Mirka Mora
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Mirka Mora (born 1928) is an Australian artist.
Mora was born in Paris in a Jewish family. She was arrested in 1942 as part of the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv. Her father managed to arrange for her release from the concentartion camp at Pithiviers and she narrowly escaped deportation to Auschwitz. In 1949, having survived the Holocaust, she moved to Melbourne with her new husband, Georges Mora. Georges Mora became a prominent Melbourne restauranteur and art dealer, and she soon made a name for herself in what was then a very male-dominated art world. In 1966 the couple established the Tolarno restaurant and gallery in St Kilda, Victoria. Mora uses a wide range of media and her work features strongly in the permanent collection of the Heide Museum of Modern Art in the Melbourne suburb of Bulleen. She is a noted colourist and symbolist. Her paintings are often bright and bold, drawing heavily on a stable of recurring motifs - innocent, wide-eyed children, angels, dogs, cats, snakes and birds. For many years she has conducted workshops in painting, soft sculpture and mosaics, where countless Australians have learned from her unique approach to teaching art. In 2002 Mora was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and Communication. She lives in a studio in Richmond.
She is the mother of actor Tiriel Mora, film director Philippe Mora, and art dealer William Mora.
