BEATRICE MAGALOTTI Art Works
Artist Statement
Beatrice is a contemporary Australian sculptor whose work engages with a range of themes including mythology (particularly Norse and Greek) and migration.
Her work is informed by her experience as a woman. Invisible migrants, stories of travel and life journeys are poetically evoked rather than described. By refusing to engage with popular narratives of migration (notably spectacular media images of suffering individuals and groups) the artist seeks to create a space for reflective and introspective dialogues.
Beatrice uses embroidery and sewing in her work. Traces of stitching and details of textures of fabrics - traditional female responsibilities - are visible on her bronzes and ceramics. The delicate gestures of hand-crafting soft and ephemeral materials (fibre and fabric) are by a series of processes (moulding, casting, and patination) changed into hard and permanent materials (bronze and ceramics).
This work is far broader that any specific migrant situation – it is about the human condition of most of the Australian population, and a global condition that crosses the centuries, a response to food scarcity, war and economic opportunities. Recent works have become more collaborative.
In 2023 Beatrice was a participant in two Art Residencies; Arte Studio Ginestelle in Assisi, Italy & Kunstkollektivet 8B in Unnerud, Denmark.
In Italy she collaborated with American Photographic Artist, Amy Caterina on A+B Project Volume 2. Beatrice first met Amy at an art residency in Iceland in 2018 and they have produced a number of collaborative works. A+B Projects V2 was exhibited at the Art Gallery Le Logge in Assisi, 2024.
In Denmark Beatrice collaborated with Danish Multi Media Artist, Begitte Andersen, and together they produced a textile installation work that incorporates sound, smell and visuals. This work was shown in October-November 2024 in Melbourne, Australia.
During 2020, Beatrice led a collaborative response to the pandemic, 42 Days, 42 Boats, 42 Installations. It playfully circumvents our lack of global mobility by offering unexpected and serendipitous vistas and creative narratives. The photographic elements of the project celebrate the spectacular and the quotidian as the boats navigate familiar, local and exotic, distant horizons.
Beatrice Magalotti
Prizes & Awards
2025 Melbourne Society of Women Painters & Sculptors (MSWPS)
2023 Valda Cuming Sculpture Award (MSWPS),
2022 Sculpture Prize, Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)
2022 Melbourne Society of Women Painters & Sculptors (MSWPS), Peer award
2021 Elsewhere & Other Places (artaviso event) Main Prize Winner
2021 Sculpture Prize, Arts Rutherglen
2020 Sculpture Prize, Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)
2020 Sculpture Prize, Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS)
2017 Yering Station, Sculpture Prize
2017 Annie Davison Oliver Award, MSWPS
Art Residencies
2023 Unnerud, Denmark (Nov-Dec)
2023 Assisi, Italy (Sept-October)
2019 Odense, Denmark
2018 Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland
2017 Stanley, Tasmania, Australia
Publications
8 Porte, Assisi, Italy, 2024
A+B projects Vol 2, 2024
42days 42boats 42installations, 2022
A+B projects Vol 1, 2021
Art/Edit, #26, 2020, pg. 133
Art/Edit, Autumn, 2019, pgs. 128-129
Uppercase Magazine, no 38, 2018, pg. 90
Yering Station, Catalogue 2018, interview pgs. 8-9
Member
Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)
Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS)
MAVA Collective (Melbourne and Victorian Artists Inc.)
Where are the women artists (WATWA)
© All Rights Reserved
Contact Details:
email: beatricemagalotti@bigpond.com mobile: +61 408 055 184
instragram: @beatricemagalottiart
Exhibitions
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Changing Perspectives 2025, MSWPS, Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne Glimpse, Alphington Studios Collective, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford Unseen, Australian Catholic University Gallery, Fitzroy
2024 I Hang My Clothes, Sol Gallery, Fitzroy
Assisi International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Art Gallery Le Logge, Assisi, Italy
SCULPTURE NOW, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford Passages, West End Projects, West Melbourne
Changing Perspectives 2024, MSWPS, Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne Sculpture Acheron 2024, Marian Rennie Gallery, Acheron Rutherglen Tasters of Art Prize, Memorial Hall, Rutherglen
2023 Changing Perspectives 2023, MSWPS, Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne
SCULPTURE NOW, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford, EMBODY – Sculpture, The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove, Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards (Finalist),
2022 SCULPTURE NOW, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford PORTRAY - Sculpture, The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove
42days 42boats 42 installations, QVWC, Melbourne, 27 sept-14 Oct, Solo Exhibition
Changing Perspectives 2022, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne
42days 42boats 42 installations, The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove, 5-28 August 2022, Solo exhibition
42days 42boats 42 installations, Ladder Art Space, Kew, 15 June – 2 July, Solo exhibition
The Seeresses, Satellite Projects Melbourne, Collingwood, 2 June- 30 June, Solo Exhibition
Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2021
Interior, YAVA Gallery & Arts Hub, Healesville,
Without Walls, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre (QVWC), Melbourne
Rutherglen Tasters of Art Prize, Memorial Hall, Rutherglen 42days 42boats 42 installations, Various Space Gallery, Foster, Solo exhibition
2021 Changing Perspectives 2021, MSWPS – Virtual Exhibition (Online 1-31 October)
Solo Exhibition, Red Gallery, North Fitzroy
Sculpture on the farm, Dungog (Online 1-10 October)
Elsewhere & Other Places… (Artaviso event) https://www.artaviso.com/elsewhere-other-places/ Life in lockdown | STAGES photography Monash Gallery of Art https://www.stages.mga.org.au/life-inlockdown
2021 Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival, Sculpture in the Vineyards (Online 1-30 September)
STUDIO 11 Owen Dixon Chambers, Melbourne
Gippsland Sculpture Exhibition, Arc Gallery, Yinnar
Rutherglen Tasters of Art Prize, Memorial Hall, Rutherglen
2020 Changing Perspectives 2020, MSWPS – Virtual Exhibition
Make a Fuss, Virtual Exhibition, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre COVID-19 Global Quilt, www.instagram.com/covid19quilt/ Bonanza, CSA Member Show, Virtual Exhibition
2019 Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2019
Bonanza, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford
Changing Perspectives 2019, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne
Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Gordon
Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition
2018 Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2018 (Finalist)
2018 MASTERWORKS Art Exhibition in the Vines, Swipers Gully Vineyard & Restaurant, Kangaroo Ground Changing Perspectives 2018, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne New Works, Red Gallery, North Fitzroy
2017 Yering Station Sculpture, Exhibition and Awards 2017 Changing Perspectives 2017, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne Glimpses, Meeniyan Art gallery, Meeniyan Recent Works, Antipodes, Bookshop & Gallery, Sorrento Harbour Sculpture, Woolwich, Sydney
2016 From the familiar to the unfamiliar - Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood Nine Lives, Alphington Artist- Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora Changing Perspectives 2016 – Malvern Artists’ Society, Malvern
2015 synergy, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood
2014 Herring Island Summer Arts Festival The Darebin Art Show, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora
2013 Northern Lights, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora a number of things, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood
Florence_Reflection, Hotel Helvetia & Bristol I
Photogravure
15 x 14 cm
Denmark Window
Photogravure, Ghost Print & Oil Paint 19 x 14 cm
Florence_Reflection, Hotel Helvetia & Bristo II
Photogravure 15 x 14 cm
Lets Dance
Photogravure with Chine collé 19 x 14 cm
Calle Dei Botteri, Venice
Photogravure
14 x 18 cm
Photogravure Prints
Calle Dei Botteri, Venice
Photogravure
14 x 18 cm
In 2025, I created a series of photogravure plates using images captured between 2023 and 2024. Photogravure is a printmaking technique that combines photography and intaglio processes, transferring photographic images onto a light-sensitive polymer plate to produce richly textured, tonal prints.
“Florence Reflection “
These images were taken at the Helvetia and Bristol Hotel in Florence, Italy. A recent rainfall created a reflective surface that allowed me to capture the hotel’s image with striking clarity. The mirrored effect revealed a quiet, almost painterly transformation of the façade.
“Denmark Window”
Walking past an abandoned house, I was transfixed by the broken window. I happened to have one of my ceramic sculptures with me, which I placed in the window before taking a photograph. This work is a Photogravure Ghost Print finished with oil paint.
“Let’s Dance”
Pointe shoes usually last only 3–4 weeks before wearing out. This print presents multiple pairs, each a testament to the physical demands and ephemeral nature of ballet—so let’s dance.
“Calle Dei Botteri, Venice”
This building was located near where I was staying in Venice. Its name, graffiti, and architectural style immediately caught my attention. Built in the Middle Ages, the name Calle Dei Botteri refers to the craft once practiced in this street, the making of wine barrels.
The images here, one printed in Blue/black ink and the other in sepia toned ink create a different mood for each print.
2024
"Detritus" was created at the end of 2024, during a time saturated with images of displacement and loss — refugees adrift, bodies washing ashore, and the relentless destruction in Gaza.
The work reflects on how fragments of global tragedy accumulate and linger within our collective consciousness. In translating these impressions into form, I sought to give shape to the unease and sorrow that marked that year — a meditation on endurance, fragility, and the remnants left in the wake of human suffering.
Detritus, waste, junk, or something else?—wrapped, anointed, and once loved—is now dismissed as detritus by the majority. My work questions this act of cultural and emotional erasure: when does a body, once sacred, become refuse?
By presenting the wrapped form as both relic and remnant, I explore how memory, care, and meaning persist in what society devalues. The work sits between reverence and rejection, asking us to reconsider how we treat the vulnerable, the forgotten, and the dead.
2023-24
ART RESIDENCY UNNERUD, DENMARK
During October & December 2023 I was one of the artists at the Kunstkollektivet 8B a multi-disciplinary Art Residency in Unnerud, Denmark.
“I Hang my Clothes” a collaborative piece being developed by Begitte Andersen and myself. Begitte Andersen is a Danish interdisciplinary artist.
Begitte and I first met during my residency at Gæsteatelier Hollufgård, Odense in September 2019 and we have continued a dialogue relating to our art practices.
The inception of the project was using lyrics and music written by my sister, Margaret Magalotti. The completed installation incorporated 42 fabric banners throughout the space, screen printed, hand and machine embroidered with lyrics from the song. The music and lyrics were available via a QR-Code at a gallery. All the banners were sprayed with essential oils giving the work a further dimension.
The installation was a circle or spiral of banners slowly letting people into a universe of emotions. They could visualize, hear the song and be enveloped by a rich fragrant smell, the viewer meet an intense atmosphere that reflected the core of the song. We wanted to leave the audience with a sense of well-being.
The work was exhibited at Sol Gallery, Melbourne 31 Oct - 11 Nov 2024
https://beatricemagalotti.com/i-hang-my-clothes-project/
I hang my clothes installation, Sol gallery, Melbourne 2024
I hang my clothes installation, Sol gallery, Melbourne 2024
2023-24
ART RESIDENCY ASSISI, ITALY
In September 2023 I was one of the three artists at the Arte Studio Ginestelle in Assisi, Italy.
At the Arte Studio Ginestelle I worked towards A+B Projects Volume 2 with Amy Caterina, an American Photographic Artist - we first met in Iceland in 2018 and in 2021 we produced a digital and hard copy book called A+B Projects Vol 1.
In Assisi we incorporated images not only taken in America and Australia but images taken in Italy, in particular areas around the art residency. This residency gave me the opportunity to work with Amy in the same place.
Assisi being a walled city, we decided to highlight this by incorporating the 8 doors as part of our project. We have put together a leaflet/publication that fits into the book [A+B Projects Vol 2], showing the doors and members of our Assisi community.
This Digital and hard copy publication is made up of 52 pages and is a visual discussion of images and textiles between Amy Caterina and myself.
The project was exhibited at the Art Gallery Le Logge, in Assisi in August- September 2024
Domus Sesto Properzio, Detail of Bird Mural c 50-100 CE
Underneath Santa Maria Maggiore, Assisi, Italy
Image in A+B Projects Volume 2
8 Porte Side A 28 x 43 cm
8 Porte Side B 28 x 43 cm
A+B Projects Vol 2 17 x 17 cm
Porte 8
The Death of Dido continues my exploration of migration and relocation - in this case from life to death.
The Myth of Dido tells the story of a powerful Queen, who having found and lost love, choses to retake control through the only path left open to her.
Dido is depicted on her funeral pyre, festooned in lilies and leaves, symbolizing purity and rebirth.
The Death of Dido
Death of Dido Bronze
12.2 x 32 x 10.5 cm
2022-23
This work evokes the bitter-sweet narratives of migration.
The hand-sewn, crudely stitched seams are metaphors of fragility, the act of mending clothes and patching together our lives.
This work is both a celebration of migration as a new beginning and a reminder of what has to be left behind.
Flotilla
Flotilla Bronze 11 x 130 x 35 cm
2020-22
42days42boats42installations
42 x 56 cm
42
Diamond Bay Giclee Prints
x 56 cm
Flotilla Giclee Print
2020-22
This project was my response to the COVID-19 Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne, originally announced for 42 days from 2 August to 13 September 2020.
During this period, Melburnians were restricted to travelling within a 5km radius and were only permitted to leave home for four essential reasons, including one hour of exercise per day. A nightly curfew from 8 pm to 5 am was also imposed. This self-directed project gave me focus and helped me remain productive during the lockdown.
I created one ceramic boat for each day of the Stage 4 lockdown. Once the boats were fired and glazed, I photographed them in various environments as installations. After the lockdown ended, I was able to photograph the boats beyond the 5km limit from my home.
Each boat featured stitched seams on its surface. These crudely stitched seams served as metaphors for fragility, and for the act of mending and piecing our lives back together.
Although Australians were still unable to travel overseas except for exceptional circumstances, limited international parcel post was available. I couldn’t leave Australia—but my boats could. I reached out to a number of artists and invited them to photograph one of my ceramic boats and share the images on Instagram to document the boats’ journeys. The response was overwhelming.
On 1 February 2021, six boats were sent on their way: two to the United States, three to Europe, and one to Western Australia. In June 2021, a further two boats were sent abroad—one to The United Kingdom and another to the United States. Boats that were created during a time of extreme lockdown, when we couldn’t move more than 5km from home, were now travelling the world.
This project was showcased in four exhibitions throughout 2022
Various Space Gallery, Foster Ladder Art Space, Kew
The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove
Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, Melbourne
All the photographs in the exhibitions are unique works
56 x 42 cm
Left Wilsons Prom
Giclee Print
Giclee Prints
42 x 56 cm
Bottom
Wilsons Promontory National Park
Giclee Print
56 x 42 cm
Top Still Life with Boats 2
Migration Series #2 Bronze
Stormy Passage Bronze
12 x 27 x 13 cm
In 2019 I participated in an art residency at Gæsteatelier Hollufgård, Denmark. This afforded an ideal environment both for working and dialogue with fellow residents. It also provided me with a fresh outlook on my work and I continue to extend this research.
“Arrival” is one of the pieces that developed out of my residency in Denmark. and is part of my Migration Series. As the daughter of migrants, I am keen to explore notions of identity and travel associated with migration.
Inspired by my research into boats in Denmark, and the hull of Barca Nostra at the 2019 Venice Biennale, my work evokes the bitter-sweet narratives of migration.
The hand-sewn sacks and crudely stitched seams on the boat are metaphors for fragility, the act of mending clothes and patching together our lives. “Arrival” depicts the ending of a difficult and uncertain journey, where the migrants are absent, possibly having moved on.
This work is both a celebration of migration as a new beginning and a personal protest against the way most developed countries approach migration.
13 x 37 x 10.5 cm
Top Migration Series #1
Bronze 25 x 41 x11cm
Bottom
Migration Series #2
Bronze 24 x 41 x11cm
x11cm
Bottom
Precious Cargo #1,2 & 3
Bronze
8.5 x 30 x 30 cm
Belongings
Bronze
17 x 22 x 9 cm
Provisions
Bronze
9 x 20 x 16 cm
Sacks
Bronze
7 x 13 x 13 cm
During May and June 2018, I was one of the resident artists at the Fish Factory Creative Centre, a multidisciplinary art residency in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland.
Valkyrie, Seated Valkyrie, Taking Flight, and Arabesque were four works from my Valkyrie Series, created during the two-month residency. The Valkyries are central figures in Norse mythology—female beings who determined the fate of warriors on the battlefield and chose which of the fallen would be carried to Valhalla.
The sculpture Valkyrie (on the opposite page) formed part of an evolving theme in my practice: using abstract, organic shapes to create figurative and anthropomorphic forms.
ART RESIDENCY STÖÐVARFJÖRÐUR, ICELAND
Valkyrie Bronze
21 x 25 x 7 cm
The Völvas, also one of the works from my residency in Iceland.
The Völvas were female seers or shamans in the Viking Age, highly respected for their spiritual insight and connection to the divine. They were revered figures who often travelled between communities, performing rituals and offering visions of the future. The word Völva means “wand carrier” or “carrier of a magic staff.” As part of this sculpture, I incorporated a staff and bags used to carry herbs.
The Völvas Bronze 30 x 30 x 14 cm
