Biography

Marianne Penberthy is an established West Australian fibre and textile artist based in Geraldton, Western Australia. Her work gives organic expression to her natural surroundings: the landscape of desert, earth, sky, and the salty Indian Ocean.

Marianne was born in Queensland, and moved to Western Australia in the early 1970s. She studied Art and Design at Durack College Geraldton and Edith Cowan University in Perth where she obtained a BA (Visual Arts) in 1995.

Textiles became her principal medium of expression after years of studio exploration with clay. This transition into textiles was marked by the return to the landscape and memory of her childhood place in Caloundra Queensland.  Homeground, a joint exhibition with her sister Kerry Johns in the Caloundra Regional Gallery embraced textiles, mixed media and installation.

In 2011 her interest in Asian textile traditions led to an invitation to participate in the Textile Exchange Project in Hyogo, Japan and the Bojagi & Beyond Exhibitions in Seoul Korea and San Francisco USA. In 2014, at the invitation of the Korean Bojagi Forum, Marianne showed new works in a solo exhibition on Jeju Island South Korea, a project funded by the WA Department of Culture & Arts and the City of Greater Geraldton.

Marianne’s recent work retains this interest in international textile traditions but has found an expression on the ground in Western Australian landscapes. Her implied textile installation works using flour and water refer to a variety of textile traditions and are closely tied to her evolving connection with the Australian landscape.

Images from this intersection have been exhibited recently in the Surface Design Association International Juried Exhibition Materialities in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Download Marianne Penberthy CV