Known for her bold and bright work, Mirka Mora drenched our city and our state with colour. Having lived through the horrors of the Holocaust, Mirka and her husband Georges arrived from Paris in 1951 and chose Melbourne as their home.
Back then, our city was a very different place. Together, Mirka and Georges helped transform 1950s Melbourne into the creative, cultural and cosmopolitan city it is today.
As one of our nation’s most loved artists, Mirka was a driving force in Victoria’s artistic scene and instrumental in the re-formation of the Contemporary Art Society. An artist for more than six decades, Mirka’s pieces extended across a breadth of media, from ceramics to doll-making, and her works are present in galleries across Australia and around the world.
Mirka’s passion extended to food. Alongside her husband, she opened Mirka Café in 1954 – said to boast one of the first espresso machines in Melbourne – before launching Balzac in East Melbourne and Tolarno in St Kilda.
Brave, funny, irreverent and talented, Mirka was an icon of our city and state. Today Mirka’s work is represented in Victoria’s best galleries, in our most well-known restaurants – and fittingly – in the heart of our city, her mural welcoming visitors to Flinders Street Station.
Image: Mirka Mora – photo by Gorman
Words: Victorian Government