Elisa Jane Carmichael is a Ngugi woman of the Quandamooka People (Moreton Island/Mulgumpin and North Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah, Queensland). Elisa has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University; and a Master of Fine Arts, QUT.
As an artist, her practice draws on Ancestral knowledge, matrilineal connections, memories of place and relationships with Country. Elisa and her mother, Sonja, have collaboratively been at the forefront of gathering knowledge, learning, and experimenting, to revitalise the unique traditional practice of Quandamookaweaving and explore its creative applications to contemporary fibre art. Elisa further develops her practice through both new techniques and materials, acknowledging, nurturing, and protecting her culture and the resources of Quandamooka Country. Her regular inclusion in national survey exhibitions and major prizes demonstrates her conceptual explorations through weaving, sculptural materials, cyanotypes and now printmaking.
Elisa is a fourth time finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2025, 2023, 2021, 2018) and a recent recipient of The Highly Commended Ruth Amery Award for the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award (2025). Recent group exhibitions include Under The Big Blue Sky, Casula Powerhouse (2025); Deep Blue, Pine Rivers Art Gallery (2024); Photo 2024 Melbourne (2024), CREATE EXCHANGE: Ngumpi, Redlands Art Gallery (2023); ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, is an alagāʻupu, Tarrawarra Biennale 2023; Naadohbii: To Draw Water at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (2022, Canada); BunjilakaAboriginal Cultural Centre, Melbourne Museum (2022-23); and Pātaka Art + Museum (2023, New Zealand); the Busan Biennale (2022); Undertow at the Fremantle Arts Centre; Primavera 2021 (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney) and Tarnanthi (Art Gallery of South Australia 2020).
Elisa’s public artworks include the Woolloongabba train station as part of the Cross River Rail Station Art Program (2024), Ozcare Newstead, QLD (2023) Strings of Waterholes, Herston Quarter, Brisbane QLD (2022), Maitland Regional Council, Newcastle NSW (2022) and Water is Life (2021) at South Bank Parklands, Brisbane, QLD. Elisa’s works are held in private and public collections across Australia, including The British Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia), Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia, University of Queensland Art Museum, Griffith University Art Museum, QUT Art Museum, Queensland Museum, and Bendigo Art Gallery.
