Danie Mellor

Danie Mellor’s work is at once beautiful and a calling to account. Finely crafted, embellished and framed, with images and devices that disarm with humour, narrative and a play on the ‘exotic’, the work nonetheless confronts and confounds our understanding of the past. Mellor tells stories that are neither simple nor complete. Instead, the view is presented with multiple layers that challenge assumptions. Stories collide and metaphors reach further than expected.

Dr Campbell Gray, Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies Sacred Ties, The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2014, page 11.

Listen to Danie Mellor interview on ABC RN The Drawing Room (11 May 2022)

Read an interview with Danie Mellor in The Age (28 April 2022)

Deep (forest) 2015
Mixed media on paper with wash
27 panels, each 120 x 100cm, overall 360 x 900 cm
Installation view, 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery. Photography Natasha Harth
Deep (forest) (detail) 2015
Mixed media on paper with wash
27 panels, each 120 x 100cm, overall 360 x 900 cm
Installation view, 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA. Photography Natasha Harth
Bayi dambun bala mila 2014
Mixed media on paper
300 x 360 cm, 9 panels each 100 x 120 cm
Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art
Wild honey: Balam girnyjal (from the mouth of the dry hollow tree) 2014
Mixed media on paper
230 x 153 cm
Private collection, Brisbane
A SuperNatural landscape 2014
Mixed media on paper
205.0 x 153.0 cm
Private collection, Brisbane
Bala dulga yubanday 2014
Mixed media on paper
300 x 360 cm, 9 panels each 100 x 120 cm
Private collection, Sydney
Maba-l Bala Rugu (of Power in Darkness) 2013
Pastel, pencil and crayon with wash, glitter and Swarovski crystal on paper
315 x 380 cm (triptych) and ceiling-hung panels, each 153 x 187 cm
Collection: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Maba-l Bala Rugu (of Power in Darkness) 2013
Pastel, pencil and crayon with wash, glitter and Swarovski crystal on paper
315.0 x 380.0 cm (triptych) and ceiling-hung panels, each 153 x 187 cm
Installation view, Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, 2013, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Photo © NGC
Maba-l Bala Rugu (of Power in Darkness) 2013
Pastel, pencil and crayon with wash, glitter and Swarovski crystal on paper
315.0 x 380.0 cm (triptych) and ceiling-hung panels, each 153 x 187 cm
Installation view (end wall). Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art, 2013, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo © NGC
Bayi Minyjirral 2013
Bayi Minyjirral installation view Anna Schwarz Gallery, Sydney