Monika Scarrabelotti has been teaching at TBSSS since 2018. Monika teaches the Thursday AM and Thursday PM Workshops, and occasionally teaches the Life Study.
Monika began teaching with the sculpture department at the National Art School in 2017. She received a Bachelor of Fine Art in sculpture at NAS in 2013 and recently completed the Masters of Fine Art program at the same school. Specializing in the figure, Monika has spent the last few years fine-tuning skills in traditional and contemporary techniques of clay modeling, ceramic sculpture, mold making and casting.
In the years between studying Monika spent substantial periods of time traveling in Europe and Asia to develop her artistic practice and pursue a further understanding of art history and sculpture around the world. During her travels in 2015 she participated in land art and sculptural installations in Berlin, Germany for various art, music and lifestyle festivals. In early 2017 Monika was selected as one of eight finalists in Gosford Regional Gallery’s Emerging Art Prize, resulting in a huge debut solo exhibition titled The Sensuality of the Sculpted Figure.
In September 2017 she participated alongside high profile artists such as David Eastwood, Alan Jones and Robert Hague, in the unique and exclusive exhibition 9 Hours Underground. Curated by artist agent Kate Smith, the exhibition was held deep beneath the Sydney Opera House, in a beautiful and atmospheric cave.
Monika’s work was received with huge enthusiasm and sold out in the first night at the NAS Post Graduate Show in November 2017. In December 2017 she was invited to participate in a ceramics residency with Art Est in Leichhardt, resulting in the exhibition Future Masters.
More recently Monika was accepted as a finalist in the 2018 Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Art Prize, where she also taught several life drawing classes amongst the sculptures in Juniper Hall. Other highlights of Monika’s budding career include working with sculptor and lecturer Jim Croke on a recreation of Rayner Hoff’s destroyed sculpture The Crucifixion of Civilisation (originally intended for the Hyde Park War Memorial) for the Rayner Hoff: Art and Life exhibition and book launch in early 2017.
From 2021 – 2024, Monika and Arielle Morris were the curators of Clara Street Gallery, an intimate space within the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio.
When not teaching Monika devotes her time to working in the studio. Influenced by neoclassical sculpture, and the tumultuous works of Rodin, Monika’s sculpture is an exploration of sensuality, emotion and the human condition.
