Sera Waters

Sera Waters was born in Murray Bridge, South Australia, in 1979.^[1]

She received a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) from the University of South Australia in 2000.^[2] In 2005 she was awarded the Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts, and used it to undertake study at the Royal School of Needlework in the UK.^[3][2]

She then went on to earn a Masters of Visual Arts from the University of Adelaide in 2006,^[2] and later (2018)^[2] a PhD from the University of South Australia^[4][5]

Waters specialises in textile arts and techniques, such as embroidery. Waters’ blackwork is considered her signature technique.^[6] In her PhD thesis, she used textile arts to explore family genealogy.^[7][8] Her works have been described as deeply conceptual,^[9] witty,^[10] and using humble needlework to encompass worlds of concern.^[11] As well as examining the colonial experience through her art, she is concerned with practicing art on Aboriginal land and the impact of colonisation.^[12] She is also interested in textiles arts embodying labour and time.^[13][14]

As of 2024^[update] Waters lectures in art history at Adelaide Central School of Art.^[15]

• 2006: Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts^[2]
• 2016: Heysen Prize for Landscape, Hahndorf Academy^[16]
• 2018: Hill Smith Gallery / University of South Australia Postgraduate Award, Helpmann Academy^[17]
• 2019: Finalist, Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia^[18]
• 2020: Guildhouse Fellowship, from the Art Gallery of South Australia^[2]

• Art Gallery of South Australia^[19]
• Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, University of Western Australia^[20]

By Waters

• Lawrence, Kay, Waters, Sera, & Belfrage, Clare. 2018, Clare Belfrage : rhythms of necessity, Wakefield Press, Mile End, South Australia. Worldcat record
• Waters, Sera Jaye. 2006. Invoking disaster : visions of the monstrous and catastrophic in Japanese visual culture from the Edo and postwar periods. Thesis. University of Adelaide.
• Waters, Sera. 2007. Valuing relationships: Concertina. Artlink, Vol. 27, No. 4, 39-41
• Waters, Sera. 2012. Repetitive crafting: The shared aesthetic of time in Australian contemporary art. craft+design enquiry, 4, 69-87.
• Waters, Sera. 2015. Inside the Outback: An Exploration of Domesticated Landscapes in Semco’s Long Stitch Originals Series of the 1980s. craft+design enquiry, 7, (2015): 27-48.
• Waters, Sera. 2015. Knotted Lines: Entangling genealogical methodology with practice-led research. ACUADS 2015 Annual Conference. Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools.
• Waters, Sera. 2018. Genealogical ghostscapes : unsettling settler colonial home-making legacies in South Australia. Thesis Archived 3 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine. University of South Australia.
• Waters, Sera. 2020. Crafty prepping. Artlink, Vol. 40, No. 1, Mar 2020: 20-27.

About Waters

• Adams, Jude. Three artists - in the world: Anne Kay, Irmina van Niele, Sera Waters. Artlink, Vol. 29, No. 2, Jun 2009: 89.
• Clarke, K. 2016. Willful knitting? Contemporary Australian craftivism and feminist histories^{[dead link]}. Continuum, 30(3), 298-306.
• Coleman, Sheridan. Dark Portals: Sera Waters. Art Monthly Australia, no.264, Oct 2013: 39-42.
• Hart, Sheridan. 2018. Sera Waters unpicks the long stitches of Australian history. Art Guide Australia.
• Kelly, Miriam. 2017. Sera Waters: Domestic arts. Artlink, 37(4), 48–55.

Exhibition catalogues

• Capone, Jacobus & Thwaites, Vivonne & Garnaut, Christine & Collins, Julie & Fazakerley, Ruth, 1965- et al. (2012). Build me a city : an exploration of the archives of the Architecture Museum, UniSA by seven artists^{[dead link]}. Architecture Museum and Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, S. Aust.
• Purvis, Andrew. 2020. "Drastic Fabric Archived 26 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine". Adelaide Central School of Art.
• Waters, Sera, Nowell, Liz, & Kelly, Miriam. 2017. Sera Waters: Domestic arts. ACE Open. Worldcat record