Mirka Mora
Mirka Mora is one of Melbourne's most revered and treasured artists. Mirka and Georges Mora immigrated from France in 1951. They made an indelible and everlasting impact on Melbourne's cultural fabric.
Mirka and Georges introduced their European-style dining to 1950s Melbourne, opening The Mirka Café in Exhibition Street, The Balzac in East Melbourne (the first restaurant to receive a 10pm liquor license) and finally The Tolarno French Bistro in St. Kilda in 1967.
Close to John and Sunday Reed, Charles and Barbara Blackman, Barrett Reid, John and Mary Perceval (later to become Lady Nolan), Lawrence Hope, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker, Mirka and Georges were instrumental in the re-establishment of the Contemporary Art Society in 1953, in Melbourne.
Mirka's passion to create continued and thrived on her arrival in Australia—her work celebrates humanity, life, love and the eternal wonder of the imagination. Mirka's public artworks have become part of the city. They include the Flinders Street Station mural and St.Kilda pier. Mirka was also the first artist to paint an Art Tram in 1978.
Mirka's seventy years of making art have produced an extensive array of works using unique techniques—drawing, painting, embroidery, soft sculpture, mosaics and doll making. Her distinct and outstanding imagery has emerged from her passion for reading, her love of classical Greek mythology, her desire to reclaim and make sense of her childhood and ultimately her unwavering belief in the strength of humanity to unite us all.
Mirka wrote an autobiography, Wicked But Virtuous, published by Penguin in 2000. A second book was to come: Love and Clutter, published by Penguin in 2003.
Mirka has had around 80 Solo Exhibitions since 1956, including major exhibitions at Heide Museum of Modern Art.
Mirka died on the 27th August 2018. She was honoured with a State Memorial, attended by over 1200 people at her beloved Palais de Danse in St.Kilda, where it was clear that her "joie de vivre" captured the hearts of all the people who attended. It is significant to note that Mirka is the first female artist to receive a State Memorial.
Awards/Exhibitions
Mirka has had around thirty-five solo exhibitions since 1956, including a retrospective exhibition of fifty years of her work at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 1999-2000. She was made Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2002.
Selected collections and commissions
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; Ararat Regional Gallery; Myer Collection; Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne; National Australia Bank, Melbourne; Council for Adult Education, Melbourne; Federation Tapestry, Melbourne Museum; St Kilda Pier Entrance Pavilion; Bennelong, National Theatre Trust, Sydney; Cosmos Bookshop, Melbourne; Flinders Street Station, Melbourne; Adelaide Festival Centre; Perth Festival; Ayr Community Library, Queensland; Burdekin Library and Theatre, Sydney; Balzac Restaurant, Melbourne; Tolarno Restaurant, Melbourne; The Bacchae and Medea, Playbox Theatre, Melbourne; Painted Tram, Victorian Ministry of the Arts, Melbourne; Christmas stamp designs, Australia Post; numerous private collections in Australia and overseas.
