Chelle Destefano, a Deaf artist, born in Melbourne and currently lives in Adelaide, South Australia. She has been practicing her arts for 15 years and exhibiting for the last decade and most recently as an international artist in Europe. She exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and is preparing for two solo exhibitions in Paris and London later this year.

She works with watercolour, ink, acrylic, gouache and mixed media to communicate her stories, transcribing her perceptions of the world today and way back many thousands of years ago. Some of her works are compelling, particularly the visuals of abandoned places and the ghosts that linger and some of those stories transfer to the emotions of viewers who recognise that it's also their story too, perhaps past lives are felt in her artworks. Many people feel drawn to have an original Chelle piece of art due to this intangible connection.

Since Chelle started exhibiting professionally, she has attained quite a few awards, some of the best this year include the Australian Arts Council grant for the Paris and London solo exhibitions, the Arts SA grant for Wait of the World debut exhibition in Melbourne at Gasworks, and more recently the Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS Website Featured Artist Award with Manhattan Arts International.

Her most notable solo exhibitions have been the Port Noarlunga exhibition in May 2014 incorporating watercolour illustrations of shops along the main street to commemorate the pride of my home town. This exhibition was the domino effect that led to attention from art fans, supporters and galleries who were keen to exhibit my works. Blue Ghosts in Melbourne in 2015 and Wait of the World in Melbourne in 2016 at Gasworks Art Park had great turn outs and most of her artworks sold.

Many from the Blue Ghosts collection, Wait of the World collection and Adelaide/Thebarton collection have gone to private and public collections, including the council surrounding Adelaide, Thebarton and Port Noarlunga, while some of the Blue Ghosts and Wait of the World collections have gone to private collections around Australia and abroad.

Chelle prefers to communicate through her artworks, her deep feelings about the world and its deep history, unease, unrest, constant wars and corruption warrant for her interpretation and theories on what may happen in the future and her great desire for world peace. Her perceptions inspire the senses of many who too wonder what is up with the world. Some of her themes also focus on preserving history of places around her area and far, often on request of others and those works convey in her unique style of the places she paints. Sometimes, for a lighthearted comment, Chelle paints a volkswagen adventure or doggy adventure to entertain and bring a smile to people's faces, sometimes heal souls.

Chelle has a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Applied Design (2006) from SA (South Australia) Arts School. She consistently works on a body of artwork of a particular theme at one time, to produce a moving series of works that are perfect for the exhibition environment.

To experience Chelle Destefano's original artworks and get a sense of her diverse landscape of inspirations, visit http://www.chelledestefano.com

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