Vivian Messimeris

Vivian Messimeris is an Australian printmaker who predominantly works using a photographic silkscreen printing technique. She is a Sydney based artist who has had her work exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne and a range of regional galleries throughout Australia.

She studied printmaking at RMIT University, Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts followed by an Honours degree in Fine Arts from Monash University, where she majored in print-media.

She has participated in a range of solo and group exhibitions in both Victoria and New South Wales, and her work has been selected for a number of exhibitions and prizes including the Swan Hill Print and Drawing Prize, the Fisher’s Ghost Prize, the Stencil Art Prize and the Blacktown City Art Prize. She has won several art prizes including the Auburn Art Prize (2006) and the printmaking and drawing category of the Liverpool Arts Society Annual Exhibition held at the Casula Powerhouse (2015, 2019, 2022) as well as the Werriwa Art Prize in 2020.

Click on any of the artworks to view larger images

Images, left to right: Women of Kobane #13, Women of Kobane #15

Over the years she has explored a number of issues including how we perceive and construct images of war and conflict. Her work has a bold graphic, street-art style that harnesses the history of art as a vehicle for propaganda and protest.

Images, left to right: Just passing through, A Degree of Difference – Regent Honeyeater

At present, she is exploring issues of animal extinction, with an emphasis on Australian native birds. She was especially moved by the 2019 UN report predicting that one million animals will become extinct this century – a direct result of human induced global warming.