Meagan Streader's work pushes the limits of light within sculpture and installation. Streader manipulates, reinterprets and extends upon the boundaries of constructed spaces. Her site-specific interventions and multidimensional use of light re-orientates the viewer's relationship to the pre-existing architecture and scale of a given space. In this way, Streader reveals the pervasive role of light in governing physical and social navigations of fabricated spaces.
Through phenomenological investigations, Streader explores past, present and future possibilities within her contemporary practice. She examines the emotional and social resonance of architecture and design to reveal how light, history and time converge to shape human experience. By altering perception, her work offers alternative ways of understanding our spatial relationships, inviting viewers to consider light as a fundamental element in constructing meaning, memory, and embodied experience within the environments we inhabit.
Streader has exhibited both nationally and internationally in major exhibitions for the National Gallery of Victoria: Australia (Melbourne Now, 2023), Carriageworks (Sydney Contemporary, 2023), Melbourne Design Week (2023, 2024), HOTA (2019), Dark Mofo (2019) and Amsterdam Light Festival (2015). Her solo exhibitions include presentations at MARS (Victoria), Conners Conners (Victoria), Stockroom Kyneton (Victoria) and Metro Arts Gallery (QLD). Local and international residencies include the NARS International Residency in New York City (2016), Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery Artist Residency (2020-2022), and Underbelly Arts Festival at Cockatoo Island, Sydney (2013). She has had large-scale public artworks commissioned across Australia for HOME (2024), Chadstone Art Collection (2025), Glen Huntly Station (2023) and Adderton House of Mercy (2019). Her work is featured on the cover and published in the book 'Women Light Artists: Collected Light Volume Two' (2025).
Recently, Streader was awarded an ISS Institute and George Alexander Foundation Fellowship (2025), and a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, winning The Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship through the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2026).
Additionally, she has had public works commissioned for Box Hill, (Melbourne), Maribyrnong Council, (Melbourne), HASSELL Architecture (Brisbane), Gadens Lawyers (Brisbane), Gold Coast University Hospital (QLD), and Gasworks Plaza (QLD).
Solo Exhibitions
– A Residual Pulse, Substation, 2026
– To throw a shadow: Conners Conners Argyle Street, Melbourne + The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre, Mount Gambier, 2023
– This space of vibration: MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2022
– Quiet moments over small horizons: The Wandering Room, Melbourne, 2021
– A window is a square horizon: MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2021
– Silent Structures: MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2019
– Spatial Situations: Milani CARPARK, Brisbane, 2019
– Fold in time: DAVID, Melbourne, 2018
– An end to approachable space: Stockroom, Kyneton, 2018
– The Weight of Light: Spring Hill Reservoirs, Brisbane, 2017
– U-Bend Pillar: Nicholas Projects, Melbourne, 2017
– W-inter: Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane, 2016
– Fluoro Coir: Pepperhouse Studios, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India, 2014
– In Universes: Crucible Gallery, BCM, Brisbane. Curated by Melinda Gagen, 2014
– Spawn: LEVEL Ari, Newstead, Brisbane. Curated by Hilary Perrett, 2011
Selected Exhibitions
– Atmospheres, AM Collective, NYC, USA, 2025
– House Show, Robin Boyd Foundation, Melbourne, VIC. 2025
– Light Now, MARS Gallery, VIC, 2024
– Squiggles and Cubes, Melbourne Design Week, 2024
– Low Stakes, Goolugatup Heathcote, WA, 2024
– Light Now, MARS, Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, 2023
– Light Sensitive, Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara Arts, Melbourne, VIC, 2023
– Three towers and a falling window: Melbourne Design Fair, with MARS Gallery, VIC, 2023
– The Silo Project: Melbourne Design Week, Burnley VIC, 2023
– Ohm – Night Feast: Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, 2023
– Alter: Divisions Gallery, Pentridge Melbourne. Curated by Charlotte Watson, 2022
– Four x Four @ McClelland: McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin VIC, 2021
– Light & Dark: MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2021
– Spring1883: MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2021
– Spring1883: The Establishment, Sydney, 2019
– Shit That I Like: Nicholas Projects, Programmed by Benjamin Aitken, Lennox Street, Melbourne, 2019
– Parallelism: GLOW, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Surfers Paradise, 2019
– Slow Rinse: A Forest, Dark Mofo, Hobart, 2019
– Spectral: Arts House, Melbourne, 2019
– Subliming: Testing Grounds, with Lichen Kelp and David Mutch, Melbourne, 2018
– Soft Centre: Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, 2018
– Fringe Furniture, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, 2018
– Force Fields, Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial (KCAT), Stockroom, Kyneton, 2018
Selected Awards
– The Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship, 2025
– McClelland Maquette Sculpture Award (finalist), VIC, 2025
– Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award (finalist), VIC, 2025
– Omnia Art Prize (finalist), VIC, 2025
– Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art (finalist), VIC, 2025
– Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award (finalist), VIC, 2024
– Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (finalist), Gordon, NSW, 2024
– Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (finalist), Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2024
– Wyndham Art Prize (finalist), Wyndham Cultural Centre, 2023
– notfair Art Fair (Highly Commended), Melbourne, 2017
– Footscray Art Prize (finalist), Footscray Community Arts Centre, 2017
– Churchie National Emerging Art Prize (finalist), QUT Art Museum, 2016
Residencies
– The Cité Internationale des Arts, January – March 2026
– Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery Artist in Residence Program, 2020-2022
– Neon bending intensive with Emma-Kate Hart, Canberra Glassworks, March, 2021
– Testing Grounds, Melbourne, November, 2018
– NARS International Residency Program, New York. July - September, 2016
– Kochi Artist in Residence, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India. June-July, 2024