Catherine Nelson is a visual artist who uses the digital medium to paint images together into personal and imaginary landscapes. Trained as a painter in Sydney and London and with years of experience in the creation of visual effects for feature films like Moulin Rouge and Harry Potter, she now has dedicated her skills to her own art work combining the techniques from both these worlds into a new contemporary art medium.
Her latest series have been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, USA and Europe and have captivated audiences and art collectors in cities like Sydney, Paris, Los Angeles, Beijing and Seoul.
October 23rd From the Colonial to the Personal
Michael Reid @ Peter Walker Gallery Adelaide, Australia
October 24th Art Toronto
Jennifer Kostuik @ Art Toronto Toronto, Canada
Catherine Nelson was born in Sydney in 1970. After leaving school she completed her art education at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney and then moved quickly into the world of film and television, creating visual effects for films such as Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,300, and Australia. Her job has taken her around the world having lived and worked in Milan, London, Rome, Reykjavik, Bratislava, Brussels and throughout Australia. In 2008 she returned to her studio and began to dedicate her time to her own art practice.
When I embraced the medium of photography, I felt that taking a picture that represented only what was within the frame of the lens wasn't expressing my personal and inner experience of the world around me. With the eye and training of a painter and with years of experience behind me in film visual effects, I began to take my photos to another level.
The 'Future Memories' series comprises of 20 floating worlds, meticulously composed with thousands of assembled details. Visual poetry, nature photography and digital techniques blend together to give shape to these transcendental landscapes. The result is a contemporary pictorial mythology that subtly reminds the viewer of a profound truth: that it is in the flourishing variety of the local that the fate of the world resides.
'Expedition', Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
'Expedition', Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney, Australia
'Future Memories', MContemporary, Sydney, Australia
'The Colonial to the Personal', Michael Reid @ Peter Walker Gallery, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Mandorla Finalist Art Award, Linton and Kay Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia
'The Colonial to the Personal', Michael Reid @ Christ Church Grammar School, Perth, WA, Australia
'Human + Graphy', Ulsan International Photography Festival, Ulsan, South Korea
Palm Springs Fine Art Fair
Photo LA
AIPAD, New York
Art Toronto
Other Worlds, Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
Other Worlds, Julie Saul Project Gallery, New York, USA
Other Worlds,, Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Other Worlds,, Michael Reid Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Blake Director's Cut, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Michael Reid at the Australian Embassy, Berlin, Germany
Moreton Bay Art Awards, Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia
'Realitiet', Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver, Canada
'The Poetry of Earth Is Never Dead', Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
'Australian Landscape : Present in the Now', Michael Reid Gallery, Berlin, Germany
'Digital Generation', Galerie Paris-Beijing, Brussels, Belgium
PREVEIW, Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
Miami Project
Toronto Art Fair
KIAF : Korean International Art Fair
Art Stage Singapore
Photo LA
'Other Worlds', Gallery NOW, Seoul, Korea
'2012 Heysen Prize for Interpretation of Place', Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, South Australia
'Murr-ma', Michael Reid Gallery, Berlin, Germany
'Terra Cognita', Noorderlicht Photography Festival, Groningen, Netherlands
'Legends', LaTrobe Regional Gallery, Australia
'Space Oddity', S Cube Gallery, California, USA
'Digital Darkroom' Slideshow Event, The Annenberg Space for Photography, LA, USA
'South of the Border', Queensland Centre of Photography, Brisbane, Australia
'Flipside, Australian Photography', Project A7, Sarah Lee Artworks and Projects, LA, USA
'Out of the Darkness', Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
Art Stage Singapore
Photo LA
Melbourne Art Fair
KIAF, Korean International Art Fair
Art Miami-Context
'Future Memories', Galerie Paris-Beijing, Beijing, China
'Future Memories', Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia
'Future Memories', Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney, Australia
'Future Memories', Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
'Creation', Australian Centre of Photography, Sydney, Australia
Bowness Photography Prize, 2011, Finalist Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia
Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Award Show, Sydney, Australia
'New Worlds', Hanmi Museum of Photography, Seoul, Korea
'Hyper Realistic', Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney, Australia
'Magic Spaces', Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
'Plus One', Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Art Paris 2011
Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand
Slick 11, Paris, France
'Lake', Lake Macquarie Regional Gallery, Australia
Royal Bank of Scotland, Finalist exhibition for Emerging Artist Award, Australia
Blake Director’s Cut Exhibition, Australia
Future Artist, Nikon Next online exhibition, Japan - http://www.nikonnext.com
Photographer of the Year, AX3 Awards, USA
Winner of Gallery NOW Artist Award, Seoul, Korea
Winner of Eclectica 2011, Frensham Fellowship Art Prize
Winner of the Royal Bank of Scotland Emerging Artist Client Choice Award
City of Sydney Collection
Microsoft
Artbank Australia
Australia Club
Daryl Hewson Collection, Queensland
Morgan Stanley New York
University of South Florida
RACV collection
various private collections in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia
NOORDERLICHT PHOTO FESTIVAL September 2012 on Fryslan TV