Penelope Davis

Penelope Davis a Melbourne artist whose practice explores photographic image-making without a camera. Described as ‘Painting with light’ Davis’ most recent works capture photograms of translucent coloured resin objects, which she moulds, casts, dyes and arranges into vivid compositions. Her artworks are celebrations of analogue processes - resulting in ghostly but vibrant still lives, like the one below, that emerge from a deep black ground.

Davis was the recipient of the ANZ Visual Arts Award in 2007, and has been a selected finalist in many art awards including the National Still Life Award and the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize.

AVAILABLE WORKS

CV

PENELOPE DAVIS

Lives and works in Melbourne

QUALIFICATIONS
2006-7
Master of Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

1996-97
Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

1988-9
Certificate of Illustrative Photography, Photography Studies College, Melbourne

1982-85
Bachelor of Arts, University of Melbourne



SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Photoglyphic, MARS Gallery, Melbourne

2021 Plastic, MARS Gallery, Melbourne. Sea-change (site-specific 5th iteration), Gippsland Regional Gallery, Sale. Sea-change (site-specific 6th iteration), Glass Cube, Frankston Arts centre, Melbourne

2018
Sea-change (site-specific 4th iteration) Arup Gallery, Arup offices, Sydney

2018
Sea-change (site-specific 3rd iteration) Installation Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Sydney

2018
Sea-change (site-specific 2nd iteration) Art Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong

2017
Reverse Photography, Rupert Bunny Fellowship Exhibition, St Kilda Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne

2017
Sea-change, MARS Gallery, Melbourne

2012
Phototropic, Academy Gallery, Uni of Tasmania, Launceston

2011
Smack, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2008
Fiction-Non-Fiction, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2008
Index, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2007
Index, Postgraduate Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

2005
Tissue Issue. Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2003
Heavy Light, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2000
Penumbra, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne

1998
Proof, Talk Gallery, Melbourne.

1996
Photoelastic, Temple Studios, Melbourne.


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
The Room: Our Landscape Interior, MARS Gallery, Melbourne
STILL: National Still Life Award 2025, Yarilla Arts and Museum, Coffs Harbour, NSW2023

2023
Photography : Real and Imagined, The Ian Potter Centre:NGV Australia
City of Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art Gallery, Melbourne

2022
Art and Gender, Justin Arthouse Museum, Melbourne
City of Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art gallery, Melbourne Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Gordon, NSW

2021 Spring 1883 Art Fair, online at MARS Gallery due to COVID restrictions, Melbourne Telling Tales, Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne Four x Four, McClelland Gallery, Melbourne Christmas Exhibition, MARS Gallery, Melbourne

2020. Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art gallery, Melbourne

2019 Drowning Not Waving, Wyndham Art Gallery, Melbourne Pop-up in a Penthouse, Ovolo 1888, Sydney

2018
Recent Acquisitions: Port Phillip City Collection 2016-2018, Carlisle St Arts Space, Melbourne Material Memories, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
Co-Curator (with Andy Dinan) Staying Power, MARS Gallery, Melbourne
Antipodean Emanations: cameraless photographs from Australia and New Zealand, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
Speed: Mobility and Exchange, MonaFoma Festival, Academy Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania

2017
St Kevins Art Show, St Kevins College, Melbourne

2016
Divine Abstraction, Justin Art House Museum, Melbourne

2015
Unintended Refrains, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne

2014
Ex-libris – the book in contemporary art, Geelong Gallery, Victoria
Perceptions of Space: Justin Collection, Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne

2013
Missing Presumed Dead, Geraldton Regional Gallery, WA

2012
Missing Presumed Dead, Devonport Regional Gallery, & Cast Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
Chromogenic, Fairfax Building, Melbourne
The Art of Collecting, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
St Kilda Bowlling Club Studio Artists, The Gallery: St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne
A Hand Up: fundraising exhibition for Prahran Mission, Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne

2011
Recent Acquisitions: City of Port Phillip, St Kilda Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne

2010
Interieur-Exterieur, Lumas Galleries, Paris
The Apple Project, AC Institute, New York, USA
St Kilda Bowlling Club Studio Artists, The Gallery: St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne
Nellie Castan Gallery @ the Depot Gallery, Sydney

2009
Josephine Ulrich and Wynn Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland
Selected Works, Lumas Galleries, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, London, Paris, Vienna, Zurich,
New York
Linking: St Kilda Bowlling Club Studio Artists, The Gallery: St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne

2008
Order & Disorder: Archives and Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
When You Think About Art, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
Artists for Kids Culture Annual Exhibition and Auction, Brightspace, Melbourne

2007
Penelope Davis, Stephen Haley, Joyce Kohl, LA Artcore, Los Angeles, USA
Josephine Ulrich and Wynn Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland
ANZ Visual Arts Award, VCA, Melbourne
Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia
William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, MGA, Melbourne

2006
Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgan Fund, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia,
Federation Square, Melbourne
20/20, 18th Street Centre for the Arts, Los Angeles, California, USA
Linden Postcard Show. Linden Gallery, Melbourne

2005
Julie Millowick Photography Award, Castlemaine, Victoria
Recent Acquisitions City of Port Phillip, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
Paper Chase, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
A4 Art, Westspace, Melbourne
Fundraiser, Ocular Lab, Melbourne

2004
Floranova, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts Photography Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise
Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne Art Fair, Exhibition Buidings, Melbourne

2003
First Impressions, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne
2nd Sight, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne
Boogy, Jive and Bop, Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston

2002
White and Black Photography, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2001
31st Alice Art Prize, The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Salon Exhibition, Penthouse and Pavement, Melbourne

2000
The Hutchins Art Prize, The Long Gallery, Salamanca Place, Hobart
'F’: Divergent Abstraction and the Photographic Project, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney
A4 Art 2000, Westspace, Melbourne



AWARDS / GRANTS / RESIDENCIES
2017
Winner, Brother McCarthy Memorial Award, St Kevin’s Art Show

2016
City of Melbourne studio residency, Carlton Connect Lab-14

2015
Winner, Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship, City of Port Phillip

2009-12
Studio residency, City of Port Phillip Shakespeare Grove Artist’s Studios

2007
Winner, ANZ Fellowship Award

2005-07
Melbourne Research Scholarship, University of Melbourne

2001
Tokyo Studio Residency, Australia Council for the Arts (Feb-May 2003)

1999
Finalist, Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition

1998
Finalist, Deacons Graham and James/ Arts 21 Award and Exhibition

1997
Victorian Campus Art Prize and Exhibition, Award for Innovation
VCA Student Union Exhibition and Award, VCA Student Union Award


COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Victoria
Heide Museum of Modern Art
Artbank, ANZ Bank
City of Port Phillip
City of Wyndham. BHP Billiton
University of Melbourne Student Union
Victorian College of the Arts
Charles and Leah Justin Collection
Private collections within Australia, China, Europe, Japan and the USA