Alison Alder
Maker Member
Textiles
Alison Alder is a visual artist whose work blurs the line between studio and social/political art practice. She has worked within community groups, research institutions and Indigenous organisations. Primarily known for her printmaking, Alison has recently extended her practice to include weaving.
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Her work has been exhibited in several key Australian exhibitions including, amongst others, Know My Name at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), Making It New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Identity: 23 at the National Portrait Gallery. Her work is held in major Australian and international public and private collections.
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Her weaving 'Budawang II' won the 2025 Queanbeyan Palerang Art Award and in the same year her work 'Lanyon Plant Legacy' was awarded 3rd prize in the Lanyon Heritage Award. Alison was the Inaugural Artist in Residence at the Australian Parliament House in 2023/24 and is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University, School of Art and Design. She works full-time in her studio in Mongarlowe, NSW.
"I am an artist living and working on a bush block in Mongarlowe, in south-east NSW. Whilst primarily known as a printmaker I have been working with textiles over the last few years, dyeing wool using native plants and weaving the colours into artworks that focus on colour relationships derived from specific locations. The bushfires of 2019-20, which destroyed and threatened so much of the Australian eastern seaboard, made me aware of how much I depend on plants as a signifier of place and community.
My aim is to elevate an appreciation of native plant populations using dyeing and weaving by creating a series of major visual artworks. Through the formal arrangement of colour determined by a variety of weaving processes my work will, I hope, educate audiences about the importance of preserving native plant communities and encourage the protection of specific sites, both large and small."
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Online Resources:
Website: https://alisonalder.com/
Instagram: @aa_weaving | @alder.alison
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