Congratulations to Kate Vassallo whose work is currently being exhibited in the prestigious 2024 Dobell Australian Drawing Biennale at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. As part of this Biennale Kate was commissioned to make her largest drawing work to date, a new six part series titled ‘Gain and Loss (100 pencils)’ with an installed size of 150 x 650 cm.
Through the work of ten artists from around Australia, the 2024 edition of the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial focuses on the compelling and allusive languages of abstraction. Artists invited to participate in the Biennale include: Matthew Allen (NSW), Helen Eager (NSW), Emma Fielden (NSW), the late Ngarralja Tommy May (WA), Ceara Metlikovec (NSW), Kerrie Poliness (VIC), Cameron Robbins (VIC), Sandra Selig (QLD), Kate Vassallo (ACT) and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (ACT).
Installation view of work by Kate Vassallo `Gain and Loss (100 Pencils)’ 2024, as part of the exhibition ‘Infinite: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2024’, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales © the artist, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio
“Kate Vassallo’s coloured pencil drawings are driven by self-imposed rules, chance and repetitious labour. A keen dancer as a child, she produced performance art in the early stages of her career. In many ways, her drawings continue these movement-based practices as recordings of actions in space.
Made with a single set of 100 coloured pencils chosen at random from her studio, and adhering to a strict sequence, each drawing began with a random scatter of used staples dropped from a height. Their landing points on the paper marked the focal points that form the base structure of each drawing. Increasing the number of staples for each drawing grew their complexity and sense of three dimensionality, producing more vanishing points and thus shapes.”
– Anne Ryan, Curator of Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales
View a selection of available drawings by Kate Vassallo below
or click here to view her full catalogue of available works.
Kate Vassallo
564 lines with 100 coloured pencils
2023
coloured pencil on paper
150 x 100 cm framed
$5,000 framed
Currently touring as a finalist in the 2024 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award
Kate Vassallo
Drifter
2022
Coloured pencil on paper
Paper size: 76 x 56 cm
Framed size: 92 x 73cm
$2,750 framed
Previous finalist in the 2022 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award
Kate Vassallo
Gain and Loss
2022
coloured pencil on paper
42 x 178.2 cm (6 sheets of A3 sized paper)
$3,000 unframed
Previous finalist in the 2023 Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award.