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Ella Sutherland’s approach to making is broad and interdisciplinary, with her practice encompassing painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and publishing. Her work is primarily visual in nature, and non-verbal (at least in the strict sense). It speaks to artistic traditions such as post-painterly abstraction and hard-edge painting, and yet the works also contain the clear and unmistakable use of type and pre-existing graphical forms; albeit ones that appear to be used solely as compositional elements—scaffolds upon which she constructs images or compositions, and whose textual meaning, if there were any, is obfuscated. This use of type and graphical form, as well as its rendering of (highly stylised) representations of spaces and things, whilst playful and chic, nevertheless corrupt any notion of a ‘clear view’. Sullying the purity of non-representational space, and thus breaking with those traditions with which they share a formal language.
Ella Sutherland graduated with a Master of Fine
Arts from Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
(2012). Since graduating her work has been shown widely throughout New Zealand
and international venues. Recent exhibition highlights include At Once Bridge and Chasm, Sumer, Tauranga (2022); Things That Shape Us, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch (2021); Every Artist,
City Gallery, Wellington (2021); Whether the Weather, ANKLES at Carriageworks,
Sydney (2021); FOLDS, Sumer, Tauranga (2020); Letters,
Auckland Art Fair 2020 Virtual Fair (2020); Friendship as a Way of Life,
UNSW Gallery, Sydney (2020); Bookworks, Monash Museum of Art, Melbourne
(2020); Returns, 12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2019). Sutherland has
been awarded residencies with Banff Centre for Arts, Banff; International Art
Space, Perth; Art Gallery of New
South Wales Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. In 2022,
Sutherland will be an artist-in-residence for 12 months at the Künstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin.
Contact
ellasutherland@me.com
Studio
140–142 McEvoy Street
Alexandria NSW 2015
Australia
Instagram
Represented by Sumer
Selected Solo Projects
2020 Sumer, Tauranga : FOLDS
Selected Group Projects
Selected Writing Projects
Education
Awards & Residencies
2020 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris : Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Moya Dyring Memorial Studio
2018 Banff Centre, Banff : The Evolving Book Residency
2017 Finalist, John Fries Award, Sydney
2022 FUTURES, Melbourne (upcoming)
2022 Sumer, Tauranga : At Once Bridge and Chasm
2021 ANKLES at Carriageworks, Sydney : Whether the Weather
2021 Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki, Christchurch : Housepainting I + II
2020 Sumer, Tauranga : FOLDS
2020 Te Tuhi, Auckland : Keys to The Book of the City of Ladies
2020 Sumer, Auckland Art Fair Virtual Fair: Letters
2019 Objectspace, Auckland : Recto Verso
2019 Ilam Campus Gallery, Christchurch : Carte Blanche
2018 Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington : Margins & Satellites
2016 The Dowse Art Museum, Wellington : Slow seeing and attention to make
2015 North Projects, Christchurch : Boring month start to finish
2014 ST Paul St Gallery, Auckland : The Right Here and the Moving
2014 Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin : The Comedy Loop
2013 The Physics Room, Christchurch : An Unbearded Athletic Youth
2013 SoFA Gallery, Christchurch : Madness in the Crowd
Selected Group Projects
2021 Sumer + Laree Payne Gallery : Pīpīwharauroa Shining Cuckoo
2021 Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch : Things That Shape Us
2021 City Gallery Wellington, Wellington : Every Artist
2020 UNSW Galleries, Sydney : Friendship as a Way of Life
2019 Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne : Bookworks
2019 Ramp Gallery, Hamilton :
Present Tense : Wāhine Toi Aotearoa
2018 12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju: Imagined Borders
2016 Objectspace, Auckland : Beauty is in the Street
2015 Rockies, Auckland : DEKA (with Imogen Taylor)
2015 Ramp Gallery, Hamilton : Speaking Places: How to work (with Matthew Galloway)
2015 RM, Auckland : International Artist Initiated
2015 TCB, Melbourne : Princess x sleeping muse (with Dawn Marble)
2014 Fuzzyvibes, Auckland : One hot line spinning through time (with Dawn Marble)
2014 Window, Auckland : Doghaus (with Dog Park)
2013 Slopes, Melbourne : The Knock-off Show
2013 Split/fountain, Auckland : Seeing Which Way The Wind Blows (with Matthew Galloway)
2012 Artspace, Auckland : New Artists Show
2012 The Physics Room, Christchurch : Happiness Sprinkle
2012 Dog Park, Christchurch : This That (with Dave Marshall)
2011 ABC, Christchurch : Feeding Time
Selected Writing Projects
2020 Dwelling in the Margins : Bliss (with Sophie Davis)
2019 Embodied Knowledge/Can Tame Anything : Signature Piece
2016 Assay / Essay : Feel Good Success in the Transitional City
2015 Speaking Places: Hamilton 2015 : In a Riot of Bubbles
2014 UN magazine 8.2 : Bomber Jacket for Marilyn Waring: Glossary terms A and C
2013 Work Book : Building with the ghost bitch
2012 Points of Departure : For Christchurch, with love
Education
2013 Master of Fine Arts with Distinction, University of Canterbury
2011 Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours, University of Canterbury
2010 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury
Awards & Residencies
2022–23 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin : Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Arts Residency (upcoming)
2020 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris : Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Moya Dyring Memorial Studio
2020 International Art Space, Western Australia : spaced 4: rural utopias
2018 Banff Centre, Banff : The Evolving Book Residency
2018 Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington : Summer Resident
2017 Finalist, John Fries Award, Sydney
2017 Finalist, Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, Sydney
2016 Merit Award, National Contemporary Art Award, Hamilton
Bibliography