Exhibition

Queensland Regional Art Award 2022 /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

The Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to provide a platform for further professional development.

The 2022 QRAA explored the concept of ‘Reframe’, calling artists to enter work which drew upon experiences and observations, reflecting upon the past year or two and responding to our changing world.

‘Reframe’ is an opportunity to see our current situation from a different perspective, to inspire problem solving and decision making and apply learning, whilst constructively responding, shifting and evolving.

2023 TOURING EXHIBITION LOCATIONS

Mulga Lands Gallery, Charleville – 29 March to 29 April 2023

Longreach Community Library, Longreach – 17 May to 28 May 2023

Bushmans Art Gallery, Blackall – 15 June to 2 July 2023

Coalface Art Gallery, Moranbah – 26 July to 13 August 2023

Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre, Cairns – 1 September to 24 September 2023

Goondiwindi Regional Civic Centre Gallery, Goondiwindi– 25 October to 28 November 2023

 

REFRAME

In 2022, the QRAA is an invitation to explore the concept of ‘Reframe’, calling artists to enter work which draws upon experiences and observations. It is a cause to reflect upon the past year or two and respond to our changing world. 

‘Reframe’ is an opportunity to see our current situation from a different perspective. It inspires problem solving, decision making and learning, whilst constructively responding, shifting and evolving.

 

2022 QUEENSLAND REGIONAL ART AWARDS JUDGING PANEL

Aven Noah Jr., Curator, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Bulmba-ja Arts Centre, Cairns.
Rebecca McDuff, Gallery Director, Bundaberg Regional Galleries, Bundaberg.
Elisabeth Findlay, Director, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane.
Hamish Sawyer, Independent curator and writer, Brisbane.

 

WISH YOU WERE HERE 1

Artist: Kellie O’Dempsey
Artist Location: Coolum Beach
Medium: mixed media collage and projection, 2021
Dimensions: 120 x 0 x 120 cm

Wish You Were Here 1 began as a re-imagining of post-pandemic life. Here, the uncanny collides with the uncertain. In search of progress a figure attempts to travel yet goes nowhere. Wish You Were Here 1 is a moving drawing of collaged works on paper with projection. Using repetitive rhythm and monotonous loops in a non-specific location and an unspecified time, this works blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic and absurdity in an attempt to find balance in an uncertain world.

Photographer: Kellie O’Dempsey

 

Wish You Were Here: Northsite /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here

23 APRIL — 11 JUNE 2022

Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns, Queensland

NorthSite  Gallery 1


An immersive installation of collaged works using paper, projected animation, sound and Augmented Reality (AR) that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. 

Created throughout the early days of the pandemic in 2020 and refined in 2022 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity. In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. 

Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, Augmented Reality objects in non-specific locations and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Sound by Mick Dick and AR by Helena Papageorgiou.

 

Wish You Were Here /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here
 

Wish You Were Here
25 Jul 2021 – 29 August 2021
Redland Gallery | Cleveland, QLD

Wish You Were Here began as a response to the lockdown life of the pandemic. Uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together to imitate how we fumble for connection. Wish You Were Here is an immersive installation of collaged works on paper, projected animation, sound and Augmented Reality (AR). Through repetitive rhythm and monotonous loops, non-specific locations and an unspecified time, this work blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve. Sound by Mick Dick and AR by Helena Papageorgiou.

 
 

Credit | Photography: Louis Lim

Credit | Video: Jasmine Smith

 

Hardenvale /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Hardenvale – our home in Absurdia
31 Oct 2020 – 31 Jan 2021
Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery | Wagga Wagga, NSW

Hardenvale – our home in Absurdia is a real-scale, immersive, house-like environment by Australian artists Catherine O'Donnell, Kellie O'Dempsey and Todd Fuller.

Through drawing, projection, built form, sound and movement, this collaborative project references the architecture of post war fibro housing as well as spaces the group describe as 'the cultural fringe of Australia'. Crossing three generations, these artists’ re-imagine lived domestic space while expanding the practice of drawing to create an intimate and unsettling experience. Harvesting images from personal narratives of imperfect moments (both familiar and strange), Hardenvale is a humble dwelling made from drawing in which to spend time. This installation invites visitors to reflect on their own experiences and memories of home.

 
 
 

Credits | Photographer: The Artist, Tayla Martin

Continuum /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Continuum
Exhibition: 24 Aug - 1 Sep 2019
The Old Ambo, Nambour as part of Horizon Festival | Sunshine Coast, QLD
Kellie O’Dempsey | Sound: Michael Dick | Augmented Reality: Helena Papageorgiou

Continuum brings together video, drawing and performance in an installation exploring process and possibility. These works present the ever-changing moment as line and action. Revealing drawing as transformation, using both traditional and digital means, the artist is seen drawing and un-drawing lines in a mesmerising continuum of making.

Links: Horizon Festival | Facebook

 
 
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Horizon Festival was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland

 
 
 

Outside the Lines /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Image credit: Jono Searle

 

Outside the Lines
Performance: 24 May 2019 | Exhibition: 10 May - 11 Aug 2019
Museum of Brisbane as part of BAD Festival | Brisbane, QLD
Kellie O’Dempsey | Sound: Mick Dick | Performers: Saara Roppola and Maris Georgiou

Immerse yourself in a haven of colour, light and sound, as performance and installation artist Kellie O’Dempsey places audiences right in the middle of her artwork, which fuses digital drawing, performance, animated video projection and sound.

For BRISBANE ART DESIGN (BAD), Kellie teamed up with sound designer Mick Dick and performers Saara Roppola and Marisa Georgiou to perform new work and engage in discussions about their co-operative making process.

Links: Instagram | Brisbane Art and Design (BAD)

 

Credits | Photographer: Jono Searle

 
 
 

Hardenvale - our home in Absurdia /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

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Hardenvale - our home in Absurdia
Rayner Hoff Project Space, National Art School | NSW, Australia
28 March - 20 April 2019
Kellie O’Dempsey, Catherine O’Donnell and Todd Fuller 
Funded by Australia Council for the Arts, with support from Create NSW, The NSW Artists’ Grant (NAVA)
Also supported by the Parramatta Artist Studios and Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence program

Hardenvale – our home in Absurdia is a real-scale, immersive, house-like environment created by Australian artists Catherine O’Donnell, Kellie O’Dempsey and Todd Fuller. Through drawing, projection, built form, sound and movement, this collaborative project references the architecture of 1960s Western Sydney Government housing as well as spaces the group describe as ‘the cultural fringe of Australia’.

Crossing three generations, these artists’ re-imagine lived domestic space while expanding the practice of drawing to create an intimate and unsettling experience. Harvesting images from personal narratives of imperfect moments (both familiar and strange), Hardenvale is a humble dwelling made from drawing in which to spend, lose or find time. This installation invites visitors to reflect on their own experiences and memories of home.

Links | Catalogue

 

Credits | Images - Silversalt Photography, Peter Morgan and the National Art School // Video - Sound: Mick Dick and Cinematography: Emma Conroy

 
 
 

Dirt and Ash /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Dirt and Ash :: Fiona Fell and Kellie O'Dempsey
20 October – 2 December 2018 | Opening Night 19 October 2018
Gallery 1: The Margaret Olley Gallery, Lismore Regional Gallery | Lismore, Australia
Kellie O’Dempsey and Fiona Fell | Sound: Mick Dick

Kellie O’Dempsey and Fiona Fell perform Dirt & Ash, an immersive multimedia installation about the relationship between the artist and work of art with Mick Dick’s (sound artist) performance on opening night.

Exhibition was opened by Dr Barbara Bolt, Professor in Contemporary Arts and Culture, Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.

Dirt and Ash displays a dynamic exchange between two mid-career artists. Fiona Fell and Kellie O'Dempsey explore the links between artists’ bodies, ceramic sculpture and performance drawing and video as they inquire into the nature of each other’s creative processes. As works are built, stacked, re-formed and incorporated through performance and live drawing–the underbelly of their creative practices is exposed.  

Sharing the material relationships of clay and charcoal, the shared experience of loss and survival is uncovered (in terms of life and their creative processes). Fiona Fell and Kellie O'Dempsey dramatise their perseverant search for presence, synchronising moments in the studio as performance.


Links | Catalogue // Lismore Gallery website

Exhibition Images

Performance

Videogragher: Steven Kwan

Exhibition Catalogue

Credits | Photographer: Darcy Grant // Videographer: Steven Kwan

 
 
 

The never-ending line /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Kellie O'Dempsey: The never-ending line, NGA Play at The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Saturday 16 June – 28 October 2018
National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia

Kellie O’Dempsey invites you into her living sketchbook, an immersive space of moving marks and dancing lines. Digital projections collide with traditional drawing in a series of dynamic and colourful experiences and creative opportunities. Contribute to the unique drawing journey as you follow the never ending line to shadow puppets, 3D drawing constructions and live animation before getting into the drawing rink for an immersive drawing experience. The never-ending line investigates drawing as a way of collaboration and transformation as it features sound elements composed by Mick Dick.

Links: NGA website
Media: SMH Article | City News Article

Exhibition

Performance

Videographer - Sixth Row

Videographer - Sixth Row

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Credits | Videographer: Sixth Row

Funded by Australia Council for the Arts, with support from Create NSW, The NSW Artists’ Grant (NAVA)
Also supported by the Parramatta Artist Studios and Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence program

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Becoming Becoming /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Photographer: Angela Little

 

Becoming Becoming
13 April – 20 May 2018 | Exhibition Opening 13 April 2018
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts | Townsville, Australia
Kellie O’Dempsey | Sound: Mick Dick | Dancers: Dance North Felix Samson and Samantha Hines

Becoming Becoming is a dynamic site generated installation that explores the links between the human body, making and transformation through improvisation. Both a live performance and as an exhibition, this work maps processes of collaboration and aliveness through live drawing and collaboration. With Sound artist Mick Dick, Dance North dancers Felix Sampson and Sam Hines the gallery space is expanded through live performance and digital projection. 

Attempting to entice all those who enter Becoming Becoming is a living collage through the flow of line, sound, colour and projection an immersive engaged environment evolves.

Links | Umbrella Studio event page // Invitation

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Image credit | Photographer: Angela Little

 

Under Arena - Drawing International Brisbane /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Under Arena
Exhibition at Spring Hills Reservoir as a part of the Drawing International Brisbane (DIB) Symposium 2015: Ego Artefact, Arena
Spring Hill Reservoirs | Brisbane, QLD
30 September, 2015

Artists: Kellie O’Dempsey | Bill Platz | Zoe Porter | Flatline (Todd Fuller And Carl Sciberras) | Velvet Persu

A group of artists engage with performance and drawing to respond to a unique Brisbane landmark. The subterranean Spring Hill Reservoirs and the Old Windmill present a theatrical environment in which live drawing, sound, video and dance coalesce.

Kellie O'Dempsey and Michael Dick, installation view of Under Arena 2015. Photographer Matthew Loyd

Kellie O'Dempsey and Michael Dick, installation view of Under Arena 2015. Photographer Matthew Loyd

Kellie O’Dempsey: Artist + Curator of the performance art event Under Arena. Opening the Drawing International Brisbane Symposium 2015, Under Arena was an initiative of the Griffith Centre For Creative Arts Research.

Under the auspices of Griffith University, Queensland College of Art through the assistance of The National Trust and Brisbane City Council, Under Arena was representative of the artistic interdisciplinary dialects involved in the creation of a lexicon of contemporary performative practice. Michael Dick: Sound artist working in direct response to the action of Kellie O’Dempsey. Michael provides the synaesthetic vehicle from which the art work resonates toward a palpable liminality. You may also notice throughout the soundscape the vocals of performance artist Velvet Pesu.

Taking place on the 30 September 2015 at the historic Spring Hill Reservoir, this conveyance is a subjectively inflected inference of the artistic intent of Kellie O'Dempsey and Mick Dick.

Exhibition images – installation view:

 
 

Documentation: Emma Wright, Simon Marsh, Matthew Loyd

 

Drawn to Experience V2 /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Drawn to Experience V2
Artists: Gosia Wlodarczak (VIC/Poland), Entang Wiharso (Indonesia), Flatline (NSW), Hannah Quinlivan (ACT), Jaanika Peerna (Estonia/NY), Mar Serinya (Spain), Lugas Syllabus + M.A. Roziq (Indonesia), Robert Andrew (QLD), Nicci Haynes (ACT), Bill Platz (QLD), Kevin Townsend (USA), Jodi Woodward (NSW), Benjamin Sheppard (VIC), Piyali Ghosh (India), Kellie O’Dempsey (QLD)

Curated by Kellie O’Dempsey

QCA Galleries
POP Gallery | 27 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
22 September – 3 October 2015

ANU
ANU School of Art Main Gallery, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
9 – 31 October 2015

Exhibition catalogue can be found here.

 
 

This survey explored the expansive act of performance drawing—the act and action of drawing, its processes as theatre, line, motion and record, positioning drawing within an interdisciplinary platform. The group exhibition consisted of works on paper, digital drawings, video and a live drawing performance. In conjunction with the Drawing International Brisbane (DIB) Symposium (papers from DIB can be found here).. Drawn to Experience V2 also toured to the ANU Gallery, Canberra.

Gosia Wlodarczak, A Room Without A View — drawing performance Day 5, 2013, a 17-day drawing performance held in a specially constructed sensory limitation room at the RMIT Gallery, Melbourne. Pigment pen, polymer paint on MDF board, space …

Gosia Wlodarczak, A Room Without A View — drawing performance Day 5, 2013, a 17-day drawing performance held in a specially constructed sensory limitation room at the RMIT Gallery, Melbourne. Pigment pen, polymer paint on MDF board, space dimensions: 260 x 340 x 220 cm. Photographer Longin Sarnecki. Image courtesy the artist and Fehily Contemporary, Helen Maxwell and BOXOProjects New York/Joshua Tree

 
 

Photographer (exhibition):  Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Bald, Bald Head and Other Stories /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Bald, Bald Head and Other Stories
The Hold Artspace
27 May – 6 June 2015

Bald, Bald, Head and other stories explores the mythical and romantic relationship between the artist, studio and the muse. Investigating the notions of the public and the private. Kellie O'Dempsey and sound designer Mick Dick will transform and manipulate the gallery space through a playful installation of drawing, video and performance.

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Photographer 

 

Falls Festival 2014 /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

THE KELLIEO COLLECTIVE
Falls Festival | Byron Bay
December 2014

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Art Camp at Falls Festival 2014 Kellie O’Dempsey–with collaborating campers–developed, painted and installed 100 metres of crazy hand gestures gripping a long black line on hessian. This massive painting/fencing surrounded the Falls Art village.

 
 
 
 
 

IS THIS ART? V2 /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

IS THIS ART? V2
Artreal Gallery | NSW
6 August 2014 | from 6-8pm

Presented by dLux MediaArts in association with Artereal Gallery

Artereal Gallery and dLux MediaArts are proud to present the Second Screening of IS THIS ART? – a quarterly screening program of moving image works, curated by Rhys Votano of dLux MediaArts.

This program will link art audiences with exciting new works by emerging creative practitioners and will incorporate video artworks by established contemporary artists from the Artereal stable. Audiences will benefit from an opportunity to revisit well-known and new works by established contemporary Australian video artists, as well as discover the latest works by emerging practitioners.

Artists: David Asher Brook, Em Hicks, Kellie O’Dempsey, Shoufay Drez, Shivanjani Lal, Nina Ross, Kieran Gilfeather, Brigette Lucas, Grant Stewart, David Greenhalgh, Miniature Malekpour

Dis/close

Dis/close
Kellie O’Dempsey
2014 | Digital video | 4:23 minutes (performance photograph)

This work aims to discuss the relationship between the individual and the constant manipulation of facts by the media and governing political powers, which appear to conceal and blindfold the populace. In silence, through a game of reveal and conceal, the environment and the appearance of an individual is transformed through digital drawing that exposes the head of a man in disquiet and contemplation. The hand drawn, pixelated lines consistently uncover, redefine and blur what is actually available to us. Through the process of drawing as enquiry, Dis/close identifies and investigates the interconnected experience of human engagement. The use of the Tagtool (live digital drawing and animation device) aims to translate those elements into a drawn video work that allows an authentic process of collaboration and improvisation. The outcome, a strange, poetic intervention of the digital drawing that uncovers, confuses and transforms an isolated man.

Describing her work as a Performance Drawing practice, O’Dempsey aims to enable an inclusive form of cultural interaction via interdisciplinary performance and play. Hybrid in form, O’Dempsey’s practice incorporates projection, video, collage, architecture, gestural line and digital drawing. Investigating notions of transformation and the uncanny, she collaborates with performers combining hand drawn marks with digital projection and live animation. Experimental and emergent, O’Dempsey invites the audience to engage directly with the visceral process of making.

 
 

Photographer and Videographer: Kris Garner

 

A General Map of Caves /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

A General Map of Caves
Hawksbury Regional Gallery
18 April – 15 June 2014

Find the Opening Night Responsive Performance here.

Five artists who convey, through drawing, a unique interpretation and palpable connection to their subject. The artworks faithfully recount a journey into their world and remain as a record of the vast and intimate territories they’ve experienced and the physical and psychological spaces they have encountered. The cave is a metaphor for the abyss–the deepest recesses into the artist's exploration–while the map acts as an invitation to the void in which the viewer is free to invest. New and existing works are created by Locust Jones, Talitha Kennedy, Catherine O’Donnell and Kellie O’Dempsey. Film by Matt Creswell, performance by Tanya Voges.

Tanya Voges’ performance at the Art Shed, BigCi. Projections by Kellie O’Dempsey.

Tanya Voges' performance at the Art Shed, BigCi

For more information and more video clips, check out http://bigci.org/new-news/

 
 
 
 
 

The Rick Amor Drawing Prize /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

The Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2010
Art Gallery of Ballarat

Rick Amor, one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, has sponsored a competition for small drawings at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. This inaugural exhibition of nearly 80 works was selected from more than 600 entries submitted.

 Kellie’s charcoal drawing on paper Mutable collage #3 was shortlisted from the numerous entries.

 
Kellie O’Dempsey Mutable collage #3 2010, charcoal on paper, 6mm x 40mm.

Kellie O’Dempsey Mutable collage #3 2010, charcoal on paper, 6mm x 40mm.