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
Born 1985.
EDUCATION
2009
Engineering – Fabrication and Welding, Victoria University Melbourne
2007
Gold and Silver Smithing – Monash University Melbourne
2006
Bachelor of Business Entrepreneurship degree – RMIT University Melbourne
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
in silence, DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY
2016
Momentary Alters, NKN Gallery, Melbourne
Mid-fall, Alaska Projects, Sydney
2014
Everything reminds me of you, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
Public memories, Conductors Project, Sydney
2012
The Life Exchange, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
And all around is Desert, Damien Minton Gallery Annex, Sydney (curated by Kim Fasher of SuperKaleidoscope)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
The Ancestors, DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY, Sydney – Curated by Catherine Benz
Into Abstraction II, Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney
2016
New Strokes, Gallery9, Sydney
2015
Paris/Hunter, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery
Millerntor Gallery#5, Hamburg
Wild Side: The animal in Art touring exhibition, Lake Macquarie Art Gallery & Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo
Until I am there I will be here, Art Bender, The Lock-Up
2013
Mono No Aware, Linden Gallery, Melbourne (curated by SuperKaleidoscope)
Sound and Fury, Art Not Apart, Canberra
2012
Collectors Choice, Friends of the university, University of Newcastle
Traces, Leipzig Art Fair, Germany
31 Pillows, Damien Minton Gallery Annex, Sydney
Five Bells, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2011
Kurz und Wichtig, Leipzig, Germany
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
Until distance passes, Tiny Stadiums Festival, Erskineville Sydney (commission)
Near your sorrow, Enduring Parallels (endurance performance exhibition) The Lock-Up, Newcastle (artist & curator)
It’s too early to love you, ALASKA projects, Sydney
Public memories, Conductors Project, Sydney
2013 – 2014
Compartmentalise, a year long performance living with minimal possessions
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
Happiness is an extreme emotion, 12hour public performance, Berlin, Germany
Black feet, Leipzig International art program (LIA) Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany
Beyond these walls – Engels, Berlin, Germany
2017
Finalist, Cossack Art Award, Invited artist
Finalist, Calleen Art Prize
2015
Marina Abramović artists’ residency program, part of Marina Abramović: In Residence presented by Kaldor Public art projects, Project #30
2014
Finalist for photography and open prize, Fishers Ghost Award
2013
Artist residency, Lake Macquarie City Gallery, in conjunction with Christo: John Kaldor Family collection artist rooms
2012
Artist residency, Titjikala art centre NT
Artist residency, Freestone print studio, Gippsland, Victoria
Artist residency, Familia Mojo Family orphanage Nairobi, Kenya
2011
Artist residency, Leipzig International Art Program (LIA) Germany
