CV + 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
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 University,
1996 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing Major), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, Vic
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
2023 (upcoming) Grafton Regional Gallery
2023 Wish, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery
2022 Wish you were here, Northsite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, Queensland
2022 What did you say?, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
2021 Wish you were here, Redlands Regional Gallery, Cleveland, Queensland
2019 Outside the Lines, BAD (Brisbane Art and Design Festival), Museum of Brisbane
Negative Time (projection), Adelaide Festival Centre, Moving Image Program
2018 The Never-ending line, NGA Play, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2017 Away and Towards (PhD examination exhibition), QCA, Brisbane
2016 Line in the Night, Newcastle Gallery
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 -21 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 Drawing Space, Redhook, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2016 Before I leave (silent), in collaboration with Piyali Ghosh (India), QCA POP Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2022 —2023 Fair Play, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, NSW
2021 Botanica – Contemporary Art Outside, curated by Bell Ford –Brisbane Botanical Gardens
2019 In[Place], Horizon Festival, Sunshine Coast
Paper Walls, Glen Eria Gallery, Melbourne
2017 International Art Switch, Jogja Gallery, Yogyakarta City, Indonesia
2016 -15 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, QLD
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 & Grants
2022 Queensland Regional Art Award (winner) - Art for Life, Flying Art Alliance.QLD
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
2020-21 (Continuing) Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) Assessment Panel Member, Sunshine Coast
2019-20 Experience Consultant and Designer for 2020 The Storytellers Museum of Brisbane
2016 – 19 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
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