Works of art by Chelle Destefano for sale
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Chelle Destefano Biography
Australia, born 1979
I am a Deaf woman and multi-disciplinary artist, born in 1979 and currently living in Melbourne, Victoria. I have a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design (2006) from SA (South Australia) Arts School and recently completed my Masters of Contemporary Art at VCA in Melbourne University. I will be starting my masters in Fine Art in the next year or so.
I work with drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, performance, textiles and mixed media. I explore the themes of the unknown, unseen, the hidden emotions, the feelings and instincts that are always ringing and my silence as a Deaf person and how the world is always moving and evolving especially now. Through my drawings and paintings, and more recently printmaking and sculpture, I express these emotions, instincts and drop hints of the unknown or unseen. I have been drawing and painting since 2012 and I incorporate ghosts, shadows and objects of the dark in my works, which are my thoughts when I think about there being no light if there is no darkness, and the experiences I’m having as a human being.
I’m currently focusing my practice in the areas of drawing, printmaking and painting, and working to develop a new body of works in graphite pencil and charcoal as I explore recent happenings around a series of dreams I have been having since the start of the year when I made changes to my connection to my family after discovering things were not as they seemed. So I am summing up those feelings in a body of works on paper as pencil and charcoal drawings, using the notions of objects and characters to speak metaphorically my feelings of the experience. These drawings, while not quite complete yet, are developing as dark pencil drawings with objects as the light speaking of those emotions. For example, the drawing of a glass dome of a dove, Venice mask, foot and shoe trapped in it in a bedroom, evoking thought and a tinge of creepiness and darkness. These drawings will be around A4 to A2 sizes.
The artworks I am submitting are a selection from my Blue Ghosts series that I have been working on, ongoing since 2015 and they show the style I work with, mediums and type of ‘macabre’ works. The mediums in those works are pen, pencil, gouache, ink, watercolour and mixed media. I have many more of my blue ghost works on my website, and other drawings that show my pencil drawing techniques, under works on paper and illustrations.
I was a winner of the Lake Art Prize (2020) for my multidisciplinary textile and performance work and I have been a finalist in a number of art prizes including the Muswellbrooke Art Prize (2023), Footscray Art Award (2021), Wyndham Art Prize (2022), Banyule Art Award for Works on Paper (2019 and 2021), the Lyn McCrea Memorable Drawing Prize (2019), Fisher's Ghost Art Award (2020, 2022), the Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award (2019, 2020, 2022), the Midsummer Post Art Award (2020), The Incinerator Art Award (2020), and the Watercolour Muster (2021).
Chelle Destefano exhibitions, studies, awards...
Education
2020-2021 Masters of Contemporary Art - Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
2001-2006 Bachelor of Visual Arts & Applied Design – O’Halloran Hill TAFE Campus, Adelaide
Represented by Macabre Gallery, UK
Awards/Scholarships
2023 Australia Council (Creative Australia) inaugural Arts and Disability Initiative grant
2022 Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship Special Projects Grant
Creators Fund grant recipient, Creative Victoria
Regional Arts Victoria grant for Sustaining Creative workers
2021 Regional Arts Victoria major grant for What I Wish I Told You collaboration project
Lara Irvine/Meg Endersbee Scholarship by Graduate Women Victoria
2020 Creative Victoria arts grant – funding for Deaf Dunceys performance/textile work
Winner of the Lake Art Prize
Australian Arts Council grant - funding for Deaf Voices performance/textile project
Art House commission awarded with Art House Housewarming
2019 Arts Activated Grant recipient by Moreland Council
Solo Exhibitions/Performances
2024 -I will Tell You Later, dance performance and sculpture installation, Kings Artist Run, Melbourne
2023 -In The Field of Sound Vulnerability, multi-disciplinary installation, Temperance Hall, Melbourne
2021 -Art House Housewarming commissioned exhibition, Art House, Melbourne
2020 -Safe Space, Performance, Brunswick Mechanics Institute, Melbourne (November)
-The Deaf Culture exhibition, Incinerator Gallery - Boadle Hall, Melbourne
2019 -The Auslan Movement show (performance and exhibition), Melbourne Fringe
-Bushfires 2009:10 Year Anniversary, Wonthaggi ArtSpace Gallery, Wonthaggi
2018 -The story of the Moon, FernArtz Gallery, Coburg, Melbourne
2017 -Berlin Pop Up Exhibition, with Arts Access Australia, Brotafabrik Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2016 -Chapter One Hotel, Chelle's Collections in UK, Bath, UK
-Wait of the World, Gasworks Arts Park Art Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2015 -Venice Biennale, Collection of Blue Ghost artworks, Italy, Ca' Zanardi Palezzo
-Art Images Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia,
-Inking History, invite by West Torrens Council Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia
-Roam the Blue Ghosts I, House of Bricks, Collingwood, Melbourne
2014 -My Home Town, Port Noarlunga Arts Centre, SA
2012 -Vintage is Good, Urban Cow Studio, Adelaide
Group Exhibitions/Performances
2023 -Deaf Gain exhibition, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Adelaide
-Flow, Deaf arts festival, Darebin Arts Centre, Melbourne
-Finalist for Footscray Art Prize, Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria
-Lethbridge Small Scale Art Prize, Finalist exhibition online Salon des Refusés, Paddington, QLD
-Finalist for Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, NSW
2022 -The Last Hoorah, performance by Jacqui Stockdale in collaboration with Yumi Umiumare, Emma Bathgate and Chelle Destefano, Community-based performance, Benalla Art Gallery outdoors space, Benalla
-Finalist for Noel Counihan Art Award, Merri-bek Summer Show, Counihan Gallery, Melb
-Finalist for Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown, Sydney
-What I Wish I’d Told You, Collaborative Deaf project with Claire Bridge, Realm ArtSpace
-What I Wish I’d Told You, Collaborative Deaf project with Claire Bridge, Hyphen, Wodonga
-What I Wish I’d Told You, Collaborative Deaf project with Claire Bridge, FCAC, Footscray
-Finalist for OptiKA: Kingston Photographic Award, Kingston Arts Centre, Moorabbin, Melbourne
-Finalist Exhibition for the Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art Gallery, Werribee, Melbourne
-Tenancy, exhibition of 12 women artists curated by Tracey Lamb, South Yarra, Melbourne
-Finalist Exhibition for the Omnia Art Prize, St Kevin’s College, Toorak, Melbourne
-Finalist Exhibition for the Banyule Art Prize, Art Gallery 275, Ivanhoe, Melbourne
-The IRL+URL Exhibition, Queertech.IO, Midsummer Festival 2022, Melbourne
-Face-to-Face performance, collaboration with Elvin Lam and Melody Shotade, Midsummer
2021 -Master of Contemporary Art Graduate Exhibition, VCA, Melbourne University, Melbourne
-Sawtooth ARI Members' Exhibition, Sawtooth ARI Gallery, Tasmania
-Microcosm, 2021 Craft Contemporary Satellite Program, Clan Collective, Melbourne
-Face Me: Art of Deafhood, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, NSW
-Finalist in the Watercolour Muster 2021
-From Where I Stand #3, Masters of Contemporary Art 2nd year Exhibition, VCA, Melb
-Memory Lane Public Art, Midsumma Festival and Metro Tunnel Creative Program, Melb
-Finalist Exhibition for Footscray Art Prize, Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria
2020 -Finalist Exhibition for Lake Art Prize, Museum of Art and Culture, Lake Macquarie (Winner)
-Finalist Exhibition for Noel Counihan Commemorative Award, Counihan Gallery, Melb
-Finalist exhibition for Fisher's Ghost Award, Campbelltown, NSW
-IAN annual Art Exhibition, the Inclusive Arts Network, Geelong, Victoria
-Zero O'Clock Exhibition, CoVA (Centre of Visual Arts), VCA, Melbourne
-Finalist exhibition for Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
-Master of Contemporary Art first year show, 3x3, VCA (online on instagram @vcaartspace)
-Finalist Exhibition for Midsumma Australia Post Art Award, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
2019 -Selected Exhibition, Axiom: A Reimagined Reality, SpACE@Collins, Melbourne
-Finalist Exhibition for Noel Counihan Commemorative Award, Counihan Gallery, Melb
-Finalist Exhibition for the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize, Noosa Regional Gallery
-Finalist Exhibition in the Banyule Art Prize, Hatch Contemporary Arts Space, Ivanhoe
2018 -QLD Deaf Arts Exhibition, Juried, Brisbane, QLD. Second prize winner
-The Skin Gallery show duo with Luke King, Exhibition of two Deaf artists
Residencies and Development
2024 Printmaking residency #3 at Baldessin Press Studios, July 2024
2023 Printmaking residency #2 at Baldessin Press Studios, March 2023
2022 Printmaking residency at Baldessin Press Studios, August 2022
2020 Deaf Community Advisor or Consultant - supported by City of Melbourne Quick Response Grant
2019-20 Oct-Jan selected as one of the 5 artists for Artist in Residency at Heritage Hill, Dandenong
2019 Sept - One of three judges for a juried art show at VDC (Victorian Deaf College)
2019 Cultural Threads, Nebula, Dandenong, textile collaborations with Warren Loorham, Karen Walker, Rhian Hinkley and Kim Charman
2019 Testing Grounds - Test Sites workshop
Publications
2022 TV news Channel 7 Prime about our What I Wish I’d Told You exhibition at Wodonga-
And Newspaper Border Mail, Saturday Sept 17th 2022, page 13 "Untold Stories of Deaf Voices" –
2022 Philip Island Advertiser - https://www.pisra.com.au/community/creators-grant-to-local-artist
2021 Bass Coast newspaper article on my auslan poetry workshop at Wonthaggi Adult Learning Centre
https://www.basscoastpost.com/geoff-ellis/kapow-the-deaf-experience
2021 ABC 25 June 2021 - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-25/people-with-disabilities-not-supported-auslan-australia-talk/100197524
2020 Review of my Melbourne Fringe show performance in The Age, 30 Nov 2020 (short one paragraph review)
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/it-was-a-heroic-effort-but-did-the-online-fringe-really-cut-it-20201130-p56j56.html?fbclid=IwAR0JC05E78fsnTCGNs97Mq5sFV-z4E0zICh_ykgLXWJ67w_5abNjXAmdV9Q
2020 Interview on winning the Australia Council for the Arts National Innovation Games
https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/arts-in-daily-life/artist-stories/national-innovation-games-chelle-destefano/
2020 Article in Sentinel-Times South Gippsland, Chelle's Art Speaks for the Deaf Community, Wed 10 June
https://sgst.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Wednesday-June-10-2020-small.pdf
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