2012
Once more with love, Australia
Bilk Touring, Australia
mmmmm... Hong Kong, Australia

Plants, used as metaphors feature throughout Mason’s work to represent notions of life, death and a sense of place and belonging. Botanical motifs have a long history as subject matter used for depiction in jewellery and thus provide a rich source for reinterpretation and investigation.

Mason’s work combines textiles, flexible pedestrian plastics (remnants from the upholstery and stationery industries), textile processes and metal techniques to create a cross media/material discourse that works across traditional classifications of what jewellery and textiles should be. Mason sees plastic as a material of her age, and she chooses to combine precious and non-precious materials to test the limit of novel aesthetic concepts. 

Along with recontextualising traditional forms of jewellery and ornamental motifs from varied object histories (to generate new meanings and create new ornamental forms) Mason mixes them with the personal thereby inventing fictionalised works. In doing so she is contributing to the evolving use of decorative imagery within jewellery’s history.

Vicki Mason, Melbourne, Australia.


Education:
Graduate – ANU Gold + Silversmithing Workshop, School of Art, Australian National University
2007- 2011 Australian National University, Master of Philosophy (Research) Gold and Silversmithing, Canberra, ACT
2006 Box Hill Institute, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, Melbourne, Australia
1997 Be Your Own Boss Certificate, Management Advisory Services Ltd, Dunedin, New Zealand
1993 – 1995 Diploma in Craft Design (Jewellery), Otago Polytechnic School of Art, Dunedin, New Zealand
1988 – 1990 Bachelor of Arts (Classical Studies), University Of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
1986 – 1987 Diploma of Fine Arts, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand (completed two years) 

Collections:
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia | Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Griffith, NSW, Australia | Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia | Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UK | Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK | Absolut Vodka International Art Collection, Sweden | National and International private collections 

Grants/Awards:
2010 Arts Victoria, Artist in Schools, Melbourne Girls College, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Contemporary Wearables Biennial Jewellery Award and Exhibition, 2009 Award, First Prize, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, QLD
2006 National Contemporary Jewellery Award, First prize: Jewellery using non precious materials, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Griffith, NSW, Australia
2005 Australia Council for the Arts, Visual Arts and Craft Board, New work grant. 

Solo Exhibitions (selected):
2011 Botanical Fictions, e.g.etal, Melbourne, Australia
2007 Offshoot, JamFactory, Adelaide, Australia
2003 Pacific Specific, Quoil, Wellington, New Zealand
2002 Pacific Specific, Object Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2000 Flora, Form Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
1999 Mementoes from a Pacific Island, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France 

Group Exhibitions (selected): 
2012 Diamond Jubilee, School of Jewellery, Birmingham, UK (touring UK in 2012)
2011 VnX: Filigree to Flora, BILK, Canberra, Australia | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Artisan, Brisbane, Queensland | SOFA: New York & Chicago, represented by Charon Kransen Arts, USA
2010 Signs of Change, Form, Perth, Western Australia | Bravura, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia | Transmutations: Material Reborn, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, USA (touring 2010, America) | SOFA: New York & Chicago, represented by Charon Kransen Arts, USA
2009 Contemporary Wearables ’09, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia | Evoking Mystery, De Novo, Palo Alto, USA | SOFA: New York & Chicago, represented by Charon Kransen Arts, USA
2008 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial: Momentum, Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth, Australia (touring Australia 2008 – 2010) | SOFA: New York & Chicago, represented by Charon Kransen Arts, USA 

Profesional Experience (selected):
2011 TAFTA - The Australian Forum for Textile Arts, Forum conference workshop tutor, Geelong, Australia
2009 - ongoing Swinburne University of Technology, TAFE, Sessional tutor, Diploma Costume for Performance, Melbourne, Australia
2006 – 2007 Box Hill Institute, Box Hill Campus, Melbourne Australia, Sessional tutor Advanced Diploma in Technology - Jewellery
2003 Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
2002 – ongoing CAE, Melbourne, Australia, jewellery tutor, adult education programme

Commissions:
2006 Cultural Festival Melbourne Commonwealth Games, ‘Medalling: designed and decorated’, invited exhibitor. RMIT University Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2001 Absolut Vodka Commission, ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ International Advertising Campaign,

Curatorial Projects:
2004 North and South, Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK. Co-curated with gallery director Maureen Brampton | Cross-Pollination, Exhibition curated under the umbrella of the South Project, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Co-curated with Anna Davern

2011 Art of Jewelry Today 3, Jeffery B. Snyder, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, 2011 
2010 Craft Arts International, Softer Options, Issue 79, 2010, p 47 - 50 
2009 Saturated: Metal and Color, Exhibition in Print, Metalsmith, August issue, SNAG, USA |Handmade In Melbourne, Nancy Ianni et al, Geoff Slattery Publishing, 2009, Melbourne, Australia (contributing artist) |  500 Plastic Jewelry Designs, Lark Books, Altamont Press Inc, USA (contributing artist) | Off the wall - Australian Art Review, Issue 20, Aug – Oct 2009 p.20 | Momentum, the 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial 2008, review, Object, issue 58, 2009 p.56
2008The Age, 24 May, 2008, My Career - ‘Ring Cycle’ by Yvonne Nicolas

e.g.etal, Melbourne, Australia
Studio Ingot, Melbourne, Australia
JamFactory, Adelaide, Australia
Gallery Bilk, Canberra, Australia
Charon Kransen Arts, New York, USA
Quoil, New Zealand