Chelle Destefano
Biography
Chelle Destefano, Australia, exhibiting in London Art Biennale 2017
Chelle Destefano is a Deaf artist working in watercolour, acrylic, gouache and mixed media, born in Melbourne and currently lives in Adelaide, South Australia. She has been practicing her arts for 15 years and exhibiting for the last decade and recently as an international artist in Europe. She exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and 2016, and had two solo exhibitions in Paris and Bath, UK in late 2016.
Her most notable solo exhibitions were the Port Noarlunga exhibition in May 2014, the Blue Ghosts solo in Melbourne in 2015 and Wait of the World solo in Melbourne in 2016 at Gasworks Art Park, and the solo exhibitions in Paris and Bath, UK, which all had great turn outs and most of her artworks sold out.
Chelle has attained awards, some of the best this past year (2016) include the Australian Arts Council grant for her Paris and UK solo exhibitions, the Arts SA grant for Wait of the World exhibition in Melbourne at Gasworks, and the Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS Website Featured Artist Award with Manhattan Arts International in New York. She was recently invited and selected to show artworks in the London Art Biennale for 2017.
Chelle is looking forward to exhibiting some of her best artworks from the Wait of the World collection in the London Biennale in 2017.
Chelle has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design (2006) from South Australia Arts School.
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Chelle Destefano - Artist CV
Studies
2001 – 2006 Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design – O’Halloran Hill TAFE Campus
2008 – 2009 Cert IV in Screen and Animation – Hamilton College (Adult Education Department)
Awards/Scholarships
2016 Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS Website Featured Artist Award, Manhattan, New York2016 ArtSlant 4th 2016 Showcase Winner Finalist, New York - Wall Street artwork
2016 ArtSlant 5th 2016 Showcase Winner Finalist, New York - Blood Red Moon artwork
2016 Australian Arts Council grant - funding for Paris and London exhibitions
2016 Richard Llewellyn Arts grant – funding for Wait of World Exhibition in Melbourne
2015 Selected to show in a juried art show in Paris
2015 Selected for the Venice Biennial, Italy by Liquid Rooms and Luca Curci Gallery
2015 Arts SA Makers and Presenter’s Grant for Blue Ghosts Exhibition in Melbourne, March 2015
2015 Acquired by Art Images Gallery, Norwood for ongoing consignments of my watercolour illustrations
2014 Richard Llewellyn Arts grant – funding to attend Arts Activated Conference, October 2014
2014 Dawn Slade-Faull Award – Painting/illustration
2014 Major Prize Award – Public Exhibition Award by Art Images Gallery; Abandoned Room I, Adelaide Royal Show
2014 First Prize Award in Open Encouragement Special Award, for One Year’s Membership at Adelaide Art Society – Salty Lime Café, Adelaide Royal Show
Solo Exhibitions
2016 October - Blue Ghosts Abroad
Australian Embassy, London, UK and Severndroogs Castle, UKExhibition of Blue Ghost works including new works
2016 September - Chelle's Collections in Paris!
Galerie Metanoia, Paris, France
Exhibition of ranges of collections including the popular Blue Ghost works, volky series, Europe 2015 works, and the Rainbow Abstract collection
2016 August - Wait of World II in SALA Festival
City Library, Rundle Mall, Adelaide South Australia
2016 May - June - Wait of the World
Gasworks, Art Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
Exhibition of works relating to the world changes and the perceptions within, A1 sized watercolour illustrations
2015 October – November – Volky’s Adventures II
Art Images Gallery, Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia
Solo exhibition featuring all large sized (A2 - A1 size) watercolour illustrations of Taxi and other Volkys on Adventures Series II
2015 June – Inking History - Thebarton
West Torrens Council Gallery
Solo exhibition of illustrations on the heritage buildings of Hindmarsh, Adelaide, South Australia
2015 April – Onkaparinga Celebration MonthManolis Mezes CaféSolo Exhibition on illustrations of Port Noarlunga’s main street shops
2015 March – April – Roam the Blue Ghosts IHouse of Bricks, Collingwood, MelbourneSolo exhibition on ghosts in abandoned places in watercolour illustrations
2014 September – October - Semaphore Art WalkSemaphore Road (Semaphore’s main street) in conjunction with Semaphore Street Assoc. exhibiting my artworks in 7 different shops
2014 August - Rainbow World Series 2Adelaide Convention Centre – SALA FestivalExhibition of Further Advanced Rainbow Works on Wood 2 (Paintings) for the SALA Festival
2014 May to June - Port Noarlunga My Home TownPort Noarlunga Arts CentreSolo exhibition of watercolour drawings of the town Port Noarlunga
2014 April to May - Rainbow World Series 1SA Writers CentreRainbow Works on Wood 1 (Paintings)
Group Exhibitions
2017 (upcoming) March - London Biennale Two Blue Ghost pieces
2016 (upcoming) Dec - Juried Art Show: A Single Grain of Rice, Gallery Metanoia, Paris
Four watercolour illustrations
2016 August - Hill Starters in SALA Festival
Reunion exhibition for students from O'Halloran Hill Arts School at Artisan Framing Gallery
2016 July to September - The Healing Power of ART 2016 Exhibition Manhattan Arts International
2016 July to September - Venice Architect Biennale, Venice Art House, Venice, Italy Blood Red Moon artwork
2016 July - Duo with Kathy Smith
Artisan Framing Gallery
2016 April - NOW Exhibition at Artisan Framing Gallery
2015 December - Juried Art Show: A Single Grain of Rice, Gallery Metanoia, Paris, France
Three watercolour illustrations
2015 November - Venice Art Biennale, Italy, Luca Curci Gallery in Ca' Zanardi Palezzo Collection of Blue Ghost artworks; 4 pieces
2014 Christmas Exhibition - Art Images, Norwood, SACollection of illustrations of Taxi’s Adventures (3 watercolour works)
2014 October – Volky Adventures CollaborationAdelaide Convention Centre as a second invitation for ArtbeatVolky Adventures I in watercolour by me, and mosaics by new emerging artist Roberta Sassi
Publications
2016 Chelle as the Winner of the Featured Artist Award in 'The Healing Power of Art Exhibition', Manhattan, New York by Renee Phillips
http://www.healing-power-of-art.org/chelle-destefano-award-winning-featured-artist/
2016 Chelle's upcoming exhibition in Paris - by WideWalls, a Paris Arts magazinehttp://www.widewalls.ch/visual-narrative-chelle-destefano-art-galerie-metanoia-paris/
2016 Story on a Deaf Artist by Artsy Shark - http://www.artsyshark.com/2016/06/16/a-deaf-artist-offers-inspiration/
2016 The Society Quarterly Magazine
My showcase of the Wheatsheaf artwork and about my winning in the Adelaide RoyalShow in 2014 and 2015
2015 East Meets West Design Week, UK; feature article introducing my artist profile into the UK Arts
http://artdirectory.ning.com/blog/venice-biennale-to-welcome-australian-artist-chelle-destefano-thi
http://www.eastmeetswestdesignweek.com/day-9---finale.html
2015 Empty Easel online art magazine: article on my watercolour works, May 2015; http://emptyeasel.com/2015/05/27/chelle-destefano-fantastically-quirky-watercolor-illustrations/
2015 Talking Points quarterly magazine of City of West Torrens, Adelaide, South Australia, Autumn 2015 Edition. One page featuring my artworks on the historical buildings of Thebarton, in the West Torrens area
2015 Crowd Crux on my Kickstarter project about Roam the Blue Ghosts Art project at www.crowdcrux.com/symbiotic-patronage-backers-creators-creators-backers/
2015 The Amazing Australian Artists book – two page spread of my arts and bio
