Born Poland, 1969
Marzena Topka studied art history at the University of Western Australia, graduating with a BA (Fine Art) (1st class honours) in 1992. She also completed an Advanced Diploma at the WA School of Art, Design and Media at Central TAFE in 2003; a BA (Art) (1st class honours) in 2005 and a Master of Creative Arts at Curtin University in 2011. She currently works as an Associate Lecturer, Art OUA Studies, in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University.
Topka had five solo exhibitions, including Boundaries of Beige, at Fremantle Arts Centre in 2014. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Here & Now19 at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and, more recently, Resurface: Gothic Tales from the Indian Ocean as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, IOTA24 at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. Her work is held in numerous private collections, including the Horn Collection.
She was awarded a prize for innovation from Central TAFE and, in 2004, was selected for the Hatched National Graduate Exhibition showcasing new art from Australia’s graduates. In 2009, she was awarded a Galerie Düsseldorf Scholarship. In 2006 and 2012, she received funding for exhibition development from the Department of the Culture and the Arts. She was an artist in residence at the Fremantle Arts Centre (2014) and a recipient of the ArtSource Artist Studio Residency, East Perth (2008-2019). In 2019, she gave a presentation at the Social Fabric Symposium at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.
Topka works across various media, including sculpture, textiles and film, drawing inspiration from the irrationality of systems and their fallibility.