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)

Ghost Queen of the river 2017
Wax pastel, oil stick, wash with oil pigment, watercolour and pencil on paper
Paper size 140 x 172 cm Framed size 147.5 x 179.5 cm
Tolarno Galleries @50 Pt 1
on a noncorreolationist thought I – XIV 2016
C-print photograph on metallic photographic paper
80 cm diameter
Installation view 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object Samstag Museum, Adelaide
on a noncorreolationist thought I – XIV 2016
C-print photograph on metallic photographic paper,
80 cm diameter
Installation view 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object Samstag Museum, Adelaide
480 Queen Street 2014 – 2016
Laminated glass panels
800 cm height, 
total area approximately 350 m2
Public art commission: 480 Queen Street, Brisbane with Grocon and BVN 
Digital imaging from original artwork
a universe of things 2016
Mixed media on paper with wash, polished wax, ochres, human hair
300 x 740 cm, 704 panels differing dimensions
Installation view 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Photography Saul Steed
a universe of things 2016
Mixed media on paper with wash, polished wax, ochres, human hair
300 x 740 cm, 704 panels differing dimensions
Installation view 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Photography Saul Steed
Deep (forest) 2015
Mixed media on paper with wash
27 panels, each 120 x 100cm, overall 360 x 900 cm
Installation view, 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery. Photography Natasha Harth
Deep (forest) (detail) 2015
Mixed media on paper with wash
27 panels, each 120 x 100cm, overall 360 x 900 cm
Installation view, 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA. Photography Natasha Harth
Bayi dambun bala mila 2014
Mixed media on paper
300 x 360 cm, 9 panels each 100 x 120 cm
Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art
Wild honey: Balam girnyjal (from the mouth of the dry hollow tree) 2014
Mixed media on paper
230 x 153 cm
Private collection, Brisbane