Mia Boe is a painter from Brisbane with Butchulla and Burmese ancestry. The inheritance and disinheritance of both cultures is the focus of her practice. Boe’s paintings respond, sometimes obliquely, to historical and contemporary acts of violence perpetrated on the people and lands of Burma and Australia.
Boe received a Bachelor of Art, majoring in Art History from the University of Queensland in 2020. In 2021, she was a recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship and is a current Gertrude Contemporary Studio artist.
Recent solo exhibitions include Going Insein, Gertrude Contemporary Glasshouse, Melbourne, 2023; Suspicion is proof enough, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2023; The Trial, Sydney Contemporary with Black Art Projects, Sydney 2022; Futures Lost, Penny Contemporary, Hobart 2022; K’gari means paradise in Butchulla, CARPARK Milani Gallery, Sydney 2021; and Black Devil, Open House Collective with Blaklash Projects, Brisbane 2021.
Recent group exhibitions include From the other side, ACCA, Melbourne, 2023; Gertrude Studios 2023, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2023; 15 Artists, Redcliffe Art Gallery, Redcliffe, 2023; Thin Skin, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2023; Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2023; While You Were Sleeping Volume 2, Ambush Gallery, Canberra 2022; Portrait 23: Identity, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2022; The Women’s Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne 2022; Dingo Project, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, Queensland, 2022; And Shuffling, Conners Conners, Melbourne 2022; Making Place: 100 Views of Brisbane, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane 2022; Trust the Process, Frame of Mind at Milk Gallery, Melbourne 2022; The Show Must Go On!, Sunday Salon at Spring 1883 Art Fair, Melbourne 2021; Elemental, Craft Victoria, Melbourne 2021; All My Friends Are Leaving/Returning to Brisbane, Outerspace Contemporary Art, Brisbane 2021.
Image: Installation view of Mia Boe’s For the angels in paradise 2023, on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre NGV Australia, Melbourne.Photograph: Sean Fennessy