About
Artist Bio
Kellie O’Dempsey creates site-generated installations and performances that integrate projection, video, collage, architectural space, gestural line, performance and digital drawing. Created in both solo and collaborative formats with sound artists and contemporary dance practitioners, O’Dempsey’s diverse practice explores, deconstructs and heightens the concept of public space as shared experience. O’Dempsey manipulates space and alters perception to transform and reinvigorate the familiar whilst establishing a sense of brilliance. Using performance, play, line and colour, O’Dempsey’s public productions enable an inclusive form of cultural interaction. The immersive site installation and performance drawing works invite the audience to engage directly with the visceral process of making. Kellie’s past performances include: Art after Dark; Pier 2/3; 18th Biennale of Sydney; MONA FOMA, Hobart; White Night Melbourne; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Botanica 2021 in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens.
Kellie O’Dempsey is represented by Jan Manton Galleries in Brisbane
CV
Qualifications
2014-2018
PhD (Research), Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane
2008-2010
Masters of Visual Arts (Research), Southern Cross University, Lismore
1999
Graduate Diploma of Animation (Film and TV), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne Uni
2008-2010
Masters of Visual Arts (Research), Southern Cross University, Lismore
Employment
2021-2022
Lecturer in Design, University of Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs
2014-2021
Convener, Lecturer and Course Designer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Wish you were here, Morten Bay Galleries, Redcliffe Art Gallery, QLD
Wish you were here, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW
2023-2024
She does (working title), Noosa Regional Art Gallery, QLD
2022
Wish you were here, Northsite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, QLD
What did you say?, Robertson Park - Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
2024
She does (working title), Noosa Regional Art Gallery, QLD
2021
Wish you were here, Redlands Regional Gallery, Cleveland, QLD
2019
Outside the Lines, BAD (Brisbane Art and Design Festival) Museum of Brisbane, QLD
Negative Time (projection), Adelaide Festival Centre, SA
2018
The Never-ending line, NGA Play, National Gallery of Australia
2017
Away and Towards (PhD examination exhibition), QCA, Brisbane
2016
Line in the Night, Newcastle Gallery, NSW
2015
Draw/ Delay (12-hour performance), White Night, Melbourne
Traces of the in-between, Eagle Lane, Brisbane City Council
2012
Spectacle of Performance Drawing, Tweed Regional Gallery
2011
Paper Jam Roll, Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art, Brisbane
2008
There is roadkill on the walls, Brisbane Powerhouse
Collaborations
2019-2021
Hardenvale: Our Home in Suburbia, collaboration with Catherine O’Donnell and Todd Fuller, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery NSW, Bathurst Regional Gallery NSW
2018
Dirt & Ash, collaboration with Fiona Fell, Lismore Regional Gallery, NS
2017
Resistance Movement, collaboration with Jennifer Wroblewski Kentler International DrawingSpace, RedHook, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2016
Before I leave (silent), in collaboration with Piyali Ghosh (India), QCA POP Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2024
Time Changes Everything//Everything Changes Time, ISEA2024 (International Symposium of Electronic Art) Brisbane
2022-2023
Fair Play, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, NSW
2021
Botanica – Contemporary Art Outside, curated by Bell Ford –Brisbane Botanical Garden
2019
In[Place], Horizon Festival, Sunshine Coast
Paper Walls, Glen Eria Gallery, Melbourne
2017
International Art Switch, Jogja Gallery, Yogyakarta City, Indonesia
2016-2015
Inflection, Centre for Fine Print Research, University of West England, Bristol, UK
Just Draw, Bathurst and Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle
Is this Art, d’Tour dlux, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW
Is this Art V2 (video work), dLux Artereal Gallery, Sydney
Drawn to Experience V2, POP Gallery, QCA, QLD and ANU Galleries, AC
Under Arena, (live drawing performance), Drawing International Brisbane Symposium
Draw to Perform2 (performance) N3mber Performance Space, London, UK
2013
Live in the Vitrine, Draw International Research Centre, Calyus, France
2014
Watershed, International Congress University of Barcelona, Spain
A general map of caves, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, NSW
2012
Art after Dark (live performance), Pier2/3, 18th Biennale of Sydney
Mutable+Luminous (live performance drawing), MONA FOMA, Hobart
Industry Commissions
2023
Bloom, Public Art Performance, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
2021
Botanica – Contemporary Art Outside, curated by Bell Ford –Brisbane Botanical
2019
Botanica, curated by Urban Art Projects – Projections in the Brisbane Botanical
Prizes, Awards, Residencies and Grants
2024
JADA Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery (finalist) Sunshine Coast National Art Prize (finalist)
2023
Kedumba Drawing Award, NSW (finalist)
2022
Queensland Regional Art Award (winner) - Art for Life, Flying Art Alliance.QLD
JADA Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery (finalist)
2021
M16 Drawing Prize (finalist), Canberra Rockhampton Gallery, Artist in Residence
2020
Arts Queensland Individuals Grant
JADA Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery (finalist)
2019
Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Development Grant
Parramatta Artist Studio, NSW Artist in Residence
Mussellbrook Art Prize (Finalist)
NAVA Artist Grant
2018
JADA Drawing Prize, Grafton Regional Gallery (Finalist)
Bundanon Trust Artist Residency Program
2016
M16 Artspace Drawing Prize, CAPO Award
Unseen, Metro Arts, Professional Development Residency
2014-2017
Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship– PhD Candidature, Griffith University
Industry Experience
2020-2021
Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) Assessment Panel Member, Sunshine Coast
2019-2020
Experience Consultant and Designer for 2020 The Storytellers Museum of Brisbane
2016-2019
Public programs workshops design and delivery at: Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane (GOMA), Museum of Brisbane (MOB), Grafton Regional Gallery NSW, Tweed River Gallery, Lismore Regional Gallery, Griffith University & Museum of Brisbane
Publications and Media
2023
Article - A Performative Entanglement: The Art of Kellie O’Dempsey By Kevin Wilson
2016
O’Dempsey, Kellie, Platz, Bill. “A gathering dilemma: The Drawing International Brisbane Symposium”. Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice 1(2), 2016. 253-264.
2016
O’Dempsey, Kellie. “Performance Drawing: Framing the Elements”. Studio Research Journal 5(4),2016.
2013
O’Dempsey. “Performance Drawing: The Long Black Line”. New Scholar: An International Journal of the Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences 2(1), 2013.
Collections
Bundanon Trust Collection, Australia, M on the bund, Shanghai, China Brisbane Powerhouse, Australia
dLux Archive, Sydney, Australia, Jogja Gallery, Yogyakarta City, Indonesia