Lottie Consalvo is a Melbourne-born, Newcastle-based artist whose practice traverses painting, performance, video and sculpture. Her work explores psychological shifts and ideas surrounding desire, longing and the ungraspable are present within her work.
Consalvo’s performances are observations of quiet transformative experiences. Her paintings further this conversation in that way that she creates a physical presence for imagination, memory and psychological transitions. Working with a restricted palette across mediums, Consalvo often paints monumental forms amidst vast empty spaces, where the high contrast of opposing dark and light and the outcome of an almost impoverished surface marks out a place for the unknown, the invisible and the intangible.
In her most recent works, Consalvo contemplates the immeasurable and perhaps the central desire of all longings; contentment. Building from earlier endurance pieces that saw her selected for a residency with Marina Abramovic in 2015, Consalvo’s video works form part of a sustained exploration into how time, places and imagery alter consciousness. In 2018, Consalvo also realised a solo show at the Heide Museum of Modern Art that combined a commanding ten-panel painting with performance and sculpture. Her work has been exhibited across Australia and overseas, most recently in Mexico City, Auckland and Melbourne.
“Lottie Consalvo contemplates time. Years, nano-seconds, moments of eternity, transition, points of no return – these moments of between and becoming are explored in abstract paintings and across mediums. Consalvo’s interdisciplinary practice includes performative and often quite specific autobiographical references.” Jo Higgins
DOB: 27.09.1985
Education
2006 – Batchelor of Business Entrepreneurship degree – RMIT University Melbourne
2007 – Gold and Silver Smithing – Monash University Melbourne
2009 – Engineering – Fabrication and Welding, Victoria University Melbourne
Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2021 – Group show at Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide in partnership with with Jan Murphy, Brisbane
2021 – Unthinkable Fields, Curated by Eloise Kirk, ANCA, Canberra
2019 – Two Waters: Wairua, Laree Payne Gallery, Hamilton, New Zealand, with Maia McDonald
Solo
2021 – UPCOMING (June) Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2019 – The Aerial View Of An Anthem, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2019 – Clayton Utz, Melbourne partnership with 333: Art Projects
2019 – Somewhere Else, Maitland Regional Art Gallery 2019 – I Tried To Make A Horizon For You,
2018 – In the Remembering – Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria
2017 – Final Remembering – The Lock Up, Newcastle
2017 – in silence – Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2016 – Momentary Alters – NKN Gallery, Melbourne
2016 – Mid-fall – Alaska Projects, Sydney
2014 – Everything reminds me of you – Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2014 – Public memories – Conductors Project, Sydney
2012 – The Life Exchange – Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2011 – And all around is Desert – Damien Minton Gallery Annex, Sydney (curated by Kim Fasher of SuperKaleidoscope)
Selected group
2019 – Of the Sun, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
2019 – Poetic of the Line, Kudos Gallery, UNSW Art And Design, curated by Tim Marvin
2019 – Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, with Dominik Mersch Gallery
2019 – Auckland Art Fair, with Dominik Mersch Gallery 2019 – From The Mudbrick House – Newcastle University Gallery
2018 – Melbourne Fair – Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2018 – Auckland Art Fair – Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney (upcoming)
2017 – ‘Realising Mother’ – Kudos Gallery, UNSW, Sydney
2017 – Into Abstraction II, Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney
2016 – The Ancestors, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney – Curated by Catherine Benz
2016 – New Strokes – Gallery9, Sydney
2015 – Paris/Hunter, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery
2015 – Millerntor Gallery#5, Hamburg
2014 & 2015 – Wild Side: The animal in Art touring exhibition, Lake Macquarie Art Gallery & Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo
2015 – Until I am there I will be here, Art Bender, The Lock-Up
2013 – Mono No Aware – Linden Gallery, Melbourne (curated by SuperKaleidoscope)
2013 – Sound and Fury – Art Not Apart, Canberra
2012 – Collectors Choice – Friends of the university, University of Newcastle
2012 – Traces – Leipzig Art Fair, Germany
2012 – 31 Pillows – Damien Minton Gallery Annex, Sydney
2012 – Five Bells – Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2011 – Kurz und Wichtig – Leipzig, Germany
2011 – Australian exhibition – Australian Embassy in Berlin
2010 – A Perfect Day to Chase Tornadoes (White) – Kunstquartier Bethanien Studio 1Berlin (curated by SuperKaleidoscope)
Performances
2014 – 2016 – ‘Desires’, a year long performance of living out desires in an attempt to find happiness
2014 – ‘I mouthed I love you’ – Wild Side group exhibition, Lake Macquarie Gallery
2014 – ‘Until distance passes’ – Tiny Stadiums Festival, Erskineville Sydney (commission)
2014 – ‘Near your sorrow’ – Enduring Parallels (endurance performance exhibition) The Lock-Up, Newcastle (artist & curator)
2013 – 2014 – ‘Compartmentalise’, a year long performance living with minimal possessions
2014 – ‘It’s too early to love you’ – ALASKA projects, Sydney
2014 – ‘Public memories’ – Conductors Project, Sydney
2013 – ‘Do you love me’ – Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2012 – ‘Steer a steady ship’ – Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2011 – ‘The weight of the physical mind’ – Leipzig International art program (LIA) Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany
2011 – ‘Happiness is an extreme emotion’ – 12hour public performance, Berlin, Germany
2011 – ‘Black feet’ – Leipzig International art program (LIA) Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany
2011 – ‘Beyond these walls’ – Engels, Berlin, Germany
Residencies
2015 – Marina Abramović artists’ residency program, part of Marina Abramović: In Residence presented by Kaldor Public art projects, Project #30
2013 – Lake Macquarie City Gallery – in conjunction with Christo: John Kaldor Family collection artist rooms
2012 – Titjikala art centre NT
2012 – Freestone print studio, Gippsland Victoria
2012 – Familia Mojo Family orphanage Nairobi, Kenya
2011 – Leipzig International Art Program (LIA) Germany
Awards and Prizes
2017 – Cossack Art Award – invited artist [finalist]
– Calleen Art Prize [finalist]
– Newcastle Club
2014 – Fishers Ghost Award – [finalist for photography and open prize]
Collections
Artbank – Allen Arthur Robertson Collection – Warner Music Australia
Bibliography
2019
Doing It In Public: The Kaldor Projects – ABC Documentary If I Could Have –
Art Collector Magazine Issue 90 Art Collector Mini Mag – Auckland Art Fair
2018
Profile – Artist Profile Magazine – Issue 44 Terra Firma Magazine Art Almanac,
March 2018 – front cover and article Art Collector Mini Mag – Melbourne Art Fair Art Collector
Mini Mag – Auckland Art Fair
In the Remembering – Art Almanac by Melissa Pesa
2017
Black magic, exploring Lottie Consalvo’s dark world – D*hub
2016
Maintaining the Manifesto – Runway by Amelia Wallin
2015
Imitation games: Marina Abramovic, ABC documentary series
Forecast: Lottie Consalvo – Vault Magazine by Rebecca Gallo
Lottie Consalvo Up close and personal – Newcastle Herald
The art of self-incarceration, RealTime Feb-Mar 2015
2014
Pushing boundaries, Newcastle Herald, November 29
Performance art, ABC radio
Artist profile, Lottie Consalvo & James Drinkwater, Design Satellite 2014
Minimal living, rejecting excess and finding clarity with Lottie Consalvo, Concrete Playground
2013
‘Lottie Consalvo’s Insecure Act at Damien Minton’ – Blourin Artinfo International edition, December 20
2012
‘See Artist Lottie Consalvo Endure Water Torture For Art’s Sake’ – Blourin Artinfo International edition, October 8
‘Australian Artist recreates water torture’ – SBS World News, October 8
‘The art of torture’- Sydney Morning Herald/The Age/Canberra Times/WA Today/ Brisbane Times, October 6
2011
‘Berlin, We didn’t just go there for a hair cut’ National Art School, Sydney: Speaker for presentation, March 23
‘Berlin’ Fine Arts Department, Newcastle Tafe: Speaker for presentation, March 25
Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald March 19
‘City of Freedom’ The Australian Financial Review, March 17
The Art Gallery Society of NSW: Speaker for 2day talk March 16,17
‘EXHIBITION’ Sydney Morning Herald, March
‘Buzz of Berlin returns to show fruits of bohemian living’ Sydney Morning Herald, March
2010
‘Facetten’ The daily magazine, Beriln, November
Nelou TV exhibition, Berlin
2009
Herald Sun, August
MX newspaper Melbourne, July