Image: Monika Morgenstern, I Dwell in Possibility, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery 2023, photograph Sam Roberts.
JPE Artist in Residence: Monika Morgenstern
1 November 2025 – 30 April 2026
The JPE Artist in Residence program in partnership with JPE Design Studio is a residency opportunity that sees two artists a year in a creative exchange within the JPE studios, culminating in a work or installation presented during SALA and Fringe.
JPE has been a place where emerging artists can exhibit, engage with studio culture and have an impact on design thinking since 2013. The JPE Art in Residence program marks a new chapter of creative exchange in collaboration with Guildhouse.
Currently in residence at JPE Design Studios, a series of Monika’s existing works is on display in the studios – see floor sheet for details.
Photograph Bob Sabbage.
Monika Morgenstern, a contemporary visual artist born in Germany and currently residing on Ngarrindjeri Country in Strathalbyn, South Australia, is known for her investigation into colour as a mystical material. Morgenstern’s gained a Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours in 2014 at the Adelaide Central School of Art, Adelaide.
In 2021 she received an independent makers Arts SA grant, where she acquired expertise in using glass as a medium, and the Guildhouse Catapult mentorship, where she collaborated with Sasha Grbich, an artist, writer, and lecturer known for her responsive work with places and communities. And in 2022 she received an Arts South Australia fellowship in which she explored colour as a mystical substance, pushing the boundaries of her practice.
In 2023 she received the Eran Svigos award for the exhibition titled “I Dwell in Possibility.” Additionally, she earned the Fringe Best Visual Art & Design weekly award for the same exhibition. In 2023 she exhibited “Wordless Silence” at the Barossa Regional Gallery and created an immersive and contemplative visual experience over two rooms.
Monika Morgenstern has been consistently shortlisted, including the Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize in 2022, 2023 and 2025, the Heysen Prize for Landscape in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and the Tatiara Contemporary Art Prize in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
Earlier in her career, her work was shortlisted for the 2018 SALA Latent Photography Prize. In 2018 her video work “Visitors of the Night” was featured at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and “I am the Wind,” was shown at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and Praxis Artspace in 2022. More recently, in 2023/24, her work featured at Lake Macquarie’s Museum of Art and Culture “Shifter” exhibition.
