Karryn Argus is a queer feminist visual artist living and working in Melbourne Australia. After completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology at La Trobe University, Karryn worked in the community sector and Adult Community Education. It was whilst working with adult learners that Karryn decided to focus on her own learning and resume her interest in art, completing a Diploma of Visual Art at Victoria University and a Bachelor of Fine Art in painting with First Class Honours at Monash University.
After completing her Fine Art studies, Karryn exhibited her handmade textile objects in numerous selected group shows in both Melbourne and Sydney. Collaborating with other Melbourne artists, she exhibited at Kings Artist Run, Sandbox Studios Box Gallery, Assembly Point, and Australian Catholic University Gallery. Karryn's artworks have been selected in a number of Art Prizes including the 6th Biennial Petite Miniature Textile Exhibition at Wangaratta Gallery, The Manning Art Prize: Naked & Nude at Manning Regional Gallery, Emerging Artist Craft Award with Craft NSW, Queer Art Prize Australia at Chapel off Chapel, and the Moreland Summer Show at Counihan Gallery.
In 2019, whilst living in Northern NSW, Karryn had her first major solo show To Be Seen at Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina. This was the first time that she used traditional cross-stitch as a medium to explore her ongoing research into absence, vulnerability, and loss. These themes continued in her Master of Fine Art which she completed in 2020 at RMIT with the resulting project Holding the Space: An exploration of absence, grief and loss through handmade textile objects, performance, and photography.
Karryn is currently creating a body of work, using recycled wearable objects. Materials are coiled, padded, crocheted, twined, sewn, and glued to create intimate bodily shapes and spaces. This work continues her ongoing interest in the embodied sculptural object and the relationship between bodies, objects and spaces.
Karryn has worked in Adult Community Education for 20 years and in 2017 she began teaching art history and theory in the Diploma of Visual Arts. Karryn feels that sharing her experience and knowledge in the learning environment, with other emerging artists, is an enriching aspect to her own art practice.
You can contact Karryn via email on karrynargus@gmail.com or via the contact form below
Craft-based skills are central to her practice and these were taught to Karryn by her mother Marion Waters and her grandmothers Eileen Argus and Mary Dalton.