Throughout the 1990's he lived in Melbourne and exhibited widely in artist-run, institutional and alternative spaces, including 200 Gertrude Street, the Project Space - RMIT, Temple Studios,talk Artists Initiative and St Stephenʼs Anglican Church. He has exhibited twice in Osaka and has been represented in various surveys of painting and drawing over the past twelve years. Residencies include 200 Gertrude Street (1995/6,1999), Bundanon Trust (2001,2003), Parks Victoria (2002), Nou-Machi, Japan (2005,2007) and Malaysia (Asialink, 2010). He has been a recipient of Arts Victoria grants for New Work, Presentation and International Cultural Exchange.

 

Since 1998 he has periodically collaborated with Melbourne-based performers Yumi Umiumare and Tony Yap in gallery, church, landscape and land environments in Australia, Japan and Denmark.

 

In 2008 he participated in Drought – Cross Cultural Collaborations, involving solo and collaborative work presented at ACMI and the NGV. In 2009, his installation Spent and video work Well were commissioned for the Murray Darling Palimpsest #7 in Mildura.

 

Between 2009-2013 he annually presented work at the Melaka Art & Performance Festival (MAP Fest) and during his 2010 Asialink residency formed a new Visual Arts program, initiating new venue relationships with the National University of Singapore and Heritage Trust of Malaysia. He curated the MAPFest visual arts program 2010-2012, bringing together 22 artsist from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Afganistan.

 

His collaborative artist book with writer Andrew Lindsay, Difficult Majesty, was launched at the National Gallery of Victoria and shortlisted for the 2010 Mackay Artspace, Libris Awards. In 2011 he participated in the Lake Hindmarsh Project at 27 Gipps Street Gallery, Melbourne and Revisitations at the VAC, Latrobe University, Bendigo.

 

In 2012 he was shortlisted for the Rick Amor Drawing Prize and the Blake Prize. In 2013, Kuang Road Prayer - the body of work initiated in Malaysia in 2010 – was shown at the Horsham Regional Art Gallery and his Blake Prize entry - Code Maroon (stay or go), 2011 - toured to the Jewish Museum of Victoria.

 

In late 2013, Pelchen formed the Malaysia Australia Raft Project (MARP), initially bringing artist Soong Ro Ger from Malaysia to collaborate with 5 Australian artists - encompassing a raft build and journey then culminating in an installation and performances at the Natimuk Frinj Festival. MARP then presented in Melaka, Malaysia in 2014 and in central Melbourne, 2015 – forecourt, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art -  having grown to 11 collaborators, MARP was a part of the world-wide project Fluid States, and the Melbourne aspect, Performing Mobilities).

 

In August 2014, he participated in We Fall Into the Sea To Become an Island at Artist Run Initiative, Run Amok, Penang.  Early in 2015, Kuang Road Prayer was represented at the Latrobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo.

 

In 2017 he was shortlisted for the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, and 2018 his engagement with Melaka, Malaysia continued with a residency at the Baboon House and later leading the 6-artist I see you/you see me: Melaka Swabs project.

 

His work is represented in collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, John McBride Collection -Sydney, James Mollison Collection – Melbourne, Australian Print Workshop, Bundanon Trust, Horsham Regional Art Gallery and Artbank.

 

In 2020/2021, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria grants supported Pelchen's ongoing performance/drawing project, Kanazawa Jack - Signals From the Dark and his  4-artist light-installation/performance series Natimuk - Signals From the Dark.

 

In February, 2022 he had his first showing of a selection of his night drawings at project6.88 in Adelaide.

 

Recent Victorian residencies include Falls Creek AIR 2022 and Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery - Police Point AIR 2024.

ANTHONY PELCHEN

 

Born in Horsham, NW Victoria, Australia

 

Studies

 

1979-81 Bachelor of Economics, Monash University, Melbourne

1989-91 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

 

Solo Exhibitions/ Installations

 

2022 A Familiar Place I Don't Know, project6.88, Adelaide

2015 Kuang Road Prayer, Latrobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo

2013 Kuang Road Prayer, Horsham Regional Art Gallery

2012 Code Maroon, Baboon House, Melaka, Malaysia

2011 Kuang Road Prayer, No. 8 Heeren Street Heritage Centre, Melaka, Malaysia

2010 Spent, Jubilee Hall Horsham/ Well, Horsham Regional Art Gallery

2009 The sum of the days (the value of the parts), floor installation, St Pauls church, Melaka, Malaysia

2005 Church and landscape, Natimuk Lutheran Church, Wimmera

2003 Looking forwards/walking backwards, Natimuk Lutheran Church, Wimmera

2003 Looking forwards/walking backwards, Gallery Chayamachi, Osaka

2001 3,492 poly bags and a ploughed path, Wimmera land installation

1999 14,171 days (God knows how many breaths), St Stephen's Anglican Church, Richmond

1999 Cover me in mud, bury me in wheat (throw me in the river), Horsham Regional Art Gallery

1999 vectis, talk artists initiative, Melbourne

1997 Looking with mouth open, singing with eyes closed, The Project Space, R.M.I.T., Melbourne

1997 Cover me in mud (bury me in wheat, throw me in the river), Temple Studios, Melbourne

1996 Slide installation; 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne / Canberra School of Art

1996 Vectis, Studio 12 at 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

1995 I Lay Me Down, Studio 12 at 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

 

Selected Group Exhibitions / Installatons

 

2024 Len Fox Painting Award, Castlemaine Art Museum

2021 Biennial Australian Monoprint Prize 2021, Fire Station Print Studio, Melbourne

2017 Printmaking in the Wimmera, Horsham Regional Art Gallery

2017 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery

2016 Pushing the Sky, Horsham Regional Art Gallery

2014 We Fall Into the Sea to Become an Island, Run Amok Gallery, Penang

2013/12 Blake Prize, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney / Jewish Museum of Victoria March-July 2013)

2012 Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of Ballarat

2012 The Kick Ass Painting Show, Fontanelle Gallery, Adelaide; curated by Brigid Noone.

2011 Revisitations, Latrobe University, Bendigo with Domenico de Clario, Elizabeth Presa and Tony Yap, curated by Lella Cariddi

2011 Lake Hindmarsh Project, 27 Gipps Street Gallery Melb., curated by Dr Sheridan Palmer

2010 Survival, Rimbun Dahan, Malaysi

2010 Libris Awards, Artspace, Mackay

2009 Spent floor installation/ Well video installation: Murray Darling Palimpsest #7, The Art Vault -Mildura / Ballarat Gold Mining Exchange Building

2009 Difficult Majesty, artist book with Andrew Lindsay; Ballarat University Post Office Galler

2009 Gulag Studios1994-2009, Counihan Gallery Melbourne, Curated by Dr Sheridan Palmer

2008 Drought – Creative Cross Cultural Collaborations, curated by Lella Cariddi; Fed. Square / ACMI / NGV

2006 Being at Bundanon, toured Victoria/NSW

2004 The Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

2004 The Spirit of Football, National Gallery of Victoria

2004 National Works on Paper survey, Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery

2002 5, installation/ perf’ce with Hisako Tsuzuku, Yumi Umiumare & Tony Yap, Mass Gallery, Melb

2001 Australian Paper Art Awards: Vic Arts Centre, Melb/ Festival Centre, Adelaide/ UTS Gallery,Syd

2000 National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery

2000 Anthony Pelchen, Hisako Tsuzuku and Shukou Tsuchiya, Takarazuka Cultural Centre, Japan

1998 Finale 1998, Renard Wardell Gallery, Richmond

1998 National Works On Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

1997 The Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

1997 New Acquisitions of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria

1996 12th Biennial Prints Acquisitive Exhibition, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

1995 1031 Kilograms, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

1995 Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, Victorian College of the Arts

1994 John Doe, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

 

Self Curated Projects

 

2021  Light installation/performance series: Natimuk - Signals From the Dark

2020/21 performance/drawing: Kanazawa Jack - Signals From the Dark

2018 I see you/you see me: Melaka Swabs, Malaysia

2015/14/13 Malaysia Australia Raft Project (MARP) – forecourt Austalia Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2015/ St Paul's Hill, Melaka 2014/ The Verge, Natimuk, Victoria 2013

2012/11/10 Formed and curated Visual Arts Program for the Melaka Art & Performance Festival, Malaysia>

 

Collaborations

 

2012 Installation activation: Frank Van de Ven, Code Maroon, Baboon House, Melaka, Malaysia

2010 Installation disruption: Tony Yap, Spent, Jubilee Hall, Horsham

2009 Installation disruption: Tony Yap, Merangkori, St Pauls church, Melaka (MAP 09)

2009 Installation disruption: Tony Yap, Merangkori, Ballarat Gold Mining Exchange

2008/9 Artists book with writer Andrew Lindsay, Difficult Majesty, NGV/Ballarat University Gallery

2009 Installation disruption: Tony Yap, Merangkori, Palimpsest #7, Mildura

2008 Installation/disruption: Tony Yap, Difficult Majesty, Punctum - Bendigo

2007 Installation, Troubled Nature, Natimuk Lutheran Church, with 222 children (Japan/Wimmera)

2005 Installation, 100 Years, Natimuk Lutheran Church (with community x 100)

2003 Installation for Inori-invisible with Yumi Umiumare, Copenhagen

2001 land installation, foreground Mt Arapiles, Wimmera:3,492 poly bags… (performance: Yumi Umiumare, Cape Kennedy, Jillian Pearce & Tony Yap)

2000 Installation for Inori-invisible with Yumi Umiumare, Dancehouse, Melbourne

2000 Installation for Inori-invisible with Yumi Umiumare, Takarazuka City, Japan

1999 Installation for How could you even begin to understand (Version5), with Yumi Umiumare and Tony Yap, St Stephen's Anglican Church, Melbourne

 

Grants / Awards / Residencies

 

2024 Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (AIR)- Police Point Residency

2022 Falls Creek residency

2020 Creative Victoria: Sustaining Creative Worker Initiative

2018 Baboon House residency, Melaka, Malaysia

2013/14 Arts Victoria Development grants

2010 Asialink residency, Malaysia

2009 Regional Arts Victoria – Arts Development (MAP 01, Melaka)

2008 Arts Victoria – Arts Development Grant – Presentation

2007 Regional Arts Victoria – Arts Development (Japan Residency)

2005 Regional Arts Victoria grants– Japan Residency/ New Work

2003 Bundanon Trust residency – Nowra, NSW

2003 Arts Victoria – Cultural Exchange Program Grant (Denmark)

2002 Parks Victoria residency - Warrandyte, Victoria

2001 Bundanon Trust residency - Nowra, NSW

2001 Green Room Award nomination – Design for Dance (Inori-in-visible)

2001 Arts Victoria - Regional Arts Development Grant

2001 Arts Victoria - Arts Development: New Work - Presentation

1999 Arts Victoria - Cultural Exchange Program Grant (Japan)

1999 Arts Victoria - Arts Development Program Gran

1999 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne - Studio 18 live-in residency

1994-96 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne - studio residency

19105 Victorian College of the Arts - Theodore Urbach Award for Painting

 

Collections

 

National Gallery of Victoria - Margaret Stewart Endowment, Bundanon Trust, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, John McBride Collection –Sydney, James Mollison Collection – Mebourne, Australian Print Workshop, Wimmera College of TAFE, Artbank, Australian Institute of Management, Melbourne Airport, Private- Australia, New Zealand, England, Japan

 

Publication / Interviews

 

2012 Jonathan Nichols - text: Anthony Pelchen, Kuang Road Prayer, Horsham Regional Art Gallery

2011 Lella Cariddi, catalogure essay, Revisitations project

2011 Dr Sheridan Palmer, catalogue essay, Lake Hindmarsh Project

2010

Portrait: Anthony Pelchen, with Shefah Szetu on 6th Nov 2010, BFM 89.9, The Business Station, Kuala Lumpur:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRfBftAXYlA

2010 Dr Sheridan Palmer, catalogue essay, Spent, Jubilee Hall, Horsham

2009 Dr Sheridan Palmer, Gulag Studios 1994-2009, catalogue essay

2009 Artists talk: Drought- Perceptions & Propositions, Ballarat University

2004 ABC Radio National interview with Julie Copeland, 12th Dec, The Maker: Anthony Pelchen

2001 essays: 3492 poly bags… www.abc.net.au/arts/fertile/essay_6.htm

2001 Leslie Harding, Re-thinking the Vital Illusion, Craft Victoria Quarterly – Spring Issue

2001 Leslie Harding & Carolyn Laffan, Marks of Intimacy, Australian Paper Art Awards

2009 Sandra Bridie, talk artists initiative, Melbourne

1999 Peter Timms, The Age, 16 June

1997 Peter Timms, Back to the Land, Herald Sun, 28 May

1997 Robert Nelson, The Age, 8 January

1995 Jenny Zimmer, The Age, 21 June

 

Other

 

2011-21 Teaching - adults and children of All-Abilities, Horsham

20012/11 Teaching – Ballarat University Art Dept, Horsham campus

2007/5 Conducted drawing/painting workshops, Nou Machi, Nigata pref., Japan

2012-2004 Conducted residential Butoh/drawing workshop with Yumi Umiumare, Wimmera River

1998/99 Guest tutor in drawing, RMIT Koori Education Unit

1998/1997 Lectures: Deakin University, RMIT University, Victorian College of the Arts

 

Travel

2018/2017/14/12/11/10/9/3Malaysia; 2014/7/5/3/0 Japan; 2003 Denmark, France; 1991 Indonesia; 1983 North America, Mexico, Southern Europe, Scotland