ELLIE HANNON
Ellie Hannon (b. Sydney 1988) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Newcastle NSW that works across exhibitions, public art and community projects. These process-led actions fuel Hannon’s visual account presenting personal and political issues in relation to place. Informed through her involvement with community art projects, and environmental and social justice communities, Ellie makes art as a means to connect with a sense of place that prioritises relationship building and reparation, both internal and external, self and environment, the simple and complex.
Ellie’s work is easily approachable and welcoming to intentionally connect to many people through colour and familiar symbols and forms. Through drawing, painting, textiles and installation, her works uncover new methods of relational inquiry, presenting collective stories of human and non-human ecologies that propose themes of hopefulness, autonomy, trust, equity, respect, interdependence, and the contrasting realities that often sit alongside these impressions.
Since completing her Bachelor of Fine Art at Newcastle University in 2009 Hannon has exhibited with Backwoods Gallery biannually in Melbourne including; Way/ Find (2024) Late & Light (2022) Worry tree (2020) The Wild (2018), and other solo exhibitions include Half-Light, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, (2022), Shelter, Marfa Gallery, Melbourne, (2019) Traces, Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle (2015) On my way, Corner Store Gallery, Orange, (2014). Significant group exhibitions include, Between Painters, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne (2022), Collect, The Lockup, Newcastle (2018>2024), Transient Love, Maitland Regional art Gallery, Maitland (2017). Hannon was a finalist in the Little things art prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney (2021, 2020), and was selected as a Finalist in the biannual Alice Springs art prize at the Araluen Art Centre in (2022, 2024).
Ellie has worked across a diversity of projects employing a respectful and strengths-based approach. Hannon lived in Indonesia for 3 years where she co-managed the funding, construction and programming of a community art centre in the remote village of Jatitujuh, West Java. This project received the Australian Arts in Asia Government award for philanthropy and community engagement in 2013. More recent projects include, 2020 NSW Government “My Community Grant” where Hannon facilitated workshops for a mural and community courtyard revitalisation in Newcastle, and over the past 5 years has collaborated with Marrawuddi Arts Centre, Numbulwar art centre and GARMA festival liaising with community members and stakeholders to design and install large scale murals with local artists.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2009 — Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Newcastle
Select Solo Exhibitions
2025 — Future Creek Canopy, Artspace, Sydney
2024 — Way/Find, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2022 — Late & Light, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2022 — Half-light, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland
2020 — Worry Tree, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2019 — Shelter, Marfa Gallery, Melbourne
2018 — The Wild, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2015 — Traces, Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle
Select Group Exhibitions
2025 — Confluence, Experimental Ceramics, Performance Arts Culture Cessnock
2019–present — Collect, The Lockup, Newcastle
2024 — Alternating the Cube, The MAC Museum, Lake Macquarie
2024 — Scintilla, Back to Back Gallery, Newcastle
2023 — To Move Through, University of Newcastle Gallery, Newcastle
2022 — One Ocean Our Future, Australian National Maritime Museum
2022 — Between Painters, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2022 — Bold Landscapes, The Corner Store Gallery, Orange
2021 — Oh Shit, Studio Group Show, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2021 — BACKW11DS, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne
2020 — Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney
2018 — Surface Structure, Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Sydney
2018 — Girls Girls Girls, Back to Back Gallery, Newcastle
Residencies, Awards, Projects, Grants & Publications
2026 — Push/Pull Project in collaboration with Peter Parslow, Cementa Festival, Kandos
2023–ongoing — Art Raft Collective, Founder/Director, Newcastle
2025–ongoing — Future Creek Project, Workshop and Community Pedagogy Series, in collaboration with Therese Keogh
2025 — MAC Yapang Art Prize, Lake Macquarie
2024 — NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), Finalist
2024 — Artlink Article, Eco-critical, April–July
2024 — Alice Springs Art Prize, Finalist
2023 — Community Mural Project, Numburindi Art Centre, Arnhem Land
2023 — Lethbridge Small Works Prize, Finalist
2022 — Alice Springs Art Prize, Finalist
2022 — GARMA Festival mural collaboration, Yirrkala artists and Del Katherine Barton, Arnhem Land
2022 — Mural collaboration with Numbulwar/Numburindi Art Centre artists and weavers
2021 — Artist in Residence, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Ashmore Reef, Timor Sea
2021 — Community Mural Project, Carries Place
2020 — NSW Government My Community Project Grant Recipient, The Commons Courtyard, Pachamama House
2020 — Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney, Finalist
2019 — Collaborative Community Mural, Marrawuddi Art Centre, Jabiru
Select Independent Public Art Commissions
2026 — Water Ways, Muswellbrook Hospital Redevelopment, Arts in Health Project
2025 — Sunrise and the Eucalypts, Singleton Council Public Art Trail
2024-present — Wayfinding Artwork and Installation, John Hunter Hospital
Redevelopment
2024 — Local Bushwalk, Sandblast Mural, South Newcastle Beach Redevelopment
2022 — Lake Gkula Reflections, Woodford Folk Festival
2020 — You Shadow, University of Newcastle
2020 — Riddles Creek, Fire and Flood, Big Picture Festival, Newcastle
2020 — Forest Play, Pilot Childcare, Newcastle
2020 — Wildflower Walk, Pachamama Community Hub, Newcastle
2019 — Possum Park, Charlestown Library, Newcastle
2019 — Forest Star, Marfa Gallery, Melbourne
2018 — Where the Ocean Meets the Sea, CBD, Coffs Harbour
2017 — Passageway, Make it Made it Conference, Newcastle
MEDIA
Australian painter Ellie Hannon artist-at-sea on Schmidt Ocean Institute Ashmore Reef voyage
ABC News • May 7, 2021
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-07/artist-at-sea-ellie-hannon-schmidt-ocean-institute/100120884
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I acknowledge the Awabakal and Worimi people as the traditional owners of the country that i call my home base, this incredible place upon which I live, work, garden, explore and foster community, I appreciate and respect it endlessly. I recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.