Museum of Copulatory Organs

source: mariafernandacardoso
Maria Fernanda Cardoso is an international artist, born in Colombia, currently living in Sydney, Australia. Graduating from Yale University with a Masters degree in Sculpture and Installation in 1990, she is well known for her unconventional use of materials and the use of animals as inspiration. Cardoso exhibits widely in major museums and galleries in the US, Latin America, Australia and Europe.
In 2003 she had a major solo show “Zoomorphia” at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and a mid-career survey at BLLA, the leading contemporary art museum in Bogota, Colombia. In 2000, the Museum of Modern Art in New York commissioned her to make a major installation for their millennium show, “Modern Starts”. Here she installed 36,000 plastic lilies in a 125 foot long wall — which subsequently toured to the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, Miami Art Museum, and the Walker Art Center. In 2003 she represented Colombia at the Venice Biennale, exhibiting a large installation of starfish woven together into a submarine landscape titled Woven Water. Other projects include shows at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, PS1, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Fundacion La Caixa in Barcelona, the DAROS Foundation in Zurich and the Centro Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Her most re-known project, the Cardoso Flea Circus, was recently acquired by the Tate Gallery in London as part of its permanent collection. The Circus has been widely exhibited in festivals and museums around the world, and was performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney Festival 2000, where it was a smash hit. Other collections include the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Miami Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Daros Collection, BLLA and Mambo Collections in Bogota, National Art Gallery, Canberra and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, among others. Cardoso has been a visiting artist and professor at the California Institute for the Arts in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota. GRANTPIRRIE Gallery and ARC ONE Gallery represent her in Sydney and Melbourne.
Cardoso has been a recipient of an Australia Council New Work Grant in 2002, a First Prize in the Gold Coast Art Gallery Jupiter’s Art Award in 2003. First Prize at the II Bogota Bienalle in 1990, tuition Scholarship from Yale University in 1989-1990, and a Colombia Government Scholarship to study abroad from 1987-1989 In 2003 Cardoso represented Colombia to the 52th Venice Biennale.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: nowcontemporaryart
MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO
Maria Fernanda Cardoso received a MFA in Sculpture from the prestigious Yale University, USA in 1990 and a B.A from the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia in 1985. Born in Colombia, Maria Fernanda has lived and worked in Sydney since 1998. In 1995 she was catapulted to worldwide fame with her project, the Cardoso Flea Circus when it was premiered at the San Francisco Exploratorium, an art and science institution in California. Her introduction to Australia was at the Sydney Festival, when she presented the Cardoso Flea Circus at the Sydney Opera House for a sold out season in 2000. The same year.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York commissioned her to make a major installation of 136,000 plastic flowers for their millennium show, Modern Starts: People, Things, Places. In 2003 Maria Fernanda represented Colombia at the Venice Biennale, exhibiting a large installation of starfish titled Woven Water, which are now part of the collection of the National Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Most recently her work with Emu feathers has earned her two prizes, one for her Fashion and Mimesis exhibition at Rodman Hall, Canada, and another for the exhibition Dead or Alive at the MAD Museum of Art and Design in New York. Over the last 25 years, she has exhibited in over 25 countries world wide in institutions as prestigious as NY Moma, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, PS1, New York, the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Fundacion La Caixa in Barcelona, the Centro Reina Sofia in Madrid. Selected collections include the Tate Gallery, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Miami Art Museum, BLLA Bogotá, Colombia; Museum of Modern Art, Bogotá Colombia; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; among many others. In Australia her works belong to the collections of Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the National Art Gallery, Canberra; Gold Coast Art Gallery; Tamworth Regional Art Gallery; and the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery. Maria Fernanda is also part of ARTNews top 100 private collections such as the Cisneros Collection, Caracas/New York, the Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection, Miami/Madrid, The Bruce and Diane Halle Collection Arizona, the Leonora and Jimmy Belilty Collection, Caracas/Paris, as well as the Daros Collection, Zurich/Rio de Janeiro.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: abcnetau

Her amazing work looks at the microscopic world of insect penises. It’s called The Museum of Copulatory Organs and it reveals that when it comes to insect penises, it’s not size that matters, but shape. The reproductive organs of insects come in all different shapes and are actually quite beautiful. Some look like intricate flowers, others like exotic coral. Most look as though they belong to the biology of some distant planet. Maria Fernanda Cardoso has made her fascination with the natural sciences the basis of her art for many years, with the help of her husband and artistic collaborator Ross Harley.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: xuku-vablogspot

Maria Fernanda Cardozo nace en Colombia 1963-vive en Australia-el encantamiento de la artista con todos los aspectos de la naturaleza. Su producción artística se ha caracterizado por el uso de materiales poco convencionales y por la ejecución meticulosa de sus obras la cual ponen en evidencia su fascinación con el mundo natural y la compleja relación del ser humano con éste. Moscas, lombrices, lagartijas, ranas, pulgas, mariposas, tusas de maíz, totumas, dulces de guayaba, huesos, corales y estrellas de mar, son algunos de los materiales previamente empleados por la artista como elementos formales con el fin de descontextualizarlos y darles un nuevo significado.