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)

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
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