Chelle Destefano, a Deaf artist, born in 1979 and currently lives in Melbourne, Victoria. She lived in Adelaide, South Australia for 18 years where she cultivated her arts career. She has been practising her arts since 2001 and exhibiting since 2006 and most recently as an international artist in Europe.
Chelle works in multi mediums including sculpture, installation, performance and video, painting and drawing and some of her body of works combine more than one of these mediums. She is interested in identifying underlying issues that have occurred or are occurring in the world such as the decline of insects due to climate change, and other events, personal or open-world.
Chelle has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design (2006) from SA (South Australia) Arts School and she is currently studying her Master of Contemporary Art in Melbourne at The University of Melbourne under VCA (Victorian College of Arts).
She exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and Paris and London in 2016, Berlin and Rome in 2017.
She was a finalist in the Banyule Art Prize for her Auslan Sculpture set, in Melbourne, Australia. She was also a finalist in the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Prize for her drawing of the Auslan sculptures, and then the Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award for her huge Deaf Gathering Auslan installation. She then became a finalist again in the Australia Post Art Prize in January 2020. Her new set of Auslan sculptures relating to the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, was selected for the Australia Post Art Prize.
Chelle Destefano - Artist CV and Bio
www.chelledestefano.com
Education
2020-Current Masters of Contemporary Art - Victorian
College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
2001-2006 Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design – O’Halloran
Hill TAFE Campus, Adelaide
Awards/Scholarships
2019 Arts Activated Grant
recipient by Moreland Council for Auslan Movement Performance
Creative Victoria grant Recipient for Business
Mentoring with John Paul to develop a Deaf arts project
2018 Regional Arts Victoria
Community Arts Grants Recipient for Bushfires of 2009
Regional Arts Victoria grant recipient
for the Sydney Other Art Fair
2016 Australian Arts Council grant - funding for Paris and London
exhibitions
Richard
Llewellyn Arts grant – funding for Wait of World Exhibition in Melbourne
2015 Arts
SA Makers and Presenter’s Grant for Blue Ghosts Exhibition in Melbourne, March
2015
2014 Richard
Llewellyn Arts grant – funding to attend Arts Activated Conference, October
2014
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Invisibly Deaf, Performance,
Brunswick Mechanics Institute, Melbourne (November)
The Deaf Culture exhibition, Incinerator
Gallery - Boadle Hall, Melbourne
2019 The Auslan Movement show (performance
and exhibition), Melbourne Fringe Festival
Bushfires 2009:10 Year Anniversary, Wonthaggi
ArtSpace Gallery, Wonthaggi, Victoria
2018 The story of the Baby
Moon, FernArtz Gallery, Coburg, Melbourne
2016 Chelle's
Collections in Paris,
Galerie Metanoia, Paris, France
Wait
of World in SALA Festival, City
Library, Rundle Mall, Adelaide South Australia
Wait of the World, Gasworks, Art Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2015 Collection of Blue Ghost artworks, Venice
Biennale, Italy, Ca' Zanardi Palezzo
Inking
History, invited by Thebarton, West Torrens
Council Gallery
Roam the Blue Ghosts I,
House of Bricks, Collingwood, Melbourne
2014 Rainbow Abstracts Series, Adelaide
Convention Centre – SALA Festival
Port
Noarlunga My Home Town, Port
Noarlunga Arts Centre
Group Exhibitions
2020 Platform Live 2020, Eastern
Riverina Arts Festival, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia
Emerging Writers Festival, performance poem 'Deaf Voices', digital online, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
The
Other Art Fair, Sydney, NSW (postponed to a later date TBA). Australia
Finalist
Exhibition for Midsumma Australia Post Art Award, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2019 Selected Exhibition, Axiom: A Reimagined Reality, SpACE@Collins, Melbourne, Australia
Finalist
Exhibition for Noel Counihan Commemorative
Award, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Finalist
Exhibition for the Lyn McCrea Memorial
Drawing Prize, Noosa Regional Gallery, QLD, Australia
Selected Catalogue Exhibition for Ignite by Rotary Club/Arts Access
Victoria, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Finalist
Exhibition in the Banyule Art Prize,
Hatch Contemporary Arts Space, Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Australia
2018 QLD
Deaf Arts Exhibition, Juried,
Brisbane, QLD. Second prize winner, Australia
The Skin Gallery show
duo with Luke King, Exhibition of two Deaf artists, Australia
The Other
Fair,
Sydney, Australia
2017 Rome Arts Expo Exhibition with MUSA
International Art Space, Me
& Baby Moon portrait, Rome, Italy
Berlin Pop Up Exhibition with Corry Siw
Mirski by Arts Access Australia, Brotfabrik Art Gallery Space, Berlin, Germany
2015 juried Art Show: A Single Grain of Rice,
Gallery Metanoia, Paris, France
2014 Christmas Exhibition, Art Images, Norwood, South Australia
Residencies and Development
2021 June-July -
Collaboration with music school, The Inspiration Orchestra, Scotland, UK
2021 June - Artist residency at Siena Art Institute, Siena, Italy
2020 Creative
Development residency for performance, Brunswick Mechanics Institute
(postponed, date TBA), Australia
2019 - 2020 Oct-Jan
selected as one of the 5 artists for Artist in Residency at Heritage Hill,
Dandenong, Australia
2019 Sept - One of three judges for a juried art
show at VDC (Victorian Deaf College), Australia
2019 Cultural
Threads, Nebula, Dandenong,
textile collaborations with Warren Loorham, Karen Walker, Rhian Hinkley and Kim Charman
2019
Testing Grounds - Test Sites workshop
2017
Berlin - Workshop teaching
collaboration with Corry Siw Mirski, leading tour exhibition and my duo
exhibition with Corry
