pollution and waste.[6] She was inspired by a talk given by Dr Jennifer Lavers of Adrift Lab about the effect of plastic in the oceans on marine life.[3]
In their book Contemporary Art and Feminism, Jacqueline Millner and Catriona Moore say of De Luca's practice:
Recyling as play-power, problem-identification, creative method and readymade material also drives Sydney-based artist Rox de Luca to string subtle, colourcoded plastic waste which she collects on her daily beach walks into beautiful sculptural forms that spill and loop across gallery walls and floors. Whether worn, draped, suspended or inhabited, they reprise the cheap, industrial materials proclaimed by Soviet Constructivist corner-reliefs during a more utopian period of design history. This haptic return of the repressed within the heterotopic space of the gallery extends righteous anger about our throwaway culture and our concern with the ethics of living sustainably.[7]
Prior to working with plastic waste, De Luca painted portraits.[8] De Luca's practice is influenced by her migrant background.[9]
Work
In 2024 De Luca was the inaugural artist in residence at Orlebar Brown.[10]
In 2022 De Luca contributed work to the artist's collective Project Vortex - Intercepting the Plastic Waste Stream.[11]
De Luca has been a finalist in a number of art prizes.[2]
Residencies
De Luca has received multiple artist-in-residence opportunities including in 2022 at the Gunyah Residency Program, NSW,[5] and at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, NSW.[12] In 2019 De Luca was artist-in-residence at the Fremantle Arts Centre.[5]
Solo Exhibitions[2]
- 2023 - Slot Gallery, Redfern
- 2021 - Chutespace, Canberra
- 2020 - Still gleaning for plastics, on the beach, Articulate project space, Sydney
- 2019 - Gleaning for plastic, on the beach, Art+Climate= Change, Loop, Melbourne
- 2016 - Gleaning for plastic, on the beach, Articulate project space, Sydney
- 2012 - Saved, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney
- 2006/8 - Studio Exhibitions, Sydney and Madrid
- 2001 - Parla, memoria, Legge Gallery, Sydney
- 1998 - Madre e Figlia, Legge Gallery, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions[2]
- 2024 - Colour is enough, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne, forthcoming Beauty Runs the Gauntlet, Bondi Pavilion Gallery
- 2023 - Plastic: Unwrapping the World, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
- 2022 - RISE 2: Considerations of saltwater, fish, mangroves & people, oil & plastic / Conversations, The Cross Arts Projects, Sydney, for Plastic Free July
- 2022 - Plastic-free Kandos, collaboration with Plastic Free Biennale, (Lucas Ihlein, Kim Williams, First Nations Sister GlitterNullius), Wayout, Kandos
- 2022 - Material Girl, China Cultural Centre, Sydney, Curated by Nicholas Tsoutsas Omnivores, Duckrabbit, Redfern
- 2021 - Hundreds and Thousands, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia
- 2021 - Que des Femmes/Women Only Biennale, Factory 49, Sydney
- 2021 - On REvolution, Gallery Central, North Metro TAFE, Perth
- 2020 - Contour 556, Canberra Curated by Neil Hobbs
- 2020 - AT10: Articulate Turns Ten, Articulate, Sydney
- 2020 - Herland II Our Land, The Women’s Library, Newtown
- 2019 - The Art for the Wilderness, Queen Street Galleries, Woollahra, Sydney
- 2018 - Abstraction Twenty Eighteen, Five Walls Gallery, Melbourne
- 2018 - Sentient Visibility, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney
- 2018 - Making: memory, Articulate Upstairs, with Michele Elliot and Laurie Paine
- 2017 - Hidden Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
- 2016 - Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi Beach, Sydney
- 2013 - Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi Beach, Sydney
- 2010 - Más Razones, with Jo Darbyshire, Espacio Menosuno, Madrid
- 2003 - Italiani di Sydney, Museum of Sydney, Sydney
- 2001 - Stitches/Fare il punto, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney
- 1999 - Family Ties, 24HR Art, Darwin
- 1999 - 50 Reasons, with Jo Darbyshire, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia
Collections
- Artbank, Australia[2]
- Deakin University Art Gallery Collection, Victoria[13]
- Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
- New England Regional Art Museum, NSW
- Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia
- University of Sydney Union, NSW
- Private collections Australia, Europe and USA.[2]
References
- ^ Allatson, Paul (2020). "Rox De Luca: Gleaning for plastics, defying wastefulness" (PDF). Rox De Luca. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "CV". www.roxdeluca.com. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ a b c d "Sea Of Plastic: An Artists Quest To Address Ocean Pollution". Culture Trip. 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ "Anna De Luca". National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b c "Gunyah artist-in-residence program". gunyah.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Lei, Celina (9 November 2021). "Artists giving materials a new life". Arts Hub. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- ^ Millner, Jacqueline; Moore, Catriona (2022). Contemporary art and feminism. New York: Routledge. p. 193.
- ^ Allatson, Paul (1996). "Men and Mettle". Artlink. 16 (1): 24–26.
- ^ Brennan, Anne (1 December 1997). "Beyond reason: Jo Darbyshire and Rox De Luca". Eyeline. 35: 22–24.
- ^ "Elegantly Wasted". GQ. pp. 9/10. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- ^ "Project Vortex". Project Vortex. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ "Rox de Luca". www.woollahragallery.com.au. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Deakin University Art Collection. "Deakin University Art Collection" (PDF). Deakin University. Retrieved 13 April 2024.