Dena Ashbolt is a perceptual artist whose cinematic drawing technique consistently engages with time, its flow and passing. Her interdisciplinary practice includes drawing and painting, printmaking, filmmaking, photo-media, and collaborative performance projects.
Born in London, Ashbolt graduated with First Class Honours in Film and Photography at the University of Westminster. In 1987 she emigrated to Melbourne, establishing a long successful career in film as a performance director; experience that continues to inform her process and sensitive, collaborative approach for clients seeking private art commissions.
In 2015 she obtained a doctorate in Fine Art from Monash University. Ashbolt’s studio practice is a consideration of cinematic drawing: drawing in response to the flow of time, and its revelations to collective and individual human experience.
Her work has been exhibited with the Arts Council (England), Royal Academy summer Exhibition (London), Ballarat Art Gallery.
Recent Exhibitions
2023 - Lebenslust – 45 downstairs Melbourne Victoria Australia
2022 - Danza Fatale – Fondaco Public Gallery – Feltre, Italy
2016 - Dancing to Death, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2015 - Within the Buffer, PHD examination exhibition, Faculty Gallery Monash University, Melbourne,
2013 - Witnessing Time, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2012 - So when do you throw the flowers out? Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2012 - Project Space – Dena Ashbolt: Green Car on the Freeway, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, Victoria,
2011 - Drawing Time, Farfield Mill, 2K Gallery, Cumbria, England
2010 - Tracing Space: Temporal Drawings, Gallerie du Viaduc, Montreal, Canada
2009 - Drawing Space, Cube 37 & Federation Gallery, Frankston, Victoria, Australia
2009 - Being There, emerging artist program at ACGA Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria,
2009 - Video Drawings, Postgraduate Gallery, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1983 - Face, Solo Silk Screen Print Exhibition, Frankfurt, Germany
1982 Facades, Print exhibition, Commission by SE Arts Council Tunbridge Wells Art Gallery, England
Education
Monash University Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture PHD in Fine Art: Practice led research 2015 Within the Buffer – Drawing in response to the flow of Time
Monash University Melbourne Masters in Fine Art: Practice led research 2009 University of Westminster, London, England. 1st Class BA Honours in Film and Photographic Arts
Commendations & Projects:
2015 - Drawing International Brisbane Symposium. Paper: Cinematic Drawing: What might that be?
2014 - Nillumbik Shire Art Prize, Finalist, Montsalvat, Victoria, Australia
2012 - Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Finalist, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
2012 - Paul Guest Prize, Finalist, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
2011 - Artists Residency at Montsalvat, Victoria, Australia 2011 Nillumbik Shire Art Prize, Finalist, Montsalvat, Victoria, Australia
2010 - 36th Alice Prize, Finalist. Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2010 - Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Finalist, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
2010 - Williamstown Contemporary Art Prize Finalist. Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
2009 - Williamstown Contemporary Art Prize Finalist
2009 - Winner Nillumbik Shire Art Prize; Video Drawing, Wet Feet Under the Pier, 2009 Monash University
2009 - Colloquium Artist presentation of Video Drawing Hand on the Escalator
1992 - Artist residency in Clifton Pugh’s paint studio, Dunmoochin, Victoria, Australia