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 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
2023
Mel O’Callaghan: Pulse of the Planet, Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada (survey exhibition)
Centre of the Centre, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery - National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga, Australia2022
All Is Life, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
Slime of Time, Galerie Allen, Paris, France
Ore of Cyprus, Kronenberg Mais Wright, Sydney, Australia
Centre of the Centre, Samstag Museum, Adelaide, Australia
Centre of the Centre, Hyphen Wadonga, Wadonga, Australia
Centre of the Centre, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, Australia
Centre of the Centre, Gouburn Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn, Australia
Centre of the Centre, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, Australia2021
Primary / Secondary Score, Nuit Blanche, Paris France
2020
What Lies Within: Centre of the Centre, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines
Centre of the Centre, UQ Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia2019
Centre of the Centre, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
Centre of the Centre, Artspace, Sydney, Australia2017
Dangerous on-the-way, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Mel O’Callaghan: Ensemble, National Gallery of Victoria - NGV, Melbourne, Australia2015
Ensemble, Loop, Barcelona, Spain
2012
Move, Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida, Lisbon, Portugal
Endgame, Galeria Belo-Galsterer, Lisbon, Portugal2010
Each atom of that stone, Grantpirrie Offsite, Sydney, Australia
2008
Topsy Turvy, Grantpirrie, Sydney, Australia
2007
Landslide, Galerie Schleicher Lange, Paris, France
2005
Somewhere, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2003
In The Half Light, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
2002
The Fly and the Mountain, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (with Nell)
2001
Vagari, Centre for Contemporay Art, Prague, Czech Republic
Selected Group Expositions
2023
Un lac inconnu, Bally Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland
2022
Seeing the Invisible, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Jerusalem, Israel
2021
(Un)learning, Seoul Museum of Art (SEMA), Seoul, South Korea
Lost Weekend, Galerie Allen, Paris, France
Nuit Blanche, Léo Lagrange, Paris, France2020
Abstraction, Kronenberg Mais Wright, Sydney, Australia
The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Australia2019
Some of Us - Survey of French Female Artists, Kunstwerk Carlshutte, Budelsdorf, Germany
Primary/ Secondary Score, Yo-Chang Art Museum, National Taiwan University of Arts2018
Museo D’Art Contemporanea Di Roma (MACRO), Rome, Italy
Vertiges, Lab-Labanque, Béthune, France2017
Lock/Route, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
L’Eternité par les astres, Centre d’art Contemporain Les Tanneries, Amilly, France
Prix Meurice pour l’art contemporain, Hôtel Meurice, Paris, France2016
L’art de la révolte, Centre Pompidou - Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
Museum as Performance, Museu de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
Do Disturb, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France2015
Demain dans la bataille pense à moi, IAC - Institut d’art contemporain,Villeurbanne, France
L’art de la révolte, Centre Pompidou, Malaga, Spain
Nature/ Revelation, The Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, Australia2014
19th Biennale of Sydney:You Imagine What You Desire, Australia
2013
Natura, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Portugal
Desire Lines, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, Australia2012
Livret IV, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Rochechouart, France
2011
Event: New Moving Image Works, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
2010
Dying in Spite of the Miraculous, Gurtrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
La Main Numérique, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan2008
Fantasmata, Museo Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy
2007
Hamsterwheel, Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse
Hamsterwheel, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (CASM), Barcelona, Spain2006
Place Marks, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
National Sculpture Prize, National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, Australia2005
Videobrasil 05, 15° Bienal de Arte Contemporânea Sesc Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
Prizes, Grants and Residencies
2020
The Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship (finalist), University of Sydney, Australia
2019
Residency, Fondation National des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris, France
2018
Expedition on the Research vessel Atlantis with Woods Hole Oceonographic Institution
US National Science Foundation
Fondation National des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris, France2017
Prix Meurice pour l’art contemporain, France (finalist)
2015
Laureate, Prix SAM pour l’Art Contemporain, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2014
Bernd Lohaus Prize, Belgium (nominated and finalist)
2011
Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2007
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2004
Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Paris, France
2001
Residency, Centre For Contemporary Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
Public Commissions
2017
ACMI / Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (finalist)
2005
Australian Film Commission, Australia
Public Collections
Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne, FRAC, France
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
UQ Art Museum, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Monash University Museum of Modern Art, Australia
Artbank, Australia, Australian Government Office for the Arts, in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport,
Regional Development and Communications, Australia
New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice, Australia
Bibliography
2023
Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaize, Marianne Derrien and Adrien Elie, “Some of Us: une anthologie des artistes contemporaines au XXIème siècle en France”, La maison d’édition Manuella
2022
Mara Hoberman, “Mel O’Callaghan: All is Life”, exhibition essay, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
Erin McFadyen, “Mel O’Callaghan”, Artist Profile, 23 June
Joao Silverio, Gesture and Resonance, exhibition essay, Slime of Time, Galerie Allen, Paris, France
Melissa Bianca Amore, “Un/learning Australia”, The Saturday Paper, 5-11 February | No. 385
Stephanie Bunbury, “Seeing The Invisible”, The Age, 6 January
Interview, Art Works, Series 2, Episode 4, ABC television, 6 April
461, A Decade of Contemporary Art, Fondation des Artists, Éditions Dilecta, 4 March2021
Elyse Goldfinch “Mel O’Callaghan” in Know My Name, publication National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Alana Kushnir, “Seeing the Invisible”, Broadsheet, 7 October
Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, “Seeing the Invisible”, Del Mar Times, 18 November
Jessica Abelsohn, “Digitally making the invisible visible”, The Jewish News, 27 October2020
Mel O’Callaghan: Centre of the Centre, Artspace; Le Confort Moderne; UQ Art Museum with Perimeter Books
Julie Ewington, “Mel O’Callaghan: Centre of the Centre”, Australian Book Review, May 2020, no.421 p.200
Ashleigh Wilson & Dr. Edward Scheer, “Breath of experience: Mel O’Callaghan”, The Australian, 5 March, p. 20-21
Anabelle Lacroix, “Mel O’Callaghan Centre of the Centre, Art Monthly Australiasia, Issue 324, Winter, p.72-75
Stephanie Bailey, “Mel O’Callaghan”, Ocula Magazine, 29 May
Dr. Edward Scheer, “Mel O’Callaghan’s Rituals for the Anthropocene”, Art Guide Australia, April 12019
Christopher Allen, “Stillness of the Deep Soul”, The Australian, September 28 2019 p.27-28
Emma-Kate Wilson, “Mel O’Callaghan Centre of the Centre”, Art Almanac, September issue p.39-41
JT Nisay, “Understanding the Centre of the Centre”, Business Mirror, 17 Septemeber2018
Marie Chenel, “Mel O’Callaghan”, Artpress 2: Vertiges, Septembre p. 20-21
2017
Mel O’Callaghan: Dangerous On The Way, published Palais de Tokyo and Sam Art Projects, Paris
Mara Hoberman, “Mel O’Callaghan - Galerie Allen / Palais de Tokyo”, Artforum, May Issue 2017 p. 345
Greta Völler, “Mel O’Callaghan”, NGV Magazine, Nov/Dec 2017 Issue # 7 p. 36-37
Melissa Loughnan, ed., Australiana to Zeitgeist, Thames & Hudson Australia, 2017, p. 21, 26 - 27
Isabelle Bernini, “Mel O’Callaghan, Dangerous on-the-way”, Artpress, April 2017
Valérie Duponchelle, “Les expositions à ne pas rater à Paris en 2017”, Le Figaro, January 2017 p.105 - 110
Alice Cavanagh, “Outside Herself, Mel O’Callaghan”, W Magazine, The Australian, March 2017 p. 29-30
Felix Wilks, “Mel O’Callaghan Return Experience: The Trance Ecstatic”, February 02 2017
M.Z., “Mel O’Callaghan: Palais de Tokyo”, La Gazette Drouot April 7 2017 p. 215
Oscar Duboÿ, “L’agenda de la semaine”, Architectural Digest, February 27 2017
Ann-Lou Vicente, “Mel O’Callaghan”, Trois Couleurs, February 2017 no. 148 p. 96
Anaël Pigeat, Lucile Commeaux & Arnaud Laporte, “Art plastique: Spéciale “En toute chose” au Palais de Tokyo”, on France Culture, 8 February2016
Philippe Dagen, “Quand l’art bat le pavé”, Le Monde, 28 April, 2016
Orianne Hidalgo-Laurier, “Les rites de Mel O’Callaghan”, Mouvement, 25 January, 20162015
Joao Silverio, “Memory and Resistance in Mel O’Callaghan’s En Masse, Belo-Galsterer Galeria, p 20-23
2014
Juliana Engberg, “You are what you imagine”, 19th Biennale of Sydney, catalogue, p30
2013
Alda Galsterer, “Natura. Paisagem e Natureza”, catalogue essay, Natura, Museum Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Portugal
2012
Juliana Engberg, “Desire Lines”, catalogue essay, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2010
Dominique Païni, “La Main Numerique”, Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Nogent-sur-Marne, France & the National Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2009
Blair French, “Event: Recalling The Cinematic”, Column publication, Sydney, 2009
2007
Bénédicte Ramade,“Les Perdreaux De L’année En Liberté”, Artclair L’Oeil, n° 595, Octobre, 2007
Bérénice Bailly, “La Fugacite Decryptee Par Cinq Jeunes Artistes”, Le Monde, 31 March, 2007, p. 32
Emmanuelle Lequeux, “Mel O’Callaghan”, Le Monde, 29 September, 20072005
Alexie Glass Kantor, “Mel O’Callaghan, Space Travel”, Monument, April/May 2005
Jens-Emil Sennewald, “Mel O’Callaghan in the Galerie SchleicherLange”, Notiert, Kunst-Bulletin, April 2005, p. 75
Bérénice Bailly, “Mel O’Callaghan, Somewhere”, Le Monde, Saturday 3 December 2005, p. 32
Beatrice Gralton, National Sculpure Prize, exhibition catalogue National Gallery of Australia
Laura Murray Cree, “Finding Nowhere, Mel O’Callaghan”, catalogue Somewhere, Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Solange Farkas, “New Vectors”, Videobrasil 05, 15° Bienal de Arte Contemporânea Sesc Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil2002
Alexi Glass Kantor, “The Fly And The Mountain - Mel O’Callaghan and Nell”, Monument, Issue 47. p.108
Jacqueline Millner, “The Fly And The Mountain”, catalogue, Art Gallery New South Wales, Australia2000
Bruce James, “Mel - New Millenium Kinetics”, The Australian Art Collector, Jul -Sept p.140, 2000
Mark Jackson, “Awakening To The Dream”, Realtime Magazine, Aug-Sept p.48