Irene Wellm


'I have always liked the idea of storytelling, and in the Jungian way, I am interested in how pictures,like stories, myths and fairy tales, can function as maps or guides to the unconscious mind.'

Of Wellm's work, James Bowen, Fort Delta Gallery, Melbourne said:

'Irene Wellm's work is characterized by a surreal and understated darkness. Her emblematic, large-scaled gouache paintings on paper depict figures that blend between recognizable human forms and other animalistic entities extracted from popular folklore and Greek mythology to form collage-like painted tableaux.

Wellm's new series of monochromatic paintings have evolved from her interest in shedding light on a deeper experience with reality through her inner psyche - her 'second self' - and plays a key role in linking the various suspended narratives she reveals to us through the strangeness of our own dream time and the apparitions that occupy those worlds.'

GESTALT on My Mind

Click here for artwork by Irene Wellm

Exhibitions:
solo
2024 GESTALT on My Mind, Tacit Art, Melbourne
2018 Devils I Have Known and other stories, The Stockroom, Kyneton
Devils I Have Known, Tacit Art, Melbourne
2016 Mundus Imaginalis, Tacit ArtMelbourne
2015 Second Self, Fort Delta, Melbourne
2014 Out of this World, Salve Art Gallery, Leipzig
Preview, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Momentum of Evolution, Catherine Asquith Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Her Fragrant Frown, Catherine Asquith Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Something Like Us, Catherine Asquith Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Dämmerung, Red Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Twixt & Tween, Alluvial Gallery, Bendigo
2006 We of the Silent Dreaming, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Fragmented Fantasies, Michael Carr, Sydney
2004 Bedtime Stories, Nellie Castan GalleryMelbourne
2001 Threshold, Gallery 101, Melbourne

group 
2023 Artbox, Tacit Art, Melbourne
2022
 Der Handlung: Re-Konstruktionen des Gemeinsamen, a&o Kunsthalle, Leipzig (w/ Mandy Kunze)
2021 Telluric Currents, Notfair Project Space 2, Windsor Hotel, Melbourne (w/ Naomi Bishop)
2020 Microcosmographia, fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
20[2020], Tacit Art, Melbourne
2019 Feast, The Stockroom, Kyneton
2018 Drawing Strength, Monsalvat, Melbourne
Line, Tacit Art, Melbourne
2017 Notfair, Melbourne
9 x 5 NOW, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
Dark Contrasts, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2014 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Gallery
Basislager, Liviastrasse3, Leipzig
Dans le jardin des beaux-arts, Connex-Thomaskirchhof, Leipzig
Asteroid, Winterrundgang Der Spinnereigalerien, Leipzig
2013 Zeit für Kunst - Großer Frühjahrsrundgang der Spinnereigalerien, Leipzig
Lesungen in der Spinnerei, LIA Galerie, Leipzig
Rethinking Space, Wintersrundgang der SpinnereiGalerien, Leipzig
2012 Somebody's Room, LIA Galerie, Leipzig
2011 Member’s exhibition, The Melbourne Club, Melbourne
Melbourne Savage Club Acquisitive Art Prize, Melbourne VIC
Korea & Australia 50 Years, Foundation Cultural Centre & Bom Gallery, Seoul
Aura: The Haunted Family Image, L17 Art Space, Melbourne 
2010 Duke Gold Coast Art Prize
Net Work, The TLF Exhibition, Ballarat Art Gallery
2009 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery 
2008 Art in Mind, Brick Lane Gallery, London
2007 Darebin La Trobe Art Prize, Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne
Mixed Bag, Johnston Gallery, Perth, Western Australia
2006 Melbourne Reign, Michael Carr, Sydney
2005 Keith & Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship Exhibition, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts
2002 Towards Colour, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin
2001 Glacier, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne and tour
2000 UBS Art Award: A Tribute to the Painting of Tomorrow, Whitechapel Gallery, London (and European tour)