Australian-based photographic digital artist, Charmaine Hardy (b.1974, Melbourne, Australia), uses her work to respond to issues pertinent in the media, popular culture, and in the way we experience the world. Ironic, facetious, and sometimes confronting, these images can be appreciated both for their surface of playful exuberance, and for the sagacious social critique.
Working mostly in series, Charmaine drew much of her inspiration from growing up in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne with themes that explored some of the conflicts, disappointments and inequalities lurking beneath the veneer of everyday life. Her work also investigates concepts relating to domesticity, gender roles, social rituals, home ownership, alientation in work, home and family enivronment and the frustations felt by individuals by the demands of contemporary living. Charmaine Hardy’s earliest influences include, Andy Warhol, Howard Arkley, David LaChapelle and Cindy Sherman.
Charmaine Hardy received her Bachelor of Graphic Design from Swinburne University in 1997. Hardy has an extensive exhibition history both in Victoria and interstate. She has participated in numerous group shows such as, Monash Gallery of Art (Charmaine Hardy, 2016, 2004) “Light sensitive, Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgan fund (Hardy & Strong) at the National Gallery of Victoria (2006-2007) and Tarrawarra Museum of art (Charmaine Hardy, 2004). Her work is held in both private and public collections such as Monash Gallery of Art and the National Gallery of Victoria.
In 2017, Hardy completed her Masters of Art Therapy at Latrobe University. She resides in regional Victoria.