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.

Dark is the night before day

Jon Cattapan, Adam Lee, Clare Milledge, Nell, Jason Phu, Heather B. Swann & Jake Walker

9 June – 18 June 2023

off-site

Aotearoa Art Fair

Nell, Paul Yore

2 March – 5 March 2023

art fair

What a Shadow Feels Like

Daniel Boyd, Dean Cross, Brent Harris, Nell, Heather B. Swann; curated by Ellinor Pelz

3 September – 8 October 2022

melbourne

NELL

The WAY Home

26 February – 26 March 2022

sydney

SPRING _INSTALL_02-11

Yellow Wallpaper

Kate Bohunnis, Sarah Contos, Narelle Desmond, Eugenia Lim, Nell, Jahnne Pasco-White, Heather B. Swann, Julia Trybala, Marian Tubbs, Michelle Ussher

21 August – 4 September 2021

melbourne

Web8

Ten year show

12 June – 10 July 2021

melbourne

NELL-I SAW the LIGHT-6-LOW

Nell

I SAW the LIGHT

8 May – 5 June 2021

melbourne

Photo 7-1-21, 10 47 48 am

Quarantine Art Fair

Jon Cattapan, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Adam Lee, Dane Lovett, Nell, Jonny Niesche, Tom Polo, Reko Rennie, Gareth Sansom, Michelle Ussher, Isadora Vaughan, Yevgeniya Baras

7 January – 10 January 2021

art fair

NELL BOOTH_007

Sydney Contemporary

Nell

10 September – 15 September 2019

art fair

S

Shantih shantih shantih


Jon Cattapan, Adam Lee, Sam Martin, Nell, Tomislav Nikolic, Michelle Ussher, and Jake Walker

16 June – 21 July 2018

melbourne

Nell

The Woken

22 July – 12 August 2017

melbourne

Spring 1883, Melbourne

Steve Carr, Nell, Tomislav Nikolic, André Piguet

17 August – 21 August 2016

art fair

Untitled-1

It's only castles burning

Hany Armanious, Celia Hempton, Mark Hilton, Patrick Lundberg,
 Moya McKenna, Nell, Séraphine Pick, David Shrigley, and Esther Stewart

30 January – 27 February 2016

melbourne

N2

Nell

THE FIRSTBORN IS DEAD

28 March – 18 April 2015

melbourne

Nell

Made in the Dark

15 August – 12 October 2013

melbourne

cov

Group show

Daniel Boyd , Nadine Christensen, Dane Lovett, Laith McGregor, Moya McKenna, Andrew McLeod, TV Moore, Nell, Séraphine Pick, Renee So and Paul Ryan

24 January – 23 February 2013

melbourne