Sera Waters

Sera Waters is an Australian textile artist, arts writer, and arts educator. She lectures at Adelaide Central School of Art in Adelaide, South Australia.

Early life Sera Waters was born in Murray Bridge, South Australia, in 1979.

She received a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) from the University of South Australia in 2000.

She then went on to earn a Masters of Visual Arts from the University of Adelaide in 2006,

Artistic style and subject Waters specialises in textile arts and techniques, such as embroidery. Waters’ blackwork is considered her signature technique. In her PhD thesis, she used textile arts to explore family genealogy. Her works have been described as deeply conceptual, witty, and using humble needlework to encompass worlds of concern. As well as examining the colonial experience through her art, she is concerned with practicing art on Aboriginal land and the impact of colonisation. She is also interested in textiles arts embodying labour and time.

Academic career Waters lectures in art history at Adelaide Central School of Art.

Awards, residencies, and scholarships 2006: Ruth Tuck Scholarship for Visual Arts 2018: Hill Smith Gallery / University of South Australia Postgraduate Award, Helpmann Academy 2019: Finalist, Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia 2020: Guildhouse Fellowship, from the Art Gallery of South Australia Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, University of Western Australia