Nell’s multifaceted and interdisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, performance, video, music, collaborations and public art, with scales ranging from small intimate objects, to large immersive installations. Regardless of material outcome, her work explores oppositional thresholds, such as the ancient and contemporary, individual and communal, feminine and masculine, and the sacred and profane. From an Australian vantage point, she uses the language of art history, popular culture and spiritual traditions to amplify or challenge these tensions so that new objects, which are both playful and intriguing, emerge. Highly symbolic motifs, including smiley faces, ghosts, eggs, teardrops and lightning bolts, reappear throughout her works as a tool for communicating the extremes of human existence.
Across two decades, Nell’s work has been included in over 300 exhibitions in Australia and abroad. Early in her exhibiting career, she was selected for Primavera: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999), the annual curated exhibition of Australian artists aged under 35 years. Other significant exhibitions include: Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 2016: Magic Object, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2016); The National: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017); and Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2021). In 2016, Shepparton Art Museum presented an eponymously titled survey exhibition of Nell’s works, NE/LL. 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
Suite 201, 20 Bayswater Road
Potts Point, New South Wales 2011
Australia
+61 2 9055 4688
