group exhibitions
selected
2021
The National, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Flesh After Fifty, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
A World of One's Own, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC
Fest Anca, Slovakia
Film Festival Breman, Germany
Burnt Experimental Video Art Festival, Montreal, Canada
Little Islands Festival, Greece
2020
Cut It! Collage to Meme, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD
Queer Contemporary, National Art School Galleries, Sydney
2019
Being Human Wellcome Trust permanent exhibition, London UK
Cementa, Kandos biannual festival/exhibition, NSW
Here We Are, Art Gallery of NSW
KuirFest, Bi’bak Gallery, Berlin, Germany
The Dora Ohlfsohn Commission, Art Gallery of NSW Channels Video Art Biennial, Melbourne
52 Artists, 52 Actions, Artspace, Sydney
2018
Who We Are Now, The Oratory, Liverpool UK
Craftivism Shepparton Art Museum (touring 2019-2020)
Spaced3: North by Southeast, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
2017
Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art & Feminism ACCA, Melbourne Australia
Bideodromo Festival, Sarean Cultural Centre, Bilbao, Spain
Moving Histories//Future Projections, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, QLD, National tour to 2019
Festival of (In)appropriation, Los Angeles USA (touring USA and Canada)
2016
London Experimental Film Festival
National Works on Paper Award Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Winner, Acquisition Award.
The Art of Parts Art Gallery of NSW
2015
Biennale of Thessaloniki
Open One, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool UK
Ghostwriter Project, Museum of Transitory Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Performance Presence/Video Time Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
MONA FOMA, Hobart, TAS
2014
Biennale of Sydney
Zero Tolerance, MOMA PS1, NYC
TarraWarra Biennial, (in boat-people artist collective)
Ada & After, ICA, London
2013
Meine Liebe Schwan, ACC Galerie, Weimar, Germany
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Gippsland, Swan Hill Art & Central Goldfields Galleries (tour)
2012
Contemporary Australia: Women Gallery of Modern Art/Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane
Festival Imagem-Contato, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Urban Festival, The Mosque, Zagreb, Croatia
2011
Burn What You Cannot Steal Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia
From Blank Pages Art Space Pool, Seoul, Korea
2010
An das Gerät! Halle 14, Baumwollespinnerei, Leipzig, and Galerie ACC Weimar, Germany
Crosstalk Video Art Festival 2010 Budapest, Hungary
awards and
residencies
selected
2021
Recipient, Sydney Opera House Artist Commission
Recipient, Destination NSW Solstice Festival Commission
2020
Shortlisted, Fivex Public Art Prize, Melbourne
Finalist, National Works on Paper Award MPRG
Artist in Residence C-Lab, Arts House, Melbourne
Recipient, Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant
Recipient, Create NSW New Work Grant
Recipient, City of Sydney Project Grant
2019
Winner, Fotogenia Dulac Avant Garde Award (first prize) Mexico City
International Artist in Residence Wellcome Trust, London Nov-Dec
2018
Artist in Residence: Noosa Regional Gallery QLD; Bankstown Arts Centre NSW; Bundanon Trust NSW; Cementa NSW
2017
Artist in Residence, Kvindemuseet, Aarhus, Denmark for the European Capital of Culture program
2015
Winner, Cayte Latta LGBTIQ Visual Arts Award
2012
Winner, Albury Art Prize
2011
Research Fellow, Copyright Agency Limited
reviews/
critical writing
Critical engagement in recent books and journals here.
solo exhibitions
selected
2021
The Gods of Tiny Things, Australian Centre of the Moving Image, Melbourne (Jul-Oct)
CREATION: SONG, Antidote Festival, Sydney Opera House (Sep)
CREATION: Installation and performance, The Lockup Gallery, Newcastle (Oct)
CREATION: Event and exhibition, Lismore Regional Gallery (Nov)
CREATION: Publication and exhibition, Griffith University Art Museum (forthcoming 2022)
The Monstrous and the Sublime (with James Gleeson), Wagner Contemporary, Sydney
2020
Deborah Kelly VS the Archive, Cross Arts Projects, Sydney (postponed Covid-19)
Always Coming Home, Finkelstein Gallery, Melbourne (postponed Covid-19)
2019
Magical Thinking, Wagner Contemporary, Sydney (online)
2018
No Human Being Is Illegal (in all our glory) tour: Twelve city / regional galleries, 2014-2018
Life in the Ruins, Fabian + Claude Walter Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
2017
Venus Envy, Kvindemuseet, Aarhus, Denmark
2016
Scenes From The Death of Books, Galleries UNSW
2015
Deborah Kelly: Bodies of Work, Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewer’s Bequest, NSW
2014
The Miracles, Tweed Heads Regional Gallery, touring to WPCC Dubbo, BRAG Bathurst, Counihan Gallery Melbourne
Between Thresholds, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin
2011
Make More Monsters, Artspace, Sydney
2009
Deborah Kelly, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide
Big Butch Billboard, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
installation/
performative
works
selected
2021
CREATION: the collective dance commissioned by Solstice Festival/MCA, Sydney
CREATION: the Liturgy presented at Queer Nu Werk, Performance Space, Sydney NSW
2020
CREATION: the Dance, group-devised dance project with Angela Goh for Liveworks, Carriageworks NSW
2019
Women With Knives, durational community collage learning-teaching collaboration for the Cementa Festival
2018
The Gods Of Tiny Things, landscape installation, public collaboration animation + music for Siteworks Festival
2017
Imagining A Future, durational workshop-based collaboration with Kirsten Kjaers Museum, Denmark
2015
Kampung Kolase, collaborative collage performance/installation on Siliwangi Bridge village, West Java
2014
Lucy, Olivia, Emma collaborative portrait performance work commission for Bill Gates Foundation, Seattle USA
2009
Tank Man Tango, dancing memorial for the Tiananmen Square protests, performed in 24 cities on 4/6/2009
2001-10
BOAT-PEOPLE, co-founder of unauthorised performance/intervention artist protest group