EXHIBITIONS
PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS
2010 Thunderbolt installation South Broken Hill. Initially for Desert Equinox, Australia’s first solar art exhibition. Organised by the Environmental Research Initiative for Art)ERIA), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales in collaboration with the Broken Hill Art Exchange.
2010 Thunderbolt Jacaranda Park, Sydney Olympic Park. to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the beginning of the Sydney Olympics.
2006 Lake Thunder Thuy Tien Lake, Thien An, Hue, Vietnam. Public sculpture commission, 4th International Sculpture Symposium, Hue, Vietnam. Tube steel, photovoltaic paint; 6 metres high. The zig-zag graphics of the sculpture, Lake Thunder quotes the symbol for loud sound or pain in comics, danger and electricity, as well as thunder & lightning, its dynamic shape signifying energy and life. That it’s coming out of the Earth rather than the sky is integral to the meaning of the work. The sculpture glows in the dark – a sceptre of the Earth’s energies at night. The title, “Lake Thunder” brings the sculpture’s site into focus as an essential aspect of the work.
The conjunction of lake and thunder also refers to traditional Taoist philosophical principals: “THUNDER stands for our true essence, LAKE stands for our true sense, WATER stands for our real knowledge, and FIRE stands for our conscious knowledge. These four are the true ‘four forms’ inherent in us.” [from the Inner Teachings of Taoism, Chang Po-Tuan, Shambala Books, 1986]
2002 Longevity: Scissors and Sickles Hue, Vietnam. Public sculpture commission, 3rd International Sculpture Symposium: Hue, Vietnam. Sand caste handmade scissors and sickles in bronze, shrapnel from the Vietnam War. 1.2m diam. X 2.2 m H.
This work is an interpretation of a Chinese character, dearly loved in Vietnam, that signifies longevity. It is made of scrap metal, including shrapnel recycled from the Vietnam War, to caste scissors sold in Hue’s market place, made by local blacksmiths. They are different shapes and sizes, from huge shears to tiny nail scissors and are associated with women’s work. The sickles are also made by local blacksmiths, and used by all to harvest rice. The form’s structure is based on the tensile strength of a three dimensional lattice.
1998 Light House 1st International Sculpture Symposium: Hue, Vietnam. Playground of the Children’s Cultural Centre, Le Loi Street, Hue. Public sculpture commission, architectural folly.
Brick, reinforced concrete, ceramic, paint. Approx. 5.5 metres high, 1.5 metres diameter. Built using traditional Vietnamese building methods and materials.
The form is based on commonly seen rice straw hay stacks in the Hue district. Three one metre high arches open into a child size, “cubby” with a perforated, conical roof. The drum-like internal space acts as an acoustic chamber that collects sounds from the surrounding environment. Overhead, bands of ever changing, natural light and shadow create an unexpected light show in the cone’s interior.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Milani Gallery, Brisbane. I Will Take You There: the Great Artesian Basin - floor map with Legend; 5 Dancers; Road Trip video. Documentation, A Mother Shows Her Daughter to the Universe. Image & Text works. Menindee Fish Kill.
Bonita Ely: Artist’s Room, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Murray River Punch; Controlled Atmosphere. Performance documentation.
Slip Slap, performance, Waterhouse, the Cutaway, Bennelong, Sydney Biennale, re/ plastic pollution.
2020, 21
Momento, Penrith Regional Gallery, Interior Decoration: Trench, Watchtower, Sewing Machine Gun, Tour of Duty, DUKw. Plastikus Progressus.
2019
Bonita Ely: Future Tense, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane. Survey exhibition: Plastikus Progressus; We Live to be Surprised: the Snabbits; The Locust People, painting, 1975; Dogwoman documentation, 1982, 1986.
2018
Brewery Tap Gallery, Folkestone, UK. Snabbits.: We Live to be Surprised. Installation, sculpture and text. Plastikus Progressus, taxonomies and touch screen.
2013
Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Interior Decoration Installation addressing ongoing, intergenerational effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) & war.
C20th Century Mythological Beasts: At Home with Locust People. 1975, installation with Sunset Video
2011
Three Rivers, photography, drawing, performance documentation. Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide.
2010
Murray River Punch, performance documentation (1980). National Gallery of Victoria
2009
The Murray’s Edge, (solo), photographic series, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The Murray’s Edge, (solo), photographic series, COFAspace gallery, College of Fine Arts, Sydney. PhD examination presentation.
The Murray’s Edge, (solo), Ocular Lab, Melbourne.
2008
The Murray’s Edge, Milani Gallery, Brisbane. New photographs (2007. 2008), and historical material – works on paper, photography and performance documentation from the Murray River Project since 1977.
2005
Wildlife Documentary, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland. Video, photographs, drawings, sculpture.
2004
Wildlife Documentary, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Installation of works on paper and videos.
2003
Bonsai Landscape Installation for the Australian exhibition, Outside Inside: fragments in place, Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2001
Inside Mawson’s Sleeping Bag: the Poetics of Heroism. Photography and text: travelling -
Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland
Stills Gallery, Sydney
2000
Inside Mawson’s Sleeping Bag: the Poetics of Heroism, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1999
Juggernaut, Asian Biennale of Contemporary Art, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Customs House, Sydney, Juggernaut
Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, Juggernaut
1998
Light House, Public art commission, 2nd International Sculpture Symposium, Hue, Vietnam.
1997
1968 Installation for Artists In The House! Elizabeth Bay House Contemporary Art Installation Program, Elizabeth Bay House, Historic Houses Trust, Sydney
Melbourne Festival. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Juggernaut.
1995
Solo exhibition, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.
1994
Sleeper’s Ties 111 – Highways Gallery, 2 part installation, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Sleeper’s Ties 11 – New Gallery, 2 part installation, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
One Person exhibition, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane.
1993
Sleepers/Ties 1 Urban intervention near Olympic Boulevard and 17th Street, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
1992
Histories, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Works on paper.
Histories, Annandale Galleries, Sydney. Works on paper.
1990
We Live To Be Surprised, Performance Space, Sydney. Snabbits and Thunderbolts in an installation
We Live To Be Surprised, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland
1989
Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland. Paintings, Outback, Australia for Master of Fine Arts. Researching the concept of ‘wilderness’ - there is no wilderness, all Indigenous nations’ country, homes.
1988
Bellas Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland
1987
Phototropic, Performance Space, Sydney
Lake Benanee paintings, Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney
1986
Dogwoman Makes History, performance and installation, First Draft, Sydney
1985
The Murray River Project, Performance Space, Sydney
1984
Supreme Court Building, George Street, Sydney. Shop front installation of pinhole cameras titled 1984.
Avago, Sydney. 1984 surveillance piece, pinhole camera, 1984 (2nd iteration).
1983
Controlled Atmosphere, performative installation, Artspace, Sydney
The Murray River Project, Adelaide Arts Centre
Solo exhibition, Praxis, Freemantle, WA. Works on paper.
Jabiluka UO2, performance, Praxis, Freemantle, WA
1981
Mt Feathertop Project, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Murray River Punch, performance, Rundle Street Mall, Adelaide. Experimental Art Foundation residency
Art Projects, Melbourne: Mount Feathertop, wall hanging, Autumn
Mt Feathertop Project, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Earthworks, Baja California, Mexico.
1979
Mt Feathertop Project, panoramic drawings, sculpture; Art Projects, Melbourne
1975
C20th Mythological Beasts: At Home With The Locust People, installation, West Street Gallery, Sydney
1969
Student solo exhibition, Prahran College of Fine Arts, Melbourne. Sculpture.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Sydney Biennale, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Locust People paintings and installation:
C20th Century Mythological Beasts: At Home with the Locust People, installation, with Sunset Video, sound by Mark Freedman.
Paintings: The Locust People: Itchy Feet, collage and acrylic on canvas.
The Locust People, collage and acrylic on canvas.
The Locust People’s Swimming Pool AGNSW, , collage and acrylic on canvas;
Sydney Biennale, University of New South Wales Galleries, Paddington,, Sydney
Interior Decoration, installation - Watchtower, Singer Sewing Machine, Trench, Tour of Duty (photographic dado of images related to trauma), sound.
2023
An Offering, Car Park Gallery at Milani Gallery, Brisbane, A Mother Shows Her Daughter to the Universe. Exhibition of works regarding motherhood
AGNSW Collection, Murray River photgraphy;
AGNSW Collection, Itchy Feet: the Locust People (1975) acrylic on canvas.
Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, travelling exhibition - Murray River Punch, 1980, performance video.
· Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery: 25 November 2023 – 18 Feb. 2024
· Horsham Art Gallery: 1 March 2024 – 19 May 2024
· Tweed Regional Gallery: 31 May 2024 – 25 August 2024
· Perc Tucker Regional Gallery: 13 September 2024 – 17 November 2024
· Rockhampton Museum of Art: 29 November 2024 – 1 March 2025
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory: 13 Apr. 2025 – 28 July 2025.
Menindee Fish Kill 2019, Desert Equinox: energy producing art in the arid zone, Broken Hill, Organisation - Environmental Research Initiative for Art, UNSW Art & Design (ERIA) and Broken Hill Art Exchange (BHAE).
2022
Desert Equinox, Broken Hill. ERIA event. Framed Menindee Fish Kill, hanging in the bush.
A Year in Art: Australia 1992, Tate Gallery, London. Jabiluka UO2, performance video.
Personal Structures, European Cultural Centre Biennale, Palazzo Bembo, Venice, concurrent with the Venice Biennale. Menindee Fish Kill, performance for camera, with Melissa Williams-Brown, photographer
Courage and Beauty: The James C. Sourris AM Collection, QAGOMA. C20th Mythological Beasts: at Home with the Locust People. Installation
Undercurrents, Penrith Regional Gallery, Let Me Take You There: the Great Artesian Basin. Floor map.
One Vast Library: A Diachronic Wind, MADA Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield Campus. Photographic documentation, A Mother Shows Her Daughter to the Universe, performance, (1982, ACT3 Performance Festival, Canberra). Curator, Tim Riley
All air, all space, all light, Goulburn Regional Gallery. Bithry Inlet brush and ink works on paper; video, Life in a Day; photographic etching, The River’s Edge
2021
Know My Name, National Gallery of Australia, Murray River Punch. Also featured in Sue Ford’s film, Faces; Vivienne Binns, Tower of Babel.
2014
On Return and What Remains, Artspace: Artworks from Interior Decoration - Sewing Machine Gun, Watchtower, Dado.
2012
101 Contemporary Australian Artists, Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria
Agent Orange Benefit, Mori Gallery, Sydney. Raised +$25,000. Ecology 101: Bottlebrush, photograph.
Volume One: the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Documentation of performance, Jabiluka UO2
Excavation, Armory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Park. Murray River Grids.
2011
A Different Temporality, Monash University Museum of Art [MUMA], Melbourne. Photography, 1977; video of the 1980 Murray River Punch performance; etchings; publication, Murray/Murundi, pub. EAF, 1981.
Buffer Zone, Sydney Olympic Park Armory Gallery, Sydney. Reverb, Site specific sound installation. An Environmental Research Initiative for Art project (ERIA), COFA
Tell Me Tell Me: Australian and Korean Art 1976-2011. Museum of Contemporary Art satellite exhibition, the National Art School Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Artist’s box from Austauch/Exchange (collaboration with Marr Grounds, 1982)
Tell Me Tell Me: Australian and Korean Art 1976-2011. National Museum of Contemporary Art. Seoul, Korea. Artist’s box from Austauch/Exchange (collaboration with Marr Grounds, 1982)
Perspectiktiva, COFAspace. Screening, Shock & Awe: Chookwoman’s Tour of the Georges River Headwaters. PowerPoint
2010
In the Balance, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Printmaking, performance, book (Murray/Murundi), photography from 1977 to 2008, from the Murray River series
River, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Cambelltown, NSW. Commission to photograph the Georges River. Photography and an edition of postcards
The Challenged Landscape, UTS Gallery. Photography and performance of Murray River Punch: the 21st Century. Curator, Sandy Edwards
Cry Me a River, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney University. Drawing and photography on a Chinese- style scroll regarding the proposed Tillegra Dam
To Give Time to Time, Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. Murray River Punch and Murray River Punch: the 21st Century performance screenings
To Give Time to Time, Mildura Palimpsest, Mildura, Victoria. Murray River Punch and Murray River Punch: the 21st Century performance screenings
2009
Artists’ Ink, Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Ararat, Victoria. Printmaking acquired for the Warrnambool Art Gallery collection through the Henri Warland Art Prize
2008
When You Think About Art, Ewing and George Paton Galleries, Melbourne University. Image and text.
Heat: Art and Climate Change, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne. Photography and performance documentation of Murray River Punch.
2007
Five by Five, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney. Heinous Experiments, email Art , Collaboration with Peter Hill
2007
Artists’ Ink, printmaking acquired for the Warrnambool Art Gallery collection through the Henri Warland Art Prize. Warrnambool Art Gallery, Warrnambool, Victoria
Christmas Show, Milani Gallery, Brisbane [formally Bellas Milani Gallery]
2006
The Cleveland Street Project. A group exhibition to mark the passing of Cleveland Street as the location of Performance Space, funded by the Australia Council, and the NSW Ministry for the Arts. World Wild Life Documentary An installation of video, email art assemblage, bobby pin works and Chinese brush and ink paintings explore our nature as a species, rather than as a privileged human being. The installed works on paper are a graphic, temporal equivalent of the videos, describing in time and space a nuanced examination of our habitat.
Procession, Mai’s Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photographic assemblages
George Petelin Gallery, Southport. Works on paper
Concept presentation, Glebe Point Road Public Sculpture Project, Glebe Town Hall
2005
National Sculpture Prize. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Bonsai Landscape.
States of Transformation, COFA Gallery, UNSW
2004
EveN, Mildura Arts Centre, Lake Benanee, painting
2003
This was the Future: Australian Sculpture of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and Today, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.
Reverb, Mai’s Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Outside In, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney. Installation, Infrastructure 2620BR
2002
Fieldwork: Inaugural exhibition of Federation Square’s Ian Potter Centre for Australian art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Hue: An installation of works on paper, 4A Gallery, Sydney, with Glen Clark, Sue Peddley and Gail Kenny
Border Panic, Performance Space and Museum Of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Installation, Bluey and Curley Conducts the Children’s Choir
3 Foot Square, COFA, with Marr Grounds, Tony Coleing, Shayne Higson. Sculpture. Bain Marie
2001
Histories in the Making, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney. Photo assemblage
2000
Spitting and Biting, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne. Assemblage of prints and drawing
1999
We Are Australian, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne [travelling]. Artist’s book, Hold
Shifting Currents: College of Fine Arts Faculty, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, the University of New South Wales. Sculpture
1998
Co-Existence: Australian Artists Against Racism, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney. Collaboration with Pulpuru Davies. Assemblage.
Private Parts, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne. Installation
The Acid Test, Project Space, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, (RMIT). Printmaking
1997
Gift For India, Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, Lalit Kala Galleries, New Delhi; Gallery Chemould, Bombay. Sculpture
1996
Parking, Casula Power House, Casula, Sydney. Paper sculpture, Lila and De Witt’s Patent Digestive System
1996
The Murray River, travelling (cont.), Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale
1995
The Murray River, Regional Art Galleries, Victoria. Travelling to the following regional galleries:
Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria
Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt. Gambier, S.A.
Shepperton Art Gallery, Victoria
Albury Regional Art Centre, Victoria
Salon des Refusés 1995, S.H.Irvine Gallery, Sydney
Girls Girls Girls, women’s show to mark the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations, Year of the Woman. Annandale Galleries, Sydney. Also Orange Regional Gallery
“Eveolution”, Group exhibition of Australian women artists from the permanent collection, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, Newcastle, NSW.
Out Of The Box, group sculpture exhibition travelling to the following regional galleries across Australia, 1994 - 1995:
Nolan Gallery, Canberra, A.C. T.
Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, N.S.W.
Mildura Arts Centre, Vic.
Benalla Art Gallery, Vic.
Geraldton Art Gallery, W.A.
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, W.A.
Bunbury Art Galleries, W.A. “Out of the Box”, -
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, N.S.W.
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, N.S.W.
1994
5 Women Artists from Bellas Gallery, Umbrella Studio, Townsville, Queensland
The Women’s Show, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
25 Years of Performance Art in Australia; an historical survey exhibition of performance art and documentation travelling to the following galleries:
Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.
Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1993
Spirit Level. Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne.
Virtu, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1992
We Live to be Surprised, installation, Unfamiliar Territory, Adelaide Biennial of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia
1990
We Live to be Surprised: the Snabbits, Art Dock, Noumea, New Caledonia. Survey of Australian contemporary art.
1989
We Live to be Surprised: the Snabbits, In Transit, Canterbury, UK.
We Live to be Surprised: the Snabbits, In Transit, Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
Australian Prints, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1988
Bicentennial Print Portfolio, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Fired Earthwork, Adelaide Arts Festival. Visual art curator, Louise Dauth
1985
Dogwoman Makes History, Making Appearances, Charlottenberg Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, curated by Gary Sangster, Artspace, for the 5th International Theatre Festival, Copenhagen, June 1985
Homage, Sculpture exhibition curated by Stephanie Britton. South Australian College of the Arts, Adelaide, South Australia
Untitled, Homage, artist’s book. Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Work on paper, sawdust fired ceramics, photocopies.
1983
Continuum, Survey of Australian Art, G Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Controlled Atmosphere. Performance. Anzart, Hobart, Tasmania
AustachExchange (collaboration with Marr Grounds), installation. Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.
1982
Birth of daughter, Marina Charlotte Grounds Ely
Dogwoman Communicates with the Younger Generation, Performance Festival, Kunsterhaus Bethanien, West Berlin
Austach/Exchange (collaboration with Marr Grounds), installation. Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, West Berlin.
1981
1st Australian Sculpture Triennial, Latrobe University, Melbourne. Shelter, outdoor installation, cloth, rope, tent pegs. Canada. Australia/Canada Artist Exchange
Harbourfront, Toronto, Canada. Australia/Canada Artist Exchange. Landscapes: Australia Canada. Outdoor installation, clay, sand, cloth.
Jabiluka UO2, performance, Orange Regional Art Gallery, N.S.W.
1980
Murray River Punch, performance, George Paton and Ewing Gallery, Melbourne University. Women at Work, a festival of women’s performance art
ACT 1: Performance and Participatory Art, Australian National University Arts Centre, Canberra; Jabiluka UO2
The Security Show, George Paton & Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne. HQ, installation
15 Sculptors (travelling) The Murray River. Handmade paper, etchings, earth.
Work exhibited at:
National Gallery of Victoria
The Benalla Art Gallery
Warrnambool Art Gallery
Hamilton City Gallery
McClelland Gallery
Wollongong Art Gallery
Mildura Art Gallery
Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
3+3+9, Harbourfront Gallery, Toronto, Canada. Australia/Canada Artist Exchange.
Bread Line, Anzart, Christchurch, New Zealand. Performance
1979
Jabiluka UO2, performance, Preston Institute of Technology, Melbourne Performance event
1978
The Women’s Show, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide.
The Map Show, George Paton & Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne. Life Is Full of Situations, coloured etching
Seventh Sculpture Triennial, Mildura. Preserves, 1977. Floor piece with photographs and found objects. Mount Feathertop - A Wilderness Area: Part A, 1978. Papier mache model of Mount Feathertop, drawings, maps, photography (slide show)
Seventh Sculpture Triennial, Mildura. Profile of Australian Women Sculptors 1860 – 1960. Prepared for the Women’s Art Register Extension Project with Anna Havana. Slide show with publication
Jabaluka UO2, Act 1: Performance and Participatory Art, Australian National University Arts Centre, Canberra (Nov)
1977
Women’s Postal Event; Institute of Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman, a drawing for Lip magazine
The Money Show, George Paton & Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne. Money Tree Seed (with Margaret Bell)
1976
Three Statements on Environment, George Paton & Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne. Installation, C20th Mythological Beasts: at Home with the Locust Family.
Post Object Show, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide. Installation, C20th Mythological Beasts: at Home with the Locust Family
1975
The Grid Show, George Paton & Ewing Galleries, University of Melbourne. 108 Reflections, patchwork quilt.
1972
Two person exhibition with Margaret Bell, Cylon Tea Centre Gallery, London. Installation.
1969
Group student exhibition, Prahran College of Fine Arts. Melbourne