Karla Marchesi was born in Brisbane in 1984. In 2004 the artist graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and later in 2007 received her Honours in Fine Art from the College. During her undergraduate studies in 2003 Marchesi received the Philip Bacon Galleries Prize for Excellence in Drawing which allowed the artist to study for a semester at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the United States.
Marchesi’s work has been curated in a number of group exhibitions includingGaze: people, relationships and place, Redland Art Gallery, Queensland (2010);Weapons of Mass Consumption, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn, Melbourne (2010);Linden Postcard Show, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne (2010);World’s Best Practice, Old Space ARI, Brisbane (2009), 12+ Queensland Artists, Heiser Gallery (2009); Launch Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship Exhibition, Metro Arts, Brisbane (2008); Here we come, College Gallery, QCA (2007); and The Thiess Art Prize, Brisbane (2004 & 2007). Marchesi’s work has also been curated in the Churchie National Emerging Art Competition, Brisbane and the 15th Annual Pine Rivers Art Award for which she won First Prize (2007).
The artist had her inaugural exhibition, Interiors, with Heiser Gallery in 2008 and it follows her exhibition Dwelling: Seeing into the Making of Familiar Space held the same year at Metro Arts, Brisbane. In 2010, Marchesi held another solo exhibition with Heiser Gallery entitled Left Behind.
In 2010 the artist won first prize at the Redlands Art Awards, Prize Redland Art Awards, Queensland Regional Art Awards Young Artist Prize Career Development Grant from Arts Queensland.
