Mavanie is a Gadigal-based artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Melbourne. Their practice is informed by their Assyrian-Iranian heritage and their lived experience as queer, brown, and non-binary in Australia.
Working primarily across sculpture and spatial installation, Mavanie’s work explores cultural erasure, gender, identity, and belonging at the intersection of contemporary Western culture and Mesopotamian folklore.
They work with mixed media and found objects, using fire and water as elemental forces of destruction, renewal, and transformation. Their installations draw from their contemporary reality and influences, reflecting on how ancestral knowledge and cultural memory endure despite histories of erasure.
I acknowledge and pay respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures, communities, and their ongoing care for Country.
EDUCATION
Melbourne University, VCA
2014, Bachelor of Fine Arts
Sculpture and Spacial Practice
National Art School, Sydney
2010, Bachelor of Fine Arts
Sculpture and Drawing
SCHOLARSHIPS
AND RESIDENCIES
The Corridor Project
2024, Art residency
Wyangala, NSW
Queer Nu Werk
2022, Art residency
Performance Space
Sydney, NSW
Travis Technique
2017, Scholarship
Cinematic Storytelling
Los Angeles, USA
EXHIBITIONS
Bankstown Arts Centre
2026, Solo exhibition
Anatomy Of A Dream House, Part I
Sydney, NSW
Burwood Art Prize
2026, Finalist
Burwood Art Prize Exhibition
Sydney, NSW
Campbelltown Arts Centre
2025, Finalist
Fisher’s Ghost Award Exhibition
Sydney, NSW
Lismore Regional Gallery
2024, Solo exhibition
UneARTh
Lismore, NSW
Northern Rivers Community Gallery
2024, Group exhibition
Exhale
Ballina, NSW
Eltham Gallery
2023, Group exhibition
TDOR
Eltham, NSW
Gallery 3
2022, Group exhibition
Birds
Byron Bay, NSW
VCA Artspace
2014, Group exhibition
Untitled
Melbourne, VIC
McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery
2013, Finalist
Mary & Lou Senini Student Award for Sculpture
Melbourne, VIC