MPavilion open until 24 April 2022

Siro Cavaiuolo

Siro Cavaiuolo is a lens-based visual artist. Pulling from memory, incidental events, and domestic objects, Siro precariously constructs images, text and sculptural forms. In his work, Siro manipulates vulnerability and ambiguity, manifesting mixed feelings; about expanded narrative, familial heritage and the need to end every list of three with a punchline. Siro in his final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) (Photography) at the University of Melbourne.

Lily Di Sciascio

Lily is interested in the intersections of design, culture, politics and marginality. Based in Naarm / Melbourne, she has studied anthropology and politics and is excited by the potential of multidisciplinary perspectives within the design space. She hopes to undertake a Master of Architecture or Urban Planning in the near future to develop a meaningful ethic of practice. Beyond aesthetics, economics, and bureaucracy, there are people and place. For Lily, design is an act of and response to culture, and an avenue through which we may work together to imagine and tangibly work towards new ways of existing in place. This ethos has guided Lily in her contributions to design communities, from being the Head Designer of the UniMelb Environmental Student Club’s zine ABLAZE or volunteering with the Melbourne Art Library. Through M_Curators, she hopes to facilitate community engagement through meaningful discussions about and contributions to the built environment.

Ali Dib

Ali Dib has long held an ambition to follow a career in design and architecture. After completing his VCE studies in 2021, he is excited to pursue his dream in becoming an architect, where he will begin his journey studying Master of Architecture in early 2022. His interest has evolved over the years, with working alongside an architect, and being award an art scholarship, which furthered his ability to transform areas into a new and contemporary space. Ali’s ambition is to travel and broaden his knowledge, views and understanding of different architecture around the world. Ali has the maturity, drive and passion to be an excellent architect for our future.

Michelle Guo

Michelle Guo (she/her) is an emerging fashion/art curator, writer and historian. She has a BA (Hons) majoring in Art History and Sociology from University of Melbourne. Her Honour’s thesis critiqued the rise of fashion exhibitions in museum spaces. Michelle uses an interdisciplinary approach in her practice, combining research from across arts and humanities to examine how our relationships to visual culture inform how we interact with it on a personal and systemic level. She is interested in interactions and intersections of art and fashion with high/low culture more broadly. Her work has been published in Memo Review, Verve Zine, Fashion Forward Zine and Fashion and Race Database.

Angela Qin

Angela is interested in using scientific understanding to improve the liveability and sustainability of cities, and to ensure that they continue to keep pace with the ever-changing environment. Drawing on her multidisciplinary background in chemistry, art history, and Chinese studies, Angela seeks to fortify the coalescence between science and art and to use art as a vehicle for the greater accessibility of science to nonexperts. This ties in with Angela’s belief that knowledge production and dissemination should strive to be a more inclusive and collective effort. She hopes that communities both within and independent of university institutions can be engaged in the creation of new knowledge, and inform decision-making. With these factors in mind, Angela aims to curate events for the 2021 season that facilitate discourse on the intersection of art, design, and science, as well as the political, social, and environmental dimensions of design.

Juan Rodriguez Sandoval

Juan Rodriguez Sandoval is a Guatemalan-born, Australian interdisciplinary artist, working and based in Gunai Kurnai Country (South East Gippsland), Australia. His work and practice create fictional manifestations coinciding within and echoing the bygone place and era that has become historically and geographically distant. To create a mythos and lore that explores timeworn ecologies, ways of being, and how these passages and precincts should be practiced and preserved. With an emphasis and interest in the aesthetics of scientific language and methods of documentation, Rodriguez’s practice is informed and molded by bridging environmental sciences such as; forestry, archaeology, topography, geology, geography, ecology, and fine art. He works with an array of earthly, found, recycled/upcycled- materials and contemporary technologies. His work aims to bring a consensus and a studious experience to further remind the spectator about ecological awareness, culture, and sustainable approaches to art-making.

Niyanta Sharma

Niyanta Sharma is a multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm / Melbourne currently undertaking her Masters of Architecture. Her practice considers and deconstructs architectural conceptions of space, and reimagines the ways a dweller may occupy and interact with a form. Niyanta draws on personal notions of diaspora and home, creating playful structures that blur the line between the sculptural and functional.

Emma Shaw

Emma is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and visual culture enthusiast living and working in Wurundjeri country in Naarm/Melbourne. She recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Languages, majoring in art history and Italian. She has since moved on to tackling a Master of Art Curatorship and serves devotedly as the President of the University of Melbourne’s Arts Managers Society. Recently, her practice has grown intrigued by how technology mediates our experiences and has infiltrated our language – ‘doing it for the ‘gram,” anyone? She yearns to create experiences through art that engage with the almost obligatory performativity that living has become, questioning the ways we document our lives and the reasons we do. She would also like to acknowledge her 10-year-old Cavoodle, Micky, who acts as an exceptionally supportive sounding board for all her work.

Woodrow Shmith

I’m an architecture student with a keen interest in design history, urban design, and public space. I feel strongly about the need for engaging public space which promotes self-reflection and learning. I am fascinated by cross-disciplinary collaboration in design, and the added value these processes can offer in generating good public space. The M_Curators program is such a wonderful opportunity to learn about the procedures and thinking behind successful public cultural events and urban interventions. Aside from architecture, I like to spend my time going to gigs, drawing, and making things with my hands.

Louise Villar

Louise Villar an emerging artist, arts worker, and multi-hyphenate creative based in Naarm / Melbourne with a BA degree in Art History and Philosophy.

Her fine art practice focuses on intimacy, vulnerability and identity. In her paintings, she explores innocuous parts of daily life that illuminate the human experience. In Louise’s career as an arts worker, she aims to work with artists and create programming that makes the fine arts more accessible to those outside of the art world elite.

Currently, Louise is taking part in the SIGNAL curators program run by the city of Melbourne, producing upcoming music videos for local musicians, and teaching classes at a local art studio. In collaboration with a local filmmaker, Louise is also developing a creative arts network and community that aims to connect and support local creatives based in Naarm / Melbourne by giving them a platform to collaborate, exchange ideas, and showcase their work.