studio artist

Agatha Gothe-Snape

Above: Agatha Gothe-Snape in her Artspace studio, 2017. Photo: Jessica Maurer

Agatha Gothe-Snape’s wide-ranging practice involves performance, ephemeral materials and subtle alterations to space. Her background in performance studies and acting provide the artist with the improvisational impulse which drives her practice. She considers physical, emotional and historical responses to making and looking at art in order to investigate and articulate relations between individual, social and historical contexts. Her practice strives to offer experiences that have the potential to create new circumstances and new knowledge derived from the site and context of each project. The resulting work takes many forms: prosaic performances, including dance, PowerPoint slide shows and workshops; and texts, including correspondence, found texts, as well as texts of a poetic character; visual scores; and collaboratively produced art objects. Gothe-Snape is currently preparing for a solo project exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, curated by Haruko Kumakura, in February 2017.

She has exhibited in major international biennales including the 20th Biennale of Sydney, The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed, curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, 2016; PERFORMA 15, New York curated by RoseLee Goldberg, 2015; and the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, curated by Juan Gaitan, 2014. Gothe-Snape was recently awarded the second Biennale of Sydney Legacy Artwork commission. She has completed several major artwork commissions including The Scheme was a Blueprint for Future Development Programs, 2015, Monash University, Melbourne; as well as an interactive POWERPOINT-based work The Feelings Were Harder to Dislodge than I Initially Imagined, National Centre for Creative Learning, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney. Her work is held in a number of public collections in Australia including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Campbelltown Arts Centre; the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, University of Western Australia; Griffith University Art Collection, Brisbane; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gothe-Snape is actively involved in Wrong Solo, a collaborative performance group that she began in 2006 with fellow Sydney artist, Brian Fuata. From 2013-2015, she was a studio resident at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.