Researcher Profile

Catherine Bell

Visual Art Lecturer, ACU Gallery Director, Melbourne
Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design

Areas of expertise: sculpture; installation; performance art; video art; socially-engaged and relational art practices; neurodiverse/neurotypical art collaboration; feminist art; art in healthcare settings; creative research and feminist interventions in the archive; care ethics; participatory/collaborative and inclusive practice; art and disability; art, death, body disposal, grief and bereavement research, monument equality; reimagining statues and memorials as feminist anti-monuments in public spaces.

Phone: +61 03 9953 3363

Email: catherine.bell@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5688-5264

Associate Professor Catherine Bell is a multi-disciplinary artist, curator and academic teaching visual art in the National School of Arts and Humanities, Australian Catholic University. Her art practice explores the role of the artist in the archive and health care setting, neurodivergent/neurotypical art collaboration, socially-engaged and relational approaches to art making, feminist and care ethics in collaborative practice, challenging taboos surrounding death, dying and body disposal, monument equality and feminist perspectives on remembering women in public space.

https://vimeo.com/780552434

Since, 2009 Catherine Bell and Arts Project Australia artist Cathy Staughton have collaborated on numerous creative projects including three shared artist residencies.
https://netsvictoria.org.au/exhibition/catherine-bell-the-artists/
https://netsvictoria.org.au/exhibition/the-artist-and-the-mermaid/
https://gertrude.org.au/exhibition/dog-robot-space-star

Bell has undertaken two, yearlong artist residencies in the oncology ward at St Vincent's Hospital and Caritas Christi Hospice in Melbourne. They involved implementing communal creativity with patients and staff to promote healthy discussion and meaningful reflection on death.
https://issuu.com/cebell/docs/catherine_bell____we_die_as_we_live

She has curated the 2020-21 National touring exhibition, Fem-affinity, that explores neurodiverse/neurotypical collaborative practice as a feminist mode of production.
https://netsvictoria.org.au/exhibition/fem-affinity/

She was awarded a 2020-23 Gertrude Contemporary studio.
https://gertrude.org.au/artist/catherine-bell

Catherine Bell is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.
https://suttongallery.com.au/artists/catherine-bell/

Select publications

Book Chapters

• Millner, J., & Coombs, G. eds (2021). Care and Art (1st ed.) Routledge. Catherine Bell, Chapter 2. "Creative Care: modelling caring practices through collaborations in neurodiverse and palliative-care contexts." pp.25-37
• Ashton, J. C. ed (2017). Feminism and Museums: Intervention, Disruption and Changes (Vol. 1) MuseumsEtc Ltd. Catherine Bell, Chapter 19. "Bringing Daphne Back: Archival Research as Artistic Collaboration." pp 437-451
• Catherine Bell (2014). "Add water when dry: Resurrecting bouquets as corporeal relics, melancholic rituals and community engagement at Caritas Christi Hospice." in Exploring Bodies in Time and Space, Inter-Disciplinary Press. Oxford. pp 227-235

Journal Articles

• Catherine Bell (2020) "Death relics and reflections: engaging palliative staff to respond creatively to death experiences in hospice settings." Mortality, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2020.1776238
• Catherine Bell (2020) "Funerary Artefacts, Cemetery Souvenirs and Final Resting Places.", The European Journal of Life Writing: Death Issue, Vol. 9. pp 1-16 https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.9.36915
• Catherine Bell (2015) "Artist as Undertaker: Flower Tower and Community Art at Caritas Christi Hospice, Melbourne", ANZJAT: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Arts Therapy, Vol. 10, No.1. pp 43-55
• Catherine Bell (2011). "Cooking up Crimes and Maternal Misdemeanours: from food ritual to transgressive performances", The Hunger Artist: Food and the Arts Issue 15, Double Dialogues, School of Communication & Creative Arts, Deakin University: Melbourne. http://www.doubledialogues.com/issue_fifteen/bell.html
• Catherine Bell (2009). "Performing Animality: Swimming with eels and squid ink erasure", Animal Identities: The animal in perspective, Online conference paper publication: http://becoming-animal-becoming-human.animal-studies.org/html/conference.html

Solo Exhibitions

• 2023 Dog Robot Space Star, A "Two Cathies" collaborative exhibition, Gertrude Glasshouse Gallery, Melbourne.
• 2022 Maker Unknown, Live performances, Pioneering Woman's Memorial Garden, Melbourne https://vimeo.com/780552434
• 2022 Death Becomes Her, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhikNkyZ1_0
• 2017 Odor Patris Tu, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2017 We Die As We Live, St Vincent's Private Hospital, Melbourne
• 2014 The Remains of the Day, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2013 The Gathering, Substation, Melbourne
• 2012 This little piggy…fades to pink, Art Gallery of Ballarat, VIC
• 2011 Mum's the Word, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2011 Waste not Want not, Death Be Kind, Melbourne
• 2007 Love and Other Bruises, Monash Faculty Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 Are you a man or a mouse mat? Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Galapagas Art Space, NY
• 2006 Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• 2005 Rain Cheque, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2001 Harvest, Hooked, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1997 Head Over Eels, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1996 Cesspool & To All The Boys I've Loved Before, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 1995 With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemas, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1994 Coitus Interruptus, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 1993 Break and Enter, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1992 No Frills, The Royal Institute of Architects, Brisbane

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2022 Fragile Beauty, Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne
• 2022 Gertrude Contemporary Annual Studio Artists Exhibition, Melbourne
• 2022 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Melbourne
• 2022 Sutton Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition
• 2022-23 One foot on the ground, one foot in the water, curated exhibition, touring nationally by NETS Victoria (Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie; Pinnacles Gallery; Tweed Regional Gallery; Burnie Regional Gallery)
• 2022 Art, Death and Disposal, Stables Meat Market, Melbourne
• 2021 Gertrude Contemporary Annual Studio Artists' Exhibition, Melbourne
• 2021 One foot on the ground, one foot in the water, Bunjil Place Gallery, Narre Warren, Victoria
• 2021 Video Now, Swan Hill Regional Gallery, Victoria
• 2021 STILL National Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery
• 2021 Flesh After Fifty, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
• 2020 One foot on the ground, one foot in the water, Latrobe Art Institute, Bendigo
• 2020 Captivity Report, Gertrude Contemporary Public Art Preston, Melbourne
• 2020 The Artists, Bunjil Place Outdoor Screening, Narre Warren, Victoria
• 2018-20 Craftivism: Dissident Objects and Subversive Forms, Shepparton Art Museum, curated exhibition, touring nationally by NETS Victoria
• 2019 New Woman, Museum of Brisbane, Queensland
• 2019 Pets are People Too, Bayside Arts & Culture Centre, Melbourne
• 2019 Deakin Small Sculpture Prize, Deakin Art Gallery, Melbourne
• 2018 On A Tangent, Horsham Regional Gallery, Victoria
• 2018 Pairs, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
• 2018 In The Bird's Mouth, Bow Arts, London, United Kingdom
• 2017 Sounding Histories, The Mission to Seafarers Victoria, Melbourne
• 2016 Ceremonial, Craft Victoria, Melbourne
• 2015 Performance Presence / Video Time, Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
• 2015 Finitude, Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart
• 2015 Affiliated Text & Selfie Image Narrative Opiate: Self-disclosure and the Graphic Novel, Cross Art Books, Sydney
• 2015 Stations of the Cross, McGlade Gallery, Sydney
• 2015 Treatment, Western Water Treatment Plant, Werribee
• 2014 New photography from the Footpath, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
• 2014 Knowing Me Knowing You, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne
• 2014 The 'F' Word, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
• 2014 Found, Magdalene Laundries, Abbottsford Convent, Melbourne
• 2013 Backflip: Feminism and humour in contemporary art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
• 2013 Artcycle: The Environmental Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
• 2012 What's yours is Mine, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• 2012 Selectively Revealed, Asialink Touring Exhbition: Aram Art Gallery, Seoul, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Chulalongkorn University Art Space, Bangkok
• 2011 What's yours is Mine, curated by Catherine Bell and Jan Duffy, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
• 2011 Evidence of Absence, Death Be Kind, Melbourne
• 2011 The Animal Gaze, Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery, Sheffield, United Kingdom
• 2011 Seminário Internacional Arte e Natureza, Matilha Cultural, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• 2011 The Rest is Silence, Death Be Kind, Melbourne
• 2010 Portrait Exchange, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne
• 2010 Pulp, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 2010 Trouble set me free, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
• 2010 The Memorial, Death Be Kind, Melbourne
• 2009 Tier Perspeciven (Animal Perspectives), Georg-Kolbe Museum, Berlin
• 2009 Tier - Werden Mensch - Werden (Becoming Animal - Becoming Human), NGBK: Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin
• 2009 BB3: gender-biology-society, Gallery Verkligheten, Umeå, Sweden
• 2009 Love Bites, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
• 2009 On the Line, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
• 2009 Persuasion Equation, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
• 2009 Testing Ground, fortyfivedownstairs Gallery, Melbourne
• 2008-9 The Animal Gaze, touring exhibition, Unit 2 Gallery and Metropolitan Works, London; Centre of Contemporary Art, Exeter; and Plymouth City Museum, Plymouth
• 2008 True crime - murder and misdemeanour in Australian art, Geelong Gallery, Geelong, Victoria
• 2008 The Letter Show, George Paton Gallery, Union House, University of Melbourne, VIC
• 2008 The Cancer Council Victoria Art Award, 15 W Gallery, Melbourne; Cube 37 Frankston Art Gallery; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; and Warrnambool Art Gallery
• 2008 in praise of blandness, Faculty Gallery Monash Art & Design, Melbourne
• 2008 LOOP 08, Video Art Festival, Hotel California Ramblas de Barcelona, Spain
• 2008 Womenfolk: songs from the valley below, live performance collaboration with Martha McDonald, Out of Bounds, conference, Monash University, Melbourne
• 2007 Epiphanies, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 an edge meets an edge, Spectrum Project Space, Edith Cowen University, Perth
• 2007 Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Fashion Biennale, Amsterdam
• 2006 A4 Reunion Show, West Space, Melbourne
• 2006 Alot of Love Goin' Around, R.M.I.T University Project Space, Melbourne
• 2006 Army Brats, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
• 2005 The Raw and the Cooked, Blindside, Melbourne
• 2005 Truth Universally Acknowledged, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• 2004-2005 Suck: voices from the interior, Geelong Gallery, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Old Arts Building, University of Melbourne, and Maroondah Art Gallery, Victoria
• 2004 Digital and Design Biennale, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne
• 2003 Drama is Conflict, Linden St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• 2003 Drawing, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield Campus
• 2003 On View, Faculty of Art and Design, Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne
• 2001 Artist x 3, The Gallery, Shepherds Market, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom
• 2001 The Norrie, Slessor, Bell, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, United Kingdom
• 2001 Ready, Steady, Go, Ipswich Regional Gallery, QLD
• 1997 Then and Now, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1996 Strata, MFA, Graduate Show, RMIT, Storey Hall, Melbourne
• 1996 Reference Points IV, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• 1996 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia
• 1994 Logan City Art Prize, Logan City Art Gallery, Ipswich, Queensland
• 1994 Small Monuments, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• 1994 Australia Felix, Benalla Easter Arts Festival, Benalla, Victoria
• 1994 Christmas Show, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
• 1994 Group Women Drawing Show, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 1994 Windows, Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane
• 1994 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery, New South Wales
• 1994 Six Artists from Bellas Gallery, Umbrella Studios, Townsville, Queensland
• 1993 21600 each 24 hours, Drawing Show, Canberra Boardroom, Travelodge
• 1993 Political Bedrooms, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
• 1993 Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 1993 Fearless/Furchtlos, Forum Kunstund Schule, Gutersloh, Germany & Artestudio, Berganso, Italy
• 1992 Graduate Show, School of Arts Building, Brisbane
• 1992 Sextet, University of Western Nepean Campus, Sydney
• 1992 Epoch, Space Plentitude, Brisbane

Selected Art Catalogues

• Catherine Bell, We Die As We Live, Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria: City of Melbourne, 2017
  https://issuu.com/cebell/docs/catherine_bell____we_die_as_we_live
• Catherine Bell, The Remains of the Day, Melbourne, Victoria: Sutton Gallery, 2014
  https://issuu.com/cebell/docs/catherine_bell_catalogue_sutton_gal
• Catherine Bell, Street Strollers of New York. Melbourne, Victoria: Monash Gallery of Art, 2014.
  https://issuu.com/mgaphotography/docs/bell_cat_web_issuu
• Catherine Bell, "Cathy Staughton: A walk on the wild side", Cathy Staughton's Wondrous Imaginarium, The Leonard Joel Series of Art Catalogues, ed. C. Daye, Melbourne: Arts Project Australia, 2013, pp 8-11

Projects

Selected Curation

• 2019-2021 "Fem-affinity" National Touring Exhibition launched in 2019 at Arts Project Australia (VIC) 2020-21 travelled to Devonport Regional Gallery (TAS), Noosa Regional Gallery (QLD), Horsham Regional Art Gallery (VIC), Bunjil Place (VIC), Riddoch Art Gallery (SA), Benalla Art Gallery (VIC)
  https://netsvictoria.org.au/exhibition/fem-affinity/
• 2011 What's yours is Mine, Linden - Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
• 2010 Trouble Set Me Free, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
• 2007 Epiphanies, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne
• 2006 Army Brats, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
• 2005 The Raw and the Cooked, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne

Accolades and Awards

Art Grants & Artist Residencies

• 2022 Australia Council of the Arts Project Grant
• 2022 City of Melbourne Annual Project Grant
• 2021-22 RMIT Health Transformation Lab Art Residency in collaboration with Arts Project Australia artist Cathy Staughton.
• 2020-23 Gertrude Contemporary, Studio Artist, Melbourne
• 2018 NETs Victoria Exhibition Development Grant - Fem-affinity Exhibition
• 2018 National Exhibitions Touring (NETS) Support for my curated show Fem-affinity supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy to tour Australia 2019-21
• 2018 Australia Council for the Arts Creation Grant- Funding an International Artist Residency in the UK at the Centre of Substructured Loss: Applied Grief and Bereavement Research
• 2017 City of Melbourne Presentation Grant: Outcome of yearlong artist in residence (2016-17) community engagement research project "Facing Death Creatively" at St Vincent's Hospital Oncology Ward and Caritas Christi Hospice
• 2017 Doing Feminism/Sharing the World - Norma Redpath Residency, University of Melbourne
• 2016-17 Artist in Residence, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne
• 2015 ACU Faculty of Education and Arts Research Excellence Award, 2016-17 Artist Residency at St Vincent's Hospital and Community engagement Project in the Oncology Ward
• 2015 Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) & Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Fellowship: Daphne Mayo Archive at the Fryer Library, University of Queensland
• 2012-13 ACU Early Career Researcher Award: Creative Art in Health Care Settings: Artist as Residency as community engagement at St Vincent's Hospital Caritas Christi Hospice
• 2013 Creative Partnership Australia Award - Good Practice Recognition: "Flower Tower" Community Engagement Project, St Vincent's Hospital
• 2012-13 Artist is Residence, St Vincent's Hosptial, Melbourne
• 2010 Australia Council Visual Arts Board, Greene Street, New York Studio
• 2008 Victorian Cancer Council Art Award - Outstanding Visual Arts Entry
• 2006 Arts Victoria, Creation Grant, Curated Exhibition Army Brats Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
• 2005 City of Melbourne Presentation Grant, Curated Exhibition Army Brats Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
• 2003-06 Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship - PhD Monash University
• 1996-97 Professional Development Grant, Arts Queensland
• 1996 Studio 18, Residential Studio, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
• 1994 Melville Haysom Residency, Queensland Art Gallery and Melville Haysom Scholarship, Queensland Art Gallery

Teaching Awards

• 2022 Faculty of Education and Arts Executive Dean's Commendation for Excellence in Teaching
• 2021 Faculty of Education and Arts Executive Dean's Commendation for Excellence in Teaching
• 2020 The Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching
• 2016 National Teaching Citation - Awarded by the Federal Government's Office of Learning and Teaching
• 2013 ACU Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning
• 2012 ACU Good Practice in Assessment Prize
• 2011 ACU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award
• 2008 Mollie Hollman Doctoral Medal, Monash University
• 2007 Monash University, Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching
• 2003-06 Australia Postgraduate Award Scholarship
• 2000-01 Recognised Studentship, Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford

Appointments and Affiliations

• Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University
• Women's Art Register Membership

Editorial roles

• Editorial for 50th Anniversary Women's Art Register, Bulletin

Grant agency review panels

• 2016 Creative Victoria, Organisations Investment Program - Visual Arts Panel Member
• 2010-12 Creative Victoria, Arts Development Grant Panel
• 2006-08 Arts Victoria, Creative Development Grant Panel

Public engagement activities

• 2023 Cultural Heritage Week Panel Member, "The Changing Face of Melbourne's History: Transforming our Statues and Memorials" organised by Making Public Histories Webinar Program, Monash University.
• 2023 "Bone - Comfortable in the Uncomfortable" design and facilitation of socially engaged creative workshop, commissioned by MPavillion Curators Program.
• 2023 VCE Creative Folio Day, Guest Presenter, Horsham Regional Gallery
• 2022 Redesigning Deathcare Conference- Panel member, "Exploring Death Futures through Art and Desgin", University of Melbourne.
• 2022 Art, Death and Disposal Interview, Melbourne University
  https://deathtech.research.unimelb.edu.au/2022/01/17/interview-with-catherine-bell-on-art-death-disposal-faculty-of-arts/
• 2020 Facing Death Creatively, Public Art Workshop, Latrobe Art Insitute, Bendigo.
• 2019 Facing Death Creatively, Public Art Workshops, Shepperton Art Gallery; "George Paton Gallery; Warrnambool Art Gallery; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
• 2018 Facing Death Creatively, Public Art Workshop, St Christopher's Hospice (UK).