Artists’ Biographies

Artists’ Biographies

James Tylor 


(b. 1986) lives and works in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

Through his photographic practice, James Tylor examines the loss of Indigenous cultural identity in contemporary Australia. Combining drawing with analogue and digital photographic techniques Tylor’s practice also includes historical photographic processes, such as the daguerreotype and ambrotype, used to document Indigenous peoples and the European colonisation of the continent. Tylor further experiments with contemporary techniques of colouring, tearing and scratching the prints, incorporating elements from oral histories and archival research.

In recent works, Tylor has created and photographed culturally hybrid versions of tools, shelters, and other significant objects that reflect his own diverse heritage, which comprises Nunga (Kaurna), Māori (Te Arawa), and European (English, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Iberian and Norwegian) ancestry. Central to his practice are the histories of colonisation and migration and their profound impact on Indigenous cultures and relationship to place and spirituality.

Tylor has exhibited in the United States, France and Germany and across Australia at institutions including Tandanya National Indigenous Cultural Institute, Adelaide; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Artspace, Sydney; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Bendigo Art Gallery; QAGOMA, Brisbane; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), United Kingdom, United States, France and Italy.

Meryl McMaster


 (b. 1988) lives and works in Ottawa, Canada.

Multidisciplinary artist Meryl McMaster works predominantly with photography, incorporating the production of props, sculptural garments and performance into images that transport the viewer out of the ordinary and into a space of contemplation and introspection.

McMaster’s work has been included in exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Washington and New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis; Ottawa Art Gallery; Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

McMaster’s work is featured in public collections within Canada and the United States, including the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis; the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Washington and New York; Ottawa Art Gallery; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Gatineau. McMaster is the recipient of the Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, the REVEAL Indigenous Art Award, Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists, the Canon Canada Prize, the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, the OCAD U Medal and in 2016 was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award.

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