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 practicing her arts since 2001 and exhibiting since 2006 and most recently as an international artist in Europe.
She exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and Paris and London in 2016, Berlin and Rome in 2017.
She was recently 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 that is being shown in January 2020. Her new set of Auslan sculptures relating to the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, was selected for the Australia Post Art Prize.
She works with watercolour, ink, acrylic, gouache and mixed media to communicate her stories on past lives and living in the now. She is beginning to work in other artforms that include sculpture and art installations to compliment her visual art works.Chelle has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design (2006) from SA (South Australia) Arts School.
She consistently works on a body of artwork of a particular theme at one time, to produce a moving series of works that are perfect for the exhibition environment.
Awards/Scholarships
2019 - Finalist in the
Banyule Prize 2019
- Creative Victoria grant Recipient for Mentorship
and Deaf arts project development
- Selected for Testing
Grounds Test Sites workshop for my project development
2018 - Regional Arts Victoria Community Arts Grants Recipient
for Bushfires of 2009
- Second
prize winner in the major QLD Deaf arts exhibition
- Australian Cultural Fund grant
Recipient for The Cot Story show in Fringe Festival
- 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 August - September - Postcards with Love, Tentative venue TBA
May - Deaf
Girl's Blank Canvas exhibition, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
2019 September - The Auslan Movement show
(performance and exhibition), Melbourne Fringe Festival
March - Bushfires 2009:10 Year
Anniversary, Wonthaggi ArtSpace Gallery, Wonthaggi, Victoria
2018 November - The story of the Baby Moon, FernArtz Gallery, Coburg, Melbourne
2016 September - Chelle's Collections in
Paris, Galerie Metanoia, Paris, France
August - Wait of World in SALA
Festival, City Library, Rundle
Mall, Adelaide South Australia
May - June - Wait of the World, Gasworks, Art Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2015 November - Venice Biennale, Italy,
Ca' Zanardi Palezzo, Collection of
Blue Ghost artworks; 4 pieces
June - Inking History, invited by Thebarton, West
Torrens Council Gallery
Solo exhibition
of illustrations on the heritage buildings of Hindmarsh, Adelaide, South
Australia
March - April ? Roam the Blue Ghosts I, House
of Bricks, Collingwood, Melbourne
2014 August - Rainbow Abstracts Series, Adelaide Convention Centre ? SALA Festival
Exhibition for
Rainbow Abstract paintings on Wood for the SALA Festival
May -
June - Port
Noarlunga My Home Town, Port
Noarlunga Arts Centre
Solo exhibition of
watercolour drawings of the town Port Noarlunga
Group Exhibitions
2019 August - Finalist Exhibition in the Banyule Art
Prize, Hatch Contemporary
Arts Space, Ivanhoe, Melbourne
2018 November - The Flow Festival, The Cot Story
October - QLD Deaf Arts Exhibition, Juried, Brisbane, QLD. Second prize winner
May - The Skin Gallery show duo
with Luke King, Exhibition of two Deaf artists
March - The Other Fair, Sydney,
Australia
January
to June - ArtSpace
Wonthaggi, Victoria, Australia
2017 October - Rome Arts Expo Exhibition
with MUSA International Art Space,
Me & Baby Moon portrait
October - Berlin Pop Up Exhibition with Corry Siw
Mirski under Arts Access Australia, Brotfabrik Art Gallery Space, Berlin,
Germany
August - SALA show at Dulwich with two other artists, Adelaide, SA
2016 July -
September -
The Healing Power of ART 2016 Exhibition, Manhattan Arts International, Manhattan, USA
July - Duo with Kathy Smith, Artisan Framing Gallery
2015 December - Juried Art Show: A Single
Grain of Rice, Gallery Metanoia, Paris, France
2014 December - Christmas Exhibition, Art Images, Norwood, SA
Residencies and Development
2020 March - open studio, 3 days at Abbotsford Convent for the development of
Deaf Girl's Blank Canvas
2019 - 2020 Mentorship and
Deaf Culture Art Project development
2019 April - Testing Grounds - Test Sites workshop
2017 Berlin - Workshop teaching
collaboration with Corry Siw Mirski, leading tour exhibition and my duo exhibition with Corry
