carmel wallace

Carmel Wallace’s printmaking, collage and sculptural work has been primarily concerned with connection to landscape and site. Early works responded to the coast around her home in Portland, Victoria. More recent diaristic works, also catalogue the artist’s travels through New York, Florence, and Tokyo. Wallace’s works are a clear response to place, achieved by the scouring of sites and mapping through marking. Water, movement and time are constant elements in her works which map not only the physical environment but also human intervention within it. Wallace uses a variety of printmaking techniques - monotype, etching, chine collé, frottage – and found local elements such as newspaper pages, maps, rubbings of man hole covers, and flotsam collected on her daily walks. Her imagery resonates with multiple levels of meaning to display connections with specific sites, histories and current events.

In 2004 Carmel co-curated Surface Tension, a printmaking exchange exhibition, shown in New York, Melbourne and Launceston. In 2008 Carmel was involved in the Dry Stone Wall Project, Fresh & Salty, in South West Victoria as part of the Lake Condah Sustainability Development Project, which is in association with Regional Arts Victoria. Over 2010 and 2011 Carmel will participate in the Stony Rises Project, a multi-disciplinary exhibition responding to the Stony Rises in Victoria's Western District, touring to Ballarat, Warrnambool, Horsham, Mt Gambier and Melbourne. Carmel Wallace’s work is represented in corporate and private collections throughout Australia, Italy and the USA. Recent major projects include co-coordinating and participating in the Great South West Walk Art Project, which involved eight artists walking the 270km Great South West Walk over three weeks, producing works for an exhibition which will tour nationally through NETS and VISIONS.