Lillian Morrissey(*1986 Australia) is a textile and mixed media artist, arts educator, curator and community organiser with a background in political science and journalism, currently based across Berlin and Sydney (Gadigal). She holds a BA of International Politics from USYD (2009) and a BA of Fine Arts (Major in Painting) from NAS Sydney (2015). She is an alumna of the Goldrausch KünstlerinnenProjekt (2023), a finalist in the Haus am Kleistpark Kunstpreise (2024), and a recipient of the Berlin Recherchestipendium Bildende Kunst (2025). Lillian has exhibited in diverse group and solo shows in commercial galleries, state institutions and project spaces across Australia, Germany and internationally, in addition to co-curating several exhibition projects including ‘The Desire For Being Many’ (2025), which was awarded funding from the Berlin Senate and held in partnership with the Gunda-Werner-Institut and Missy Magazine. Alongside her material-based solo artistic practice, Lillian Morrissey maintains a socially engaged and collectively oriented practice grounded in community organising, shaped by a commitment to solidarity and mutual support. Since 2012, she has founded and co-directed three artist-run initiatives; Join the Dots (Sydney/Gadigal, 2012–17), Adalberstrasse 9 (Berlin, 2018–23), and Angular Studios (Berlin, 2023–present); has hosted and facilitated numerous events including a FLINTA* Monthly Support Circle (2021-2023); and regularly teaches workshops in collaboration with community and partner organisations.

Trained formally in painting, Lillian Morrissey has, since 2022, worked primarily with drawing and textiles to make large-scale embroidered and painted tapestries. Using this historically feminised medium, she portrays cartoonish and often subversive theatrical scenes featuring a cast of fictional characters, real personalities, and mythological archetypes from diverse historical epochs and cultural references. Coming from a background in political studies, subject matter is often satirically or politically charged as well as shaped by lived experience. 

Drawing from imagery sourced from a mix of Google Images, pop culture and art historical texts, her layered compositions fundamentally reflect an ongoing investigation into visual culture, images, propaganda and the ‘outdated’ hand-crafting of materials into images, in an algorithmically driven AI internet era. Nostalgia, power, gender and the repetition of cultural archetypes are common themes across the works. Her Heroes series (2020–2024), for example, responded to the manosphere’s influence on political discourse and the aesthetic 'Heroic' archetypes of conspiracy-driven far right movements. 

Lillian’s material approach draws on medieval European narrative tapestries like the Bayeux Tapestry and women’s folk embroidery traditions. Morrissey brush-dyes panama cotton fabric with designs drawn from a mix of resources such as flags, illuminated manuscripts, and art historical references, before adding figures and ornamentation through a combination of hand and pistol embroidery techniques. She calls these works hybrid-paintings, using thread and dye in place of paint; this positioning acts as both an expanded personal take on the question of what constitutes painting, and a feminist critique of the historical exclusion of textile practices from the canon.

Lillian's current works cover a range of topics, from new-age internet trends to the politics of reproduction. Her new body of work currently in progress, Neomediaeval Fetish, examines contemporary political discourse through the lens of the fantasy genre and medievalism. Drawing from the design and ornamentation of medieval illuminated manuscripts, the works playfully combine references to pop culture with political caricatures and art historical imagery. 

Education

2012-2015 BA of Fine Arts (Major in Painting), National Art School, Sydney
2005-2009 BA of International Politics (Major in Political Economy), University of Sydney

Recent Exhibitions

2025 Oct - Dec, The Desire for Being Many, (Group Show), Alpha Nova Galerie Futura, Berlin
2025 August - Oct, The Audacity (Solo Show) Galerie Parterre, Berlin
2025 Feb - March, Broligarchy (Solo Show) Ordinance Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2024 Analysis of Anger (Group Show) ZfK Kunstverein, Werkschauhalle, Leipzig
2024 Be Here Now (HaK Kunstpreise 2024 Finalist Exhibition) Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
2024 Habitat (Group Show), Stadtwerkstatt Friedrichshain Kreuzberg, Berlin
2024 Hostile Imaginary (Group Show), gr_und, Berlin

2023 Clams and Daggers (Duo Show), Galerie Russi Klenner, Berlin
2023 On the Edge Of (Goldrausch Group Show), Galerie Weisse Elefant, Berlin
2023 Speculative Properties (Group Show), Adalbertstr. 9, Berlin

2022 New Works (Solo Show), Adalbertstr. 9, Berlin
2022 JTD 10 Years (Group Show), Swamp Gallery, Sydney

2020 Open Studio (Group Show), Adalbertstr. 9, Berlin

2019 Illuminated Geometry (Solo Show), Hue Salon, Berlin
2019 Psychogeographic (Group Show), Fine Art Complex, Tempe, Arizona
2019 Alptraum (Group Show), La Estacion Gallery, Chihuahua, Mexico

2018 Stillborn (Group Show), Flutgraben, Berlin
2018 Deep Maps (Group Show), Dadapost, Berlin

2017 Everywhere/Nowhere (Group Show), SOMA Gallery, Melbourne
2017 QLD Contemporary Art Awards (Group Show), Online
2017 40 x 40 Prize (Group Show), Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne

2016 Contrary (Group Show), Swamp Gallery, Sydney
2016 Experimental Line (Group Show), Nest Gallery, Sydney

2015 NAS Graduate Show (Group Show), NAS Gallery, Sydney
2015 SPANK (Group Show), Factory 49 Gallery, Sydney

Grants, Prizes and Residencies

2025, Grant Recipient, Berlin Senate Projektförderung, project funding awarded for ‘The Desire for Being Many’, Berlin
2025, Stipend Recipient, Berlin Senat Recherchestipendien Bildende Kunst (Berlin Senate Artist Research Stipendium), Berlin

2024, Finalist, Haus am Kleistpark Kunstpreise, Kommunale Galerie Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
2024, Artist in Residence, Culterim, Biesenthal Residency Program, Brandenburg

2023, Scholarship Recipient, Goldrausch Künstlerinnen Programme, Jury-Selected Artist Scholarship, Berlin
2021, Artist in Residence, Greywood Arts, County Cork, Ireland

2019, Artist in Residence, Real Art Estate, Fehrbellin, Brandenburg

2017, Second Prize, Queensland Contemporary Art Award, QLD, Australia
2017, Finalist, 40 x 40 Art Prize, Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne

2016, Artist in Residence, Big Ci, Bilpin, NSW
2015, Artist in Residence, Bundeena Bannisters, Bundeena, NSW
2015, Recipient, Marrickville Arts and Cultural Project Grant, Marrickville Council, Sydney