MARISCHA BURCKHARDT: DISCOVERIES: WORK FROM 1976 - 2012

Finding art relatively later in life, Marischa Burckhardt quickly became a prolific artist in the early seventies, and has since participated in over a hundred group and solo exhibitions. Using the tools of collage, fabric, paint, photography and later, site-specific installations, she explores her affinity with nature and light, and her obvious love of beauty. The resulting pieces are both fragile and striking, authentic yet curious.

Born in 1927, a child of Russian immigrants, Burckhardt lives and works in Switzerland, although her career has been of international level, exhibiting in Europe, North and South America as well as Australia where she participated in a residency with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1994.

It was in Australia that she took inspiration from the Aborigines and reaffirmed her passion for the Land Art movement using the desert not only as inspiration but also as her canvas and co-creator. Constructing sand paintings in the landscape and installations of found objects, these were also documented in a series of photographic work.

Using a language of abstract shapes and minimalist patterns she has experimented and evolved continually, not constraining herself with categorisation.