Senior Lecturer & Head of Painting, Research Higher Degrees Coordinator

Zika is also Graduate Research Coordinator and a member of the Plimsoll Committee.

Career Summary

Paul Zika studied at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology completing an Associate Diploma of Fine Art (majoring in Painting with a minor in Printmaking) in 1970 and subsequently undertook a Fellowship Diploma in 1971. In 1973 he left for Europe and over the next year and a half travelled extensively and received a Certificate of Advanced Studies at St Martins School of Art in London. Since 1973 he has had fifteen solo exhibitions in Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane. He has under-taken four extended Overseas Residencies to expand and develop his studio practice (Tuscany 1989 / Prague 1994 / Barcelona 1998 / Sicily 2003).
Survey Exhibition Catalogue 2009

Research Interests

Zika’s research since joining the University in 1981 has concentrated on two specific areas - Studio Practice and Exhibition Curatorship - both with differing "publication" outcomes. The studio-based research is concerned with a radical fusion of surface and form, in stark contrast to Modernist notions of decoration as embellishment. Over the past fifteen years he has established a pattern of working in direct response to particular ornamentation schemes or decorative objects, through a process of investigation, image development and realisation. Since 1981 Zika has curated ninteen exhibitions of contemporary art, craft and design for the Plimsoll Gallery at the University of Tasmania. These exhibitions have normally focused on conceptual aspects of current practice in the field, drawing from all over Australia and overseas in the selection of participants.
Zika also guest curated the survey exhibition Dale Hickey: Life in a Box for the Ian Potter Museum / University of Melbourne (2008).
Exhibitions Curated

Teaching

Since 1990 Zika has had responsibility for the conceptual direction and management of the Painting studio. Zika’s teaching interests represent a very broad catholic interpretation of the discipline of Painting. Zika co-ordinates First and Third Year Painting units and supervises Honours and RHD candidates.