ABOUT
Ellie Hannon (b. Sydney 1988) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Newcastle NSW that works across exhibitions, public art and community-engaged projects. These process-led actions fuel Hannon’s visual account presenting personal and political issues in relation to nature. She explores the natural environment as both a subject and a point of departure that begins an investigation into how interactions and impacts on these spaces shape individual and collective identity.
Hannon’s work is easily approachable and welcoming to intentionally connect to many people through colour and familiar symbols and forms. Working across drawing, painting, textiles and installation, she creates immersive stills of the natural world forming emotional and psychological cartographies that that blur boundaries between self and place. Characterised by her bold and harmonic colour scape’s Hannon’s work employ gestural mark making with gravitational mid-grounds and detailed foregrounds.
Since completing her Bachelor of Fine Art at Newcastle University in 2009 Hannon has exhibited with Backwoods Gallery biannually in Melbourne including; Way/ Find (2024) Late & Light (2022) Worry tree (2020) The Wild (2018), and other solo exhibitions include Half-Light, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, (2022), Shelter, Marfa Gallery, Melbourne, (2019) Traces, Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle (2015) On my way, Corner Store Gallery, Orange, (2014). Significant group exhibitions include, Between Painters, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne (2022), Collect, The Lockup, Newcastle (2018>2024), Transient Love, Maitland Regional art Gallery, Maitland (2017). Hannon was a finalist in the Little things art prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney (2021, 2020), and was selected as a Finalist in the biannual Alice Springs art prize at the Araluen Art Centre in (2022, 2024).
Hannon has worked across a diversity of community engaged projects employing a respectful and strengths-based approach formed around platforming artists and accessibility to creativity. Hannon lived in Indonesia for 3 years where she co-managed the funding, construction and programming of a community art centre in the remote village of Jatitujuh, West Java. This project received the Australian Arts in Asia Government award for philanthropy and community engagement in 2013. More recent projects include, 2020 NSW Government “My Community Grant” where Hannon facilitated workshops for a mural and community courtyard revitalisation in Newcastle, and over the past 5 years has collaborated with Marrawuddi Arts Centre, Numbulwar art centre and GARMA festival liaising with community members and stakeholders to design and install large scale murals with local artists.
CV
EDUCATION
2009 Bachelor of Fine Art, Newcastle University
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Way/Find” Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2022 “Half-Light” Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland
“Late and Light” Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne.
2020 “Worry Tree” Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2019 “Shelter” Marfa Gallery, Melbourne
“Shanty Town” QBank Gallery, Queenstown, Tasmania
2018 “The Wild” Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2017 "Transient Love” Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland
"Stories from beyond the passage” Makeit Madeit conference
2016 “A Vibrant Gathering” Foresight Gallery, Newcastle
2015 “Traces” Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle
2014 “On my way” Corner Store Gallery, Orange
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 “Between Painters” Collaborative exhibition, Backwoods Gallery Melbourne
“Bold Landscapes” The Corner store Gallery, Orange
“Collect” The Lockup, Newcastle
2021 “OH SHIT…” Shitty Shed studios group show, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
“BACKW11DS” Group show, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2020 “Little things art prize” Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney
“Collect” The Lockup, Newcastle
2019 “Collect” The Lockup, Newcastle
2018 “Surface Structure” Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Sydney
“Girls Girls Girls Girls” Back to Back Gallery, Newcastle
2017 “THE END of year show” Studio show, Newcastle
2016 “Imbued”, Group exhibition, Gallery 139, Newcastle
PUBLIC ART COMISSIONS
2022 “Lake Gkula Reflections” Woodford folk festival, Woodford
2020 “You Shadow” University of Newcastle, Callaghan Campus
“Riddles Creek, fire and flood” Big Picture Festival, Newcastle
“Forest Play” Pilot Childcare, Newcastle
“Wildflower walk” Pachamama Community Hub, Newcastle
2019 “The Jungle” The Corner Precinct, Charlestown Square, Newcastle
“Possum Park” Charlestown Library, Newcastle
“Forest Star Shower” Marfa Gallery, Melbourne
2018 “Where the Ocean meets the sea” CBD Woolworths, Coffs Harbour
“Portal” Woodford Folk Festival, Woodford
2017 “Passageway” Make it Made it conference, Newcastle
“Maitland River” Mural Artwork, Stockland Greenhills Maitland
COMMUNITY PROJECTS/ ARTIST RESIDENCIES/ AWARDS
2024 Alice Springs Art Prize- Finalist
2022 Alice Springs Art Prize- Finalist
Mural collaboration with Del Katherine Barton, GARMA Festival, Yirrkala, Arnhem Land
Mural collaboration with artists and weavers from Numbulwar Numburindi Art centre, Arnhem Land
Mural collaboration with Artist Salone Djanjomerre, Jabiru, Northern Territory
2021 Artist in Residence, Schmidt Ocean Institute
3 week on Ashmore reef, Timor Sea. Responding to scientific research of Mesophotic coral reef systems with WA Museum and AIMS
Mural Collaboration and workshop Carries place, Women’s home for homelessness or escaping domestic violence.
2020 NSW Government, My Community Project Grant Recipient
The Commons Courtyard, Pachamama House.
Working alongside community to design and implement a community courtyard through a series of workshops and consultation.
2019 Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, Jabiru, Northern Territory
Marrawuddi Art Centre Collaborative community mural.
Working with a collective of 11 Indigenous artists from Jabiru region to create a mural for the New art centre as a part of “Renew Jabiru”.
2018 Mahbilil festival and Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, Jabiru
Collaborative community mural “Pandanus River”.
Working with a youth artist and an established artist to design a mural for the community pool for the annual Mahbilil cultural Festival, Jabiru, Norther Territory.
2013 Australian Government Award
Australian Arts in Asia award in Philanthropy and community engagement.
“Rumah Kreatif” art studio project, West Java, Indonesia. Working alongside an artist community in Jatitujuh, Rural West Java to fundraise, design, construct, and create a program for a community Arts Centre.
2020 Little things art Prize, Sydney
2019 QBank Artist Residency, Queenstown, Tasmania
2015- 2019 Maitland Council Mural collaboration for the annual Maitland Taste Festival.
2015 Make it Conference, Studio 754, Newcastle
2014 People’s choice, Newcastle emerging artist prize
2013 Artist in Residence, Jatiwangi Art Factory, Indonesia
2012 Artist in Residence, Permaculture Perak, Lenggong, Malaysia
MEDIA
Australian painter Ellie Hannon artist-at-sea on Schmidt Ocean Institute Ashmore Reef voyage
ABC News • May 7, 2021
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-07/artist-at-sea-ellie-hannon-schmidt-ocean-institute/100120884
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I acknowledge the Awabakal and Worimi people as the traditional owners of the country that i call my home base, this incredible place upon which I live, work, garden, explore and foster community, I appreciate and respect it endlessly. I recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.