Fernando do Campo is an artist and researcher whose work is informed by the knotted histories of humans and animals. Since 2017, when Fernando first learnt of the curious story about house sparrows being released of the Bull & Mouth Hotel balcony Ararat, in 1867 (alongside Melbourne, Ararat is the first place where this colonial introduction occurred in Australia), Fernando has been working with ways of critically narrating the role sparrows play in the Australian imagination.

This solo exhibition continues Fernando’s exploration of archival research, fieldwork, and studio experimentation to ask what role the non-human companion plays in the formation of colonialism and nationalism. Siblings, pairs together two previously exhibited bodies of work in a new installation; an archival object and colour-rule response installed at the Ararat Public Library in 2017, and a recent collection of textile artworks that use a colour-rule system to weave together migrant history, localisms, personal narratives and family collaborations. The six significant artworks Escarapelas Capricornianas (2024), a series of textile portraits of Fernando’s five siblings accompanied by a self-portrait, will be shown in Victoria for the first time.

Fernando do Campo (b. Mar del Plata, Argentina 1987) is an artist and academic based between Brisbane and Sydney. He is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at UNSW Art & Design, Sydney. Since 2015, he has also produced work as the HSSH (House Sparrow Society for Humans). Fernando’s practice engages the histories of animals and plants via anthropomorphism, speculative fiction and archival research to produce multi-disciplinary exhibitions and projects. The global south and the legacies of colonialism and modernism that hold these narratives are a focus for both his research and his material studio explorations.

Fernando has presented solo exhibitions in Australia and the USA, and group exhibitions internationally. He is a Sir General John Monash Foundation Scholar, the first artist to ever receive this prestigious award for emerging Australian leaders to study abroad, which he used towards completing an MFA at Parsons School of Design, New York. He completed his PhD at MADA, Monash University in 2022 and was Artist-in-Residence at the State Library of NSW 2021-22. In 2025 Fernando will be presenting at the Melbourne Art Fair, with the Barnett Newman Foundation in New York, and undertaking a Thinker-in-Residence at the Taronga Conservation Society Australia (affectionately known as Taronga Zoo). Fernando is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney.