Michael Eather

Michael Eather was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1963. After graduating from the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) in 1983, Eather travelled north spending the years between 1984 and 1989 living and working between Maningrida, Northern Territory, and Brisbane, where he lectured at the Queensland College of Art, Morningside and the Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove.

An articulate and energetic force in indigenous art circles, after the experience of curating the exhibition Balance 1990: Views, Visions, influences held at the Queensland Art Gallery (which explored the shared influences between indigenous and non-indigenous artists), in 1990 Eather became a co-founder of the Campfire Group, a collective of artists, both indigenous and non-indigenous, working on contemporary art projects and commissions. In 2005 the work of this group was examined in the exhibition SHOOSH! The History of the Campfire Group exhibited at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Eather's work is held in several institutional collections including the Queensland Art Gallery, University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, QUT Art Museum, Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, and Artbank, and continues to be exhibited widely. In 2004 it was included in the exhibition Crossing the Line: Brisbane to Belgrade, Ethnographic Museum of Belgrade, Black and White, Artstation, Kollmitzberg, Austria (2003), Flotilla, Melbourne Museum (2002), Skin & Division: Michael Eather and Friends, Brisbane City Gallery (1997), and All Stock Must Go!, the 2⊃nd Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery.