Biography
Makeda Duong is a visual artist living and working on Kaurna land. Since graduating from the South Australian School of Art in 2013, she has participated in local and interstate residencies, and has had three solo exhibitions, the most recent at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Australia, including the Jamfactory, Craft Design Canberra, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, and Walkway Gallery. Her piece ‘Personal Responsibility’ has toured nationally as part of the Tamworth Textile Triennial. Her work has been acquired by the Adelaide Migration Museum, and she has been a finalist in the Nillumbik Art Prize, the Tatiara Art prize, and the winner of the 2022 Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize. She has recently received funding from Creative Australia for an upcoming group exhibition at Pari Gallery, Parramatta in early 2026. Her current practice attempts to unravel and represent aspects of her lived experience in relation to themes such as race, class, and mental illness.
Artist Statement
My practice is informed by the history of textiles in the western world, and how the materiality of the medium can be used to convey deeply personal experiences. I am interested in the social processes of stigmatisation and othering. Themes in the work include race, gender, class and mental illness. Many of my pieces are text based and feature quotes from real people, to record the lived experience of difference and how this manifests in social situations. While these works tend to be introspective, they aren't devoid of humour. They invite the viewer to examine their own social assumptions and biases, or possibly to commiserate in a shared experience.
Artist Statement
My practice is informed by the history of textiles in the western world, and how the materiality of the medium can be used to convey deeply personal experiences. I am interested in the social processes of stigmatisation and othering. Themes in the work include race, gender, class and mental illness. Many of my pieces are text based and feature quotes from real people, to record the lived experience of difference and how this manifests in social situations. While these works tend to be introspective, they aren't devoid of humour. They invite the viewer to examine their own social assumptions and biases, or possibly to commiserate in a shared experience.
I would like to acknowledge that I live and work on the lands of the Kaurna people, and that this is stolen land. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
