B. 1954

Born in Brisbane, Paula Dawson is an artist, university lecturer and internationally recognised pioneer in holography. She was dually inspired by her father, an electrical engineer, and her mother, a patron of the opera, building a practice that moves between holography, performance, sculpture and painting. In 1980, she created what was then the largest hologram ever made – ‘There is No Place Like Home’.

With a PhD in the technical and aesthetic aspects of holography, Dawson has partnered with MIT Media Lab, CSIRO and Zebra Imaging to make groundbreaking advances in holography. She was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship and is represented across public collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia. Whether a painting or hologram, Dawson’s work represents a spellbinding meditation on illusion, memory, time, art and science.