Barbara Cleveland is an Australian artist collective directed by Diana Baker Smith, Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, and Kelly Doley, working on Gadigal land (Sydney). Previously working under the title of Brown Council, the collective transitioned to Barbara Cleveland in 2016. Taking their name from the mythic feminist performance artist (Barbara Cleveland) – who they recovered from the margins of Australian art history – and has been a key feature in their work since 2010.
Barbara Cleveland’s projects are informed by queer and feminist methodologies that draw on the historical lineages of both the visual and performing arts. Their recent video and performance works are deliberations on history and memory as embodied action, as fiction, as mode of collaboration.
Barbara Cleveland’s projects have been presented at Hayward Gallery (London), 20th Biennale of Sydney, 2018 Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and Artspace (Sydney), The Physics Room (Christchurch), Australian Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide), Performance Space (Sydney), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul) and Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne).
Their works are held in the collections of Artbank, Museum of Contemporary Art, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Monash University Museum of Art, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art and the Art Gallery of NSW.
