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)

Bayi Minyjirral 2013
Pastel, pencil and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
300 x 360 cm, 9 panels each 100 x 120 cm
Private collection, Brisbane
Paradise garden (different country, same story) 2012
Pastel, pencil and wash with glitter, Swarovski crystal on Saunders Waterford paper
153 x 206 cm
Collection: Art Gallery of Western Australia
Postcards from the edge (in search of living curiosities) 2011
Pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
152.5 x 221.5 cm
Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Paradise in the sun 2010
Pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
192.5 x 153.5 cm
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
An Elysian city (of picturesque landscapes and memory) 2010
Pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
143 x 186 cm
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
From rite to ritual 2009
Pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on Saunders Waterford paper
178.0 x 133.5 cm
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Red white and blue 2008
Mixed media with taxidermy
Height of tallest kangaroo 101 cm
Collection: National Museum of Australia
Exotic lies and sacred ties (the heart that conceals, the tongue that never reveals) 2008
Pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and wash on paper, framed, with mosaic china, taxidermy animals and painted wood
325 x 325 x 130 cm variable
Collection: The University of Queensland
Native gold 2008
Taxidermy, mosaic china, wood, artificial rock, breastplate and neon
122.0 x 195.0 x 91.0 cm
Museum of Contemporary Art. Photograph: Jenni Carter
Native gold 2008
Taxidermy, mosaic china, wood, artificial rock, breastplate and neon
122.0 x 195.0 x 91.0 cm
Museum of Contemporary Art. Photograph: Jenni Carter