Stephanie Quirk

Stephanie Quirk (b. 1985, Awabakal and Worimi Country, Newcastle) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Illawarra, on Dharawal Country. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, and site-responsive public practice, her work is shaped by a sustained attention to transformation, in landscape, in the body, and in the slow, often unseen rhythms of becoming. Her earlier practice was grounded in the theoretical Sublime, developed through direct bodily engagement with demanding landscapes: climbing mountains, trekking deserts, walking rivers. These experiences of physical immersion and dissolution of self; the question of where "I" ends and the world begins, became foundational to a material and conceptual inquiry that continues to evolve. Radiant colour and participatory, community-oriented making characterised this period, reimagining and activating public spaces with playful vitality. Her most recent works mark a significant shift inward. Drawing on lived experience as a mother, educator, and mountaineer, Quirk now explores the intimate terrain of maternal transformation, loss, and the labour of reconstitution. The body here is understood as both vessel and threshold, a site of irreversible change. These works cultivate a poetics of attention, demanding presence and patience from their audiences, and opening space for encounter with life's uncertain unfolding. Quirk holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and a Master of Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, where she was supervised by Lindy Lee, and a Master of Education from the University of Technology Sydney. She was nominated for the Redlands Prize by Nike Savvas, has undertaken residencies in Italy and regional NSW, and has exhibited in Wollongong, Sydney, Canada, and Italy. In 2025 she won the Ephemeral Category of the Sculpture in the Garden Wollongong Prize. She currently works full time as an artist in her studio in Sydney.

• 2026 – Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi
• 2026 – Presence, Clifton School of Arts, co-curated with Kezia Simone and Adriana Beukers
• 2025 – Winner, Ephemeral category, Wollongong Sculpture in the Garden
• 2025 – Finalist, Mudgee Sculpture in the Garden Art Prize
• 2025 – Solo exhibition, Vessel Body Studies, Shellharbour Civic Centre
• 2022 – Solo exhibition, Paintings For Children, 130 Art Studios, Wollongong
• 2019 – Hill End Residency
• 2011 – MIRA International Artist Residency, Italy
• 2009 – Nominee for Redlands Prize, nominated by Nike Savvas

Leichhardt NSW 2040

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