Josie oscillates between making objects and facilitating projects that enable art to be made and experienced through diverse perspectives. Josie’s sculptural practice is informed by the built environment, technology and the social systems that manipulate human exchange. Speculative research based on interactions between people, technology and environment underscore the commonplace references in her work.
As a facilitator, Josie generates projects that aim to extend artistic frameworks for contemporary art practice. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Belmore Institute for Try-hard Ceramicists and Handicrafters, a residency program that supports both artists and people from non-arts fields to develop new cultural and/or material applications to ceramics.
Josie believes that diversity and universal access to the arts underpins innovation and broadens perceptions and possibilities for artistic forms. This sensibility and skill-set has led Josie to be employed by arts organisations such as Accessible Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Biennale of Sydney to broker and develop creative opportunities for communities and artists.
Selected Exhibitions
2015 Biggie Smalls, Casual Powerhouse, Sydney
Che Cosa, Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong
Notes Towards a Future Feminist Archive, Cross Art Books, Sydney
2014 Glazed and Confused, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney
2013 Spin, Marrickville Garage, Marrickville*
2012 Hold your EFTOS machine to the sky, First Draft Gallery, Sydney*
Awkward Silence, Seventh Gallery Melbourne
2011 Green Bans Art Walk, Walks Season at Performance Space, Sydney
2010 Texting Pigeons, MOP projects, Sydney*
2009 Correspondence, Liquid Architecture 10, Performance Space, Sydney
Embroidery takes too long to do, Mori Gallery, Sydney*
Hidden, Rookwood Sculpture Walk, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
2008 Awkward Silence (with Anne Kay), Institute of Modern Art, Newtown (I.C.A.N), Sydney
Anaesthesia for the Uninterested, First Draft, Sydney*
2007 Loose Ends, Loose, Sydney
2006 Like Talking to a Brick Wall, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra*
It’s a New Day, Artspace, Sydney
2005 Pawn, Blackbox, Scott Donovan Gallery, Sydney
* solo exhibitions
Selected reviews and occasional writings*
2015 The Outsider Mirage by Josie Cavallaro and Kris Tito, Runway issue # 27, accessed 6 June*
Throwing Pots to See What Sticks by Rebecca Gallo, Raven, published 20 January
Biggies Smalls by Stella Rosa McDonald, The Art Life 2.0, published 24 May
2014 Tuesday’s Child by Josie Cavallaro & Amanda Tink, ON: Audio Journal for Experimental Art and Culture, issue # 1, published 1 September *
2013 Finding a Place in the Art World by Lucas Ihlein, Real Time issue # 118 Dec-Jan Pg.6
2012 Hold Your EFTPOS Machine to the Sky by Sharne Wolff, The Art Life, published 12 Oct
2010 Lives of the Artists: Scenes from a non-comprehensive history of Sydney’s artist-run initiatives by Anne Finnegan, Time and Space, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, p. 13-20
Loose Papers – Loose Projects 2006-2007, Ed. Mark Titmarsh and Alex Gawronski, Loose Projects
2008 Art Conversations: failure to communicate by Josie Cavallaro and Anne Kay, Runway issue 11. 1 0-13
2007 Woolloomooloo and the Expanded Neighbourhood of Process-driven Art Practice by Catriona Moore & Jo Holder, ARTSPACE PROJECTS 2006, Artspace Visual Arts Centre Ltd, p. 132-150
*artist writings
Selected Projects
2011 – current Co-director, Belmore ITCH – Institute for Try-hard Ceramicists and Handicrafters
2014 Presenter, Contemporary Outsider Art: The Global Context, University of Melbourne
2013 Convener, Supported Studios: Possibility and Potential, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
2008-12 For Accessible Arts, established and project managed partnership with the Bundanon Trust to host a series of residency opportunities for NSW artists with disability
2006-2011 For Accessible Arts, facilitated and project managed AART.BOXX, a series of national survey exhibitions of recent works by artists with disability. Exhibition partners included, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney Opera House, SCA Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.
Related employment
2014 – Coordinator, Community Initiatives, Marrickville Council/Inner West Council
2014 Arts and Cultural Development, Marrickville Council
2006 – 2014 Arts Development, Accessible Arts
2010 Audio Describer, Biennale of Sydney
2003 – 2011 Artist Educator, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Committees
2014-16 Committee Member, Supported Studio Network
2014 – Committee Member, Roomies Arts Inc