About
Lorraine Heller-Nicholas is a cross-disciplinary artist who works with photography, drawing, painting, animation, artist books and textiles.
Storytelling is a vehicle for Heller-Nicholas to create affective responses, this is achieved by, incorporating a nostalgic, sometimes kitsch, approach. Time is a key concern to her within the context of narrative and the experience of an artwork. In this way her moving image practice often attempts to speak of a pivotal moment, while the still image elements in her practice often speak of a passage through time. The work is most often positioned in a contradictory realm that is informed on a very material level by the past and the present, but at the same time transcends both. Her more recent work has incorporated a focus on spatial relationships both within an image and in its presentation.
Heller-Nicholas has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally since 2001. Exhibitions include: Local Remix Assembly, Nillumbik Shire at Montsalvat (2026) ; Beyond Boundaries, The University of Melbourne at the Auckland Art Fair (2018) ; Between You and Them: the Identity of Self, Object and Place, ACAF, Shanghai (2016) ; Merged, Amelia Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, Florida (2016) ; Love Triangle, Little Woods Gallery (2015) ; CoupleStalking, c3 Contemporary Artspace (2015). Heller-Nicholas has completed studio residencies in Vermont, USA (2019) ; Ólafsfjörður, Iceland (2015) ; Shanghai, China (2014); Taipei, Taiwan (2007) and Eltham, Australia (2013). She was a founding member of dotmov screen collective and Tape Projects (2004-2008).
Lorraine acknowledges and pays respect to the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people as the traditional owners, caretakers and storytellers on the land in which she lives, works and creates.
Solo & Two Person Exhibitions
2018 Lorraine Heller-Nicholas and Zamara Robison, VCA Artspace, Melbourne
2015 CoupleStalking, C3 Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
2015 Love Triangle, Little Woods Gallery, Melbourne
2015 Lost, Listhús í Fjallabyggðis, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2014 Romance Traces: Lorraine Heller-Nicholas & Jessie Scott, Tinning Street Presents, Melbourne
2012 Love Story, Obscura Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Loves Me Not, No No Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Precious Little One, Bus Gallery, Melbourne
Selected Exhibitions and Screenings
2026 (25 June -16 August) Local Remix Assembly: Artist colonies, residencies and the Collection - Nillumbik Shire Council
2023 CCP x Hahnemühle Summer Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2019 Fridge, Dinney House, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA
2019 Shakespeare Grove Collective Celebration, Carlisle Street Art Space, St Kilda, Melbourne
2018 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Southbank, Melbourne
2018 Beyond Boundaries: VCA, University of Melbourne, Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand
2018 From where I stand, George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
2017 Magic Fountain, School of Art VCA Artspace, Faculty of VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne
2016 Fusion: The Merging of Art and Science, Summit Art Space, Akron, USA
2016 Merged, Amelia Center Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, Florida, USA
2016 Between You & Them the Identity of Self, Object and Place, Australia China Art Foundation, Shanghai, China
2015 Viðvera, Tjarnarborg Culture House, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2014 Pan Summer Studio Exhibition, Pantocrator Gallery, Shanghai, China
2014 Rooftop Transmissions - Melbourne Now, Rooftop Cinema, Melbourne. Presented by Channels Festival and National Gallery of Victoria as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition program
2013 Ikono On Air Festival, Berlin, TV in over 30 countries and online
2013 Southern Panoramas, 18th International Contemporary Art Festival, Videobrasil, Brazil
2013 Video Visions : Constructed Worlds + Bodies Collide, Channels: Australian Video Art Festival, ACMI, Melbourne
2012 I am Heathcliff, Daine Singer Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Basic Instinct, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Jack Nicholas: a collaboration with Jacqueline Felstead, Fitzroy Library, Melbourne
2009 Small World, Substation Theatre, Singapore
2008 Fly Me to the Moon, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Melbourne and Other Myths, City Gallery, Treasury Museum, Melbourne
2007 Citylogue, Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan
2007 The Lost Girls: Never Grow Old, Never Die, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Chinese Valentine’s Day Screening, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2006 Either/Auteur, City Library, Melbourne presented by dotmov and Senses of Cinema
2006 Love is a Battlefield, Viewing Space, Melbourne
2006 Experimedia, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne
2005 Precious Little One, Bus Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Boys Girls Machines, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
2004 The Book Show, First Site Gallery, Melbourne
2004 D>art04: Screen, Sydney International Film Festival, Sydney
2004 8th Madcat International Women’s Film Festival, San Francisco, USA
2004 Cycle, RMIT Faculty Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Collaboration, PB Gallery, Melbourne
Artist Residencies
2019 Vermont Studio Center Residency, incorporating a VSC Artist’s Grant, Vermont, USA.
2016-19 Studio resident, Shakespeare Grove Artist Studios. Supported by City of Port Phillip
2015 Artist in Residence, Listhús í Fjallabyggðis, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2014 Artist in Residence, Pan Summer Studio Residency, Pantocrator Gallery, M50, Shanghai, China
2013 Artist in Residence, Laughing Waters Artist in Residence program, Parks Victoria & Nillumbik Shire
2011-12 Studio Resident, River Studios. Supported by City of Melbourne and Creative Spaces.
2007 Artist in Residence, Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan
Education
2018 Master of Contemporary Art, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
2005 Bachelor of Arts (Media Arts), RMIT University
2002 Diploma of Visual Arts, Swinburne TAFE, Prahran Campus