Madeleine Collie curates public moments, exhibitions and exchanges, with a commitment to curatorial encounters in the public realm. Her recent research explores the social worlds that emerge in relations with plants.
Madeleine initiated the international Food Art Research Network in 2020 with support from Arts Council England. She continues to nurture the network as a platform for expanded research in which artists trace connections between ecosystem change and broader social, historical and political forces. With recently awarded Creative Australia funding and support from Bioart Society and Serpentine Ecologies she established a multi-year research correspondence Follow the Plants, in a dialogue with curator Yvonne Billimore and eighteen artists which explores how plants make worlds. With FAR she has co-hosted curatorial exchanges in India, Mexico, Italy, Greece, Spain and is collaborating with curator Bianca Winataputri to develop an ongoing enquiry Seaweed Stories, throughout Southeast Asia. Madeleine has published widely on art, performance, and public space. She is co-editor of an upcoming reader on ecological cultural practices with Mel Ratliff, Megan Cope and Charlotte Day to be published by Monash University Press.
Previously she led The Ash Project (2016-2019) a transdisciplinary public art collaboration to memorialise the death of a species of tree, with Kent Downs, Whitstable Biennale, Forest Research and Turner Contemporary. Other exhibitions include only ever almost there at Royal Pump House Museum and Gallery (2018), Daylighting, Welcome Collection, (2018), The Ash Archive, galleries across regional UK (2017-18), Exercises in Happiness at Arts House & Melbourne International Art Festival, Melbourne, Substation Gallery Singapore, Priory Meadows, UK, (2006-08), Strangers and Intimacy at Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, and West Space, Melbourne (2004-5). She has produced expanded curatorial projects with Liquid Architecture & CAST (Aus), Whitworth Museum, Common Ground, Custom Food Lab, Centre for Biocultural Diversity, Live Art Development Agency (UK), Connexiones Improbables (Spain), Anti Festival (Finland), and South Projects (Indonesia). She is part of the international curatorial collective Study Pattern, she cofounded Custom Food Lab (2018-21), Panther (2004-10), and Mimic Mass with Nigel Brown (2002-08).
She is undertaking a PhD in Curatorial Practice at Monash University where she works as a Guest Lecturer and Teaching Associate in Curating Practices and Art History. She regularly lectures, mentors and leads workshops on contemporary art, politics and curatorial practice in international contexts. Madeleine is currently living and working between the unceded lands of the Kulin Nations in Melbourne, and Folkestone in the UK.
