Artist in Residence

Claudia Nicholson is an interdisciplinary artist living and working on Bidjigal and Gadigal land. Her practice examines psychic and physical connections to place through multidisciplinary forms of art making including painting, installation, performance, and moving image. 

In 2019 Claudia was commissioned by Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and Vivid Sydney and presented new commissioned work, By Your Side, at the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2020 she was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia to develop Art Trail, an art education resource for young people. Her exhibitions include Belonging, Art Gallery of NSW, 2019, Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, The National 2017: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, Sydney, 2017. In 2017 she was awarded the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship. In 2023 Claudia will present a new digital commission for Shortwave with the Sydney Opera House. She has held residencies with TWT Artist Studios (2019-2021) Carriageworks (2017-2019) and Firstdraft Gallery (2012-2014). Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Artbank.

HOSSEI‘s practice explores concepts of healing through meditative ritual, performance and costume. Over the​ 12-month residency period, the artist will draw on the research strengths and facilities of UTS Design School to experiment with new materials, techniques and emerging technologies. HOSSEI will work closely with Associate Professor Timo Rissanen [Course Director, Fashion & Textiles] to develop and create a new series of “healing” costumes that utilise puppetry, electronics and advanced construction​techniques. The residency culminates in the public presentation of new work at UTS in 2023.

HOSSEI holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from Sydney College of the Arts. He was selected for Primavera 2014: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and has held residencies with Parramatta Artist Studios (2014-15), Artspace Sydney (2016) and PAS Open Digital Residency (2021-2022). He will present a major solo exhibition at West Space Melbourne in 2023.

Associate Professor TImo Rissanen is a fashion and textiles researcher with an interest in the interconnection between sustainability and social justice as they relate to the contemporary fashion industry. Timo produces cross-stitch, installation and performance pieces with a focus on labour, politics and love. His highly acclaimed work 15%, in partnership with artist Salla Salin, was staged in Helsinki and New York City and toured Germany, New Zealand and Japan as a video installation between 2012-2016.

He is a former Associate Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability in the School of Fashion at the Parsons School of Design, The New School, and a founding member of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. He has published two books on fashion and sustainability: Zero Waste Fashion Design(Bloomsbury, 2016), co-written with Holly McQuillan, and Shaping Sustainable Fashion (Routledge, 2011) with Alison Gwilt.

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The 2021 - 2022 UTS Artist in Residence program is generously supported by the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT, and is administered by UTS Gallery & Art Collection.

Amala Groom worked with Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt [Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research], Dr Andrew Burrell [Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building] and the UTS Law Faculty on a historical inquiry into the origins and implications of western legal, political and social authority as a comparative analysis with Aboriginal systems of lore, governance and collectivity. Groom’s residency will support a new body of work to be presented utilising virtual technologies.

Groom was the 2020 winner of the Wyndham Art Prize, the 2019 winner of the Incinerator Gallery Award, and her practice has been recognised in more than 40 national prizes. Her work is held in private national and international collections and institutional collections including Artbank, Deutsche Bank Collection, Blacktown City Art Collection and Casula Powerhouse Art Centre. She has completed residencies at Artshouse VIC; Bundanon Trust NSW; Campbelltown Arts Centre NSW; Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, NSW; Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery NSW; Mosman Art Gallery NSW; Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA) NSW; Salamanca Arts Centre TAS; Underbelly Arts Festival NSW and Vitalstatistix SA. Groom’s work has been included in more than 50 national and international exhibitions, including The National 2019: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, and a five year survey of her practice, RE:Union, curated by Sarah Gurich at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 2020.

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Sidney McMahon worked with Dr YK Wang [Faculty of Engineering and IT] to explore new possibilities of audience interactivity through the use of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology. Currently used most widely in medical fields, BCI poses future applications that will extend human experience through neuroprosthetics. McMahon’s residency will support the collaborative development of a new interactive sculptural installation.

McMahon was an artist in residence at Parramatta Artists’ Studios from 2016 – 2018, and was awarded the 2017 Parramatta City Council Visual Arts Fellowship. In 2017 they completed a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and Studio Voltaire, London. In 2018 they completed residencies at Wysing Arts Centre, UK, and a travelling residency between Kyoto and Tokyo organised by Move Arts Japan in collaboration with Asialink Arts. They have shown nationally and internationally in solo, group and curatorial projects in various galleries including, The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (VIC), MOP Projects (NSW), Clearview Ltd (LDN), Open Source Gallery (NY), Auto Italia (LDN), Metro Arts (QLD), and Verge Gallery (NSW).

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The 2020 - 2021 UTS Artist in Residence program is generously supported by the Anita and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis Foundation and the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT, and is administered by UTS Gallery & Art Collection.