BIOGRAPHY
Australian artist, Natalie Lavelle is best known for her edging strips of (semi-)exposed linen, and layers of colour. At the centre of her practice lies a profound engagement with the very substance of paint. She explores the physical, spatial and material existence and considers those relationships with abstraction. Washes of colour are pulled across her works to create thin layers of pigment, which she gradually layers on top of one another. Each semi-translucent layer forms new formal relationships, blends, and associations with the next. Throughout this process she openly acknowledges materiality, perception and objecthood so that there is capacity for experience. Recent paintings contemplate specific colour considerations. Stained with soft hues of pinks and purples, the surface gives the impression of a fading blemish. As your gaze shifts through the canvas, you notice the erasure of her paint and its contusion with each weft and weave of the linen. Her practice wavers between human and material concerns where abstraction and monochrome paintings have become the foundation of a pursuit to re-blur the limitations and boundaries of the traditional easel painting. Resonating with colour field painters and post-minimalists, as well as the language of early non-objective painting, her early work consists of precise, monochrome geometries embedded together with string. She has more recently worked with colour, staining and spatial considerations. Working in arenas of rich-pigment acrylics and oils, her practice explores surprising polarities such as, the artist’s control and spontaneity, and the works’ materiality and pictorial illusion. Her practice wavers in human and material concerns where abstraction and monochrome paintings have become the foundation of a personal pursuit to re-blur the limitations and boundaries of the traditional easel painting.
CV
Natalie Lavelle is based in Meanjin / Brisbane. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art Honours (Class I) from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (2020) where she was the recipient of the Zonta Club Brisbane River Acquisitive Prize (2018) and a Diploma of Visual Art from Southbank Institute of Technology (2016). Her work has been exhibited at Jan Manton Gallery, Outer Space, QCA Galleries, Stable, Saint Cloche, Five Walls, Byron School of Art and Royal Queensland Art Society where she was awarded the Abstraction Art Prize (2020) by judge, Andrew Baker. Natalie’s work is in the collections of Artbank; Queensland Children’s Hospital; and various corporate and private collections. Natalie is represented by Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane AUS, and Galeria Azur, Berlin GER.
EDUCATION
2020 Bachelor of Fine Art Honours (Class I), Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
2019 Bachelor of Fine Art, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
2016 Diploma of Visual Art, South Bank Institute of Technology
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Ways of Being, Jan Manton Gallery, Teneriffe (Qld)
2021 Pictorial Space, Five Walls, Footscray (Vic)
2021 Physical Perception, STABLE Artspace partnered with Brisbane Art Design (BAD)
2021 Rekindle, Jan Manton Gallery, Teneriffe (Qld)
2020 Deliberate Pictures, Jan Manton Gallery
2020 Flatform, Grey Street Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
2019 Brushstrokes on Paper, Zonta Club of Brisbane, West End (Qld)
2018 Dark Nuance, The Third Quarter, Petrie Terrace (Qld)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Coast to Coast, Saint Cloche, Paddington (NSW)
2022 Brisbane Club Members Exhibition, Brisbane Club
2021 Something More, Outer Space contemporary arts organisation, Brisbane
2021 Look At/Look Through, Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby (NSW)
2020 LOOM, Side Gallery, Red Hill (Qld)
2020 QCA Honours Graduate Exhibition, Queensland College of Art
2020 ABSTRACTION Art Prize Exhibition, Royal Queensland Art Society, Brisbane
2020 Boiling Point, The Third Quarter, Petrie Terrace (Qld
)
2019 Materiality, Agency and the Body, Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art
2018 QCA Undergraduate Exhibition, Queensland College of Art
2018 Green, Percolator Gallery, Paddington (Qld)
2018 Expanded, POP Gallery, Woolloongabba (Qld
)
AWARDS
2020 Winner – ABSTRACTION Art Prize Exhibition, Royal Queensland Art Society
2018 Winner – The Zonta Club Brisbane River Acquisitive Prize, QCA
2017-2019 Griffith Award for Academic Excellence in Fine Art – QCA, Griffith University
PUBLIC ART
2019 Mindful Trace, Queensland Children’s Hospital
2017 Make Your Mark, QCA Webb Centre Group Project, Queensland College of Art
WORK HISTORY
2022 Queensland College of Art (QCA) Painting Tutor, Griffith Univeristy, Brisbane
2022 Queensland College of Art (QCA) LiveArt, John Reid Pavilion Mural, Brisbane
2021 Facilitator, Conceptual Drawing Class, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane
2020 Public Art, iAM Projects, Kyra Mancktelow, Ipswich (Qld)
2020 Public Art, Museum of Brisbane (MoB), The Storytellers Exhibition, Brisbane
2019 Public Art, iAM Projects, Sam Songailo, Ipswich (Qld
)
2019 Public Art, Integrity 20 (Griffith University), Ms Saffaa, Brisbane
2018 Milani Gallery, Richard Bell Studio Assistant, Yeronga Studios (Qld)
2018 Public Art, Queensland Rail, Simon Degroot, Brisbane
2018 Public Art, W Hotel, Lucas Grogan, Brisbane
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
2018 Installation – The 9th Asian Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Gallery of Modern Art
(QAGOMA)
2018 Installation, Research and Gallery Services – Griffith University Art Museum
2018 Internship – Griffith University Art Museum and Collections Office
2016 Visual Art and Set Design Team – Brisbane Festival
COLLECTIONS
Artbank, Sydney
Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane
Various corporate and private collections
ORGANISATIONS
2018 Member – National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA)
