Raquel Ormella (AU)

Born 1969, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works Sydney, Australia

Raquel Ormella (b. Sydney 1969) has a diverse practice that includes video, installation, drawings, and zines. Ormella is an artist working at the intersections of art and activism, investigating the means by which critical reflexivity in contemporary art encourages processes of self-examination regarding political consciousness and social action.

Ormella’s practice is grounded in exploring the nature of the relationship between humans and the natural environment, with a particular focus on urban expansion and forest activism. In highlighting the connectedness between the two, Ormella attempts to show that our depictions of the natural world are not representations of true ‘wilderness’ or a pure state, but rather are informed by human contact and reflective of human values. Ormella has built a practice covering a diverse range of activities such as video, paintings, installations, drawings, and zines. She is interested in exploring the relation of the audience to the artwork by using multiples. For example, she produced a work for the 2008 Sydney Biennale using electronic whiteboards that print the drawings made by the artist, so that the audience may take them home.

A major solo exhibition of Ormella’s practice, I hope you get this: Raquel Ormella, was presented at Shepparton Art Museum in 2018 in partnership with NETS Victoria, and is currently touring. Her other solo exhibitions include Golden Soil, Milani Gallery, 2016; Birds, School of Art Gallery, ANU, Canberra, 2013; New Constellation, Milani Gallery, 2013; Feeders, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT, 2012, Walking through clear fells, CAST, Tasmania, 2011, She went that way, Artspace, Sydney, 2009; Living in other people’s houses, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, 2001 and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2002, as well as several solo exhibitions at Milani Gallery, Brisbane.