Nell’s multifaceted practice explores the thresholds and complexities of the contemporary human experience. Growing up in regional Australia, DIY projects and music on the radio were Nell’s lifeline; her connection to the world and the formation of her selfhood. From a distinctly Antipodean perspective, she draws upon art history, popular culture, rock’n’roll, religious texts, Buddhist spiritual teachings, chance and coincidence, to create works that are at once playful, insightful and poetic.
Nell has developed a unique visual language that traverses scale, medium and materiality. Regardless of the outcome, her work explores oppositional thresholds and the fertile space that exist beyond the binary: from intimate to immersive, found to fabricated, high to low culture, two-dimensions to three-dimensions, individual to collaborative, ancient to contemporary, sacred to profane. She uses recognisable motifs, including smiley faces, ghosts, eggs, teardrops, lightning bolts and crosses, as well as text taken from the world around us, to communicate universal themes of birth and death and everything in between. At the heart of Nell’s practice is an offering of connection and companionship; a reminder that we are not alone.
Across three decades, Nell’s work has been included in over 300 exhibitions in Australia and abroad. Significant recent solo exhibitions include: Nell x Colin McCahon: Through the Wall of Birth and Death, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ (2024), Old New Wave, Linden, Melbourne, VIC (2023) and in 2016, Shepparton Art Museum presented an eponymously titled survey exhibition of Nell’s works, NE/LL. Group exhibitions include; RE-PAIR, Tennessee Triennial, Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, US (2023), Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2021), No Place Like Home, MONA FOMA, K&D Warehouse, Hobart, TAS (2021), The National: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017) and the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 2016: Magic Object, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2016). A monograph on her work, published by Thames and Hudson, was released in 2020.
Installation view
2012
Group Show
2013
Let R.I.P
2013
vinyl records, cardboard record sleeve, stainless steel
44.0 x 30.0 x 30.0 cm
The Fleeting World
2013
Wombeyan marble
37.7 x 26.0 x 23.6 cm
Made in the Dark - bolt
2013
neon, MDF and acrylic
50.0 x 17.0 cm
More Sound Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid - Back in Black, #4 1980/2013
2013
cardboard record sleeves
219.5 x 220.4 cm
When BLACK turns GOLD 1980/2013
2013
acrylic, gold leaf and varnishes on paper and cardboard record sleeve
47.1 x 78.6cm (framed)
Double Resurrection 1895/1963/2013
2013
plastic blow flies on cardboard record sleeves
48.7 x 78.6 cm (framed)
Who Made Who/One on One
2014
THE FIRSTBORN IS DEAD (detail)
2015
acrylic, pencil and mixed media on linen
217.0 x 129.0 cm
empty vessel
2015
mirror polished bronze and dead blow-fly
Installation view
2015
HAPPY DAY'S NIGHT 1964/2014
2015
mixed media on cardboard record sleeve
46.0 x 46.0 cm
Sgt. Happy 1967/2014
2014
mixed media on cardboard record sleeve
46.0 x 46.0 cm
EVEN sadder… (detail)
2016
earthenware, acrylic paint, costume jewellery, vinyl and wooden stool
3 parts, 149.8 x 33.9 x 37.7 cm (overall)
The National 2017: New Australian Art
2017
Installation view
(photograph: Felicity Jenkins)
WORDS + CROSSES
2017
Installation view
(photography: G Ridder)
The Wake
2016
installation view
(photograph: Paul Steed)
Sydney Contemporary Nell
2019
Installation view
And MUSIK Loves Me
2019
acrylic on canvas
101.0 x 82.5 cm (framed)
Friends and Relatives
2019
acrylic, glitter and Japanese pigment on canvas
100.9 x 81.0 cm (framed)
I made it out alive
2019
acrylic on canvas
101.3 x 81.4 cm (framed)
BLACK Milk
2019
acrylic, Japanese pigment and mixed media on canvas
100.4 x 81.4 cm (framed)
I Am Being Called
2019
acrylic and Japanese pigment on canvas
100.0 x 80.8 cm (framed)
GHOST OF TIME
2019
acrylic paint and Japanese pigment on canvas
99.4 x 81.0 cm (framed)
THE SONG OF WATER
2019
acrylic paint and Japanese pigment on canvas
98.4 x 78.4 cm (framed)
SHINTO makes sense
2019
acrylic paint and Japanese pigment on canvas
99.0 x 78.8 cm (framed)
Ghost Songs (white)
2019
Marshall amp, hand blown glass
2 parts, overall: 51.3 x 29.5 x 18.0 cm
Born and Unborn
2019
hand-blown glass and fibreglass stool
2 parts, overall: 68.0 x 28.5 x 28.5 cm
The ghost who travels will never die
2018
found trunk and hand-blown glass
2 parts, overall: 172.0 x 54.5 x 54.5 cm
Ghost Songs (black)
2019
Marshall amp, hand blown glass
2 parts, overall: 66.8 x 38.2 x 23.9 cm
The ghost who sits will never die #2
2019
wooden stool and hand-blown glass
2 parts, overall: 73.9 x 35.4 x 31.2 cm
Ghost Songs (clear stack)
2019
Marshall amp, hand blown glass
3 parts, overall: 83.7 x 38.3 x 26.9 cm
The ghost on the road will never die
2019
found road case and hand-blown glass
2 parts, overall: 92.5 x 66.0 x 55.0 cm
Love Forever
2019
earthenware, underglaze, polymer compound, acrylic paint, wooden stool, Bluey’s feather and cockatoo feathers
2 parts, overall: 108.7 x 33.5 x 60.5 cm
Hi! How you doin'?
2019
acrylic on canvas
99.5 x 80.3 cm (framed)
I LOST A painting I MADE A FRIEND
2019
acrylic and mixed media on linen
99.4 x 81.0 cm (framed)
Three
2019
acrylic and mixed media on canvas
103.2 x 78.0 cm (framed)
Winged Thing Resurrection
2019
acrylic and mixed media on canvas
105.1 x 82.1 cm (framed)
GAME OVER
2019
acrylic on canvas
100 x 85.9 cm (framed)
It's here
2019
acrylic on canvas
95.5 x 79.5 cm (framed)
You and me
2019
acrylic, glitter and mixed media on canvas
99.0 x 83.0 cm (framed)
AUSTRALIA
2020
detail
AUSTRALIA
2020
detail
Made in the Light - sun
2012
Fluorescent lights, backing board, power cord
270.0 x 270.0 cm
I SAW the LIGHT
2020
acrylic and Japanese pigment on linen
137.8 x 183.3 cm (framed)
Two Sounds
2021
1960’s Japanese Guitar Case, 1970’s, Coffin Guitar Case, acrylic paint, archival glue
2 parts. 126 x 40.2 x 9.7 cm; 99.2 x 35.5 x 7.9 cm
From Memphis to Memphis
2021
1950’s Gibson Alligator Guitar Case, Vintage Gibson Les Paul Junior Guitar, archival glue, cotton, linen, plastic, gold, steel, brass, aluminium, paintbrush
46 x 105.3 x 48.5 cm
Sun Rays for Sunny Days
2021
Neon
44 x 40 cm
The ghost who walks will never die (sunshine #3)
2021
hand-blown glass
24.5 x 18.2 x 22.2 cm
I SAW the LIGHT
2021
installation view
Naarm / Melbourne
9 Ellis Street
South Yarra, Victoria 3141
Australia
+61 3 9826 2470
Gadigal / Sydney
91 Campbell Street
Surry Hills, New South Wales 2010
Australia
+61 2 9055 4688
