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Mel O’Callaghan was born in 1975, Sydney, Australia. She lives and works in Paris, France and Sydney, Australia.

Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada (2023); Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia (2022); Samstag Museum, Adelaide, Australia (2022); UQ Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (2020); Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France (2019); Artspace, Sydney, Australia (2019); National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, Australia (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2017); Casa-Museu Medeiros, Lisbon, Portugal (2015); 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, Australia and the Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Czech Republic. Museums and Galleries of NSW (MGNSW) is touring O’Callaghan’s solo exhibition Centre of the Centre to eight regional and metropolitan art galleries and museums until 2023. In 2023 O’Callaghan will present solo exhibitions at Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada.

Group exhibitions include, Seoul Museum of Art SEMA, South Korea; Centre Pompidou, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou Paris, France; Centre Pompidou, Malaga, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines; Kunstwerk Carlshutte, Budelsdorf, Germany; Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Jerusalem, Israel; Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal; Gillman Barracks, Singapore; Museo D’Art Contemporanea Di Roma (MACRO), Rome, Italy; Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Portugal; Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (CASM) Barcelona, Spain; National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, Australia; Institut d’art contemporain IAC, Lyon, France; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne Australia; Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France; Nuit Blanche, Paris, France; 19th Biennale of Sydney, Australia and Biennale Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil.

O’Callaghan was awarded the Prix SAM pour l’art contemporain (2015) and grants and residencies with the Fondation des Artistes; Cité International des Arts; The Australia Council for the Arts and Create NSW. She was a finalist in The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship (2021); ACMI / Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (2018); Prix Meurice pour l’art contemporain (2017) and Bernd Lohaus Prize (2015) and the National Sculpture Prize, National Gallery of Australia, Australia.

Monographs of her work are published by Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France; Artspace, Sydney, Australia and UQ Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia with Perimeter Books (2020) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France and Sam Art Projects, Paris, France (2017).

Her work was recently included in significant publications such as Some of Us : une anthologie des artistes contemporaines au XXIème siècle en France (2023); 461, A Decade of Contemporary Art, Fondation des Artists, Éditions Dilecta (2022); Un/learning Australia, SEMA Seoul Museum of Art and Artspace (2021); National Gallery of Australia’s Know My Name publication (2021) and Australiana to Zeitgeist, Thames & Hudson Australia, (2017). Her work has been featured in publications including Artforum; Le Monde; Ocula; The Age; Artist Profile; The Australian; The Sydney Morning Herald; Broadsheet; The Australian Book Review; Art Monthly Australiasia; Art Collector Magazine; Vogue Australia; Art Almanac; Art Press Magazine; Le Fingaro; La Gazzette Drouot; Architectural Digest; Monument Magazine; Mouvement Magazine; Kunst Bulletin; Trois Couleurs; ABC Radio National; Art Works, ABC Television and France Culture.

Education

2011 Master of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2002 Bachelor of Science Architecture, University of Sydney, Australia
1998 Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Australia

Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Expositions

Prizes, Grants and Residencies

Public Commissions

Public Collections

Bibliography