ABOUT REBECCA
Curriculum Vitae
Born in Bentleigh East, Australia, in 1977, Rebecca Ross is a contemporary artist based on the Gold Coast, where she has lived since 2011. She studied at Queensland University of Technology between 1996–1998 and 2003–2005. Ross creates complex collages exploring personal, local and geopolitical narratives through what she describes as “exercises in mapping.” Her multidisciplinary practice incorporates found maps, images and video, transforming these materials into meditative compositions ranging from text-based works to expansive video installations. Her work investigates the relationships between the personal, local and geopolitical and the ways information can be concealed or revealed through visual representation.
Ross is particularly recognised for her map collages, which explore stealth technology through analogue processes and techniques such as steganography, revealing layered meanings within seemingly familiar imagery. Aerial perspectives are central to her practice, connecting earth, sky and water and reflecting formative experiences of aviation with her pilot parents. In 2024, HOTA Gallery commissioned her series Formations and Earth-Sky Connections, examining climatic and military tensions within the littoral zones of the Coral Sea, including the stealth capabilities of the F-35A fighter jet. Her work has featured in exhibitions including Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscapes at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C.; In the World at the British School at Rome; Strange Weather at University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery; Turrbal-Jaggera at the University of Queensland; TEXT at Queensland University of Technology; and Festival 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Her works are held in the collections of Artbank, HOTA Gallery, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Gold Coast University Hospital and Mater Private Hospital. Public art commissions include the Northern Busway Tunnel and Robina Health Precinct.
Ross received the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists’ Fellowship in 2004 and an International Women’s Day Leadership Award for Creative Arts in 2020. In 2012, she was awarded the Rome Studio at the British School at Rome by the Australia Council for the Arts to research the Galleria delle carte geografiche (Gallery of Maps) in Vatican City. She has undertaken funded site-based research and residencies in Malta, Italy, the United States and New Zealand. From 2013 to 2021, Ross founded and directed The Walls Art Space in Miami, Australia, a nationally recognised artist-run space. She is also one half of 2PP (Two Party Preferred), a curatorial collaboration with Bradley Vincent.