Bio
Molly (she/her) is a contemporary, early-career research-based artist and art therapist based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Metaphysically motivated, Molly’s artistic practice is an intuitive one that is concerned with the Oceanic Gothic - a sub category of gothic that centres itself within ecological and psychological states of flux, instability and disorientation.
Molly has received her Masters in Art Therapy (2023), received her Bachelors of Fine Arts (Honours) with First Class Honours at Monash University in 2020, and completed her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2019.
She has exhibited with galleries such as SEVENTH Gallery, Buxton Contemporary, Miller's Homestead and BLINDSIDE. Molly was longlisted for PICA’s ‘Hatched 2021: National Graduate Show,’ was awarded a Quick Response Art Grant from the Melbourne City Council in 2020, the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) Women's Association Award in 2019, an Individual Creative Grant from the City of Boroondara in 2019 as well as was the recipient of the John Vickery Scholarship at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2019.
Curriculum vitae
b.1997
Based in Melbourne/Naarm, Australia
EDUCATION:
2023 Master of Art Therapy, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) (First Class Honours), Monash University, Naarm/Melbourne
2017 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts), The Victorian College of the Arts, Naarm/Melbourne
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2022 Frosty silence without colour, No Vacancy Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2021 Spaces of reflection between parts (Immerse 2021), curated by Made Spencer-Castle, produced by Kim De Kretser, Knox City Council, Miller's Homestead, Boronia, and Stamford Park Homestead, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
2021 Eco-labelled with God’s Blessing, Alternating Current Art Space, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 The Boudoir Laboratory, Intermission Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 Conscious Systems, curated by Siying Zhou, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2023 Last Drop, MILK Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 Singing Praises, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 September, BLINDSIDE-BSIDE 2022, Naarm/Melbourne
2021 BLINDSIDE-BSIDE 2021, contributing with artist Caitlin Royce, Blindside Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2021 Onions, curated by Michelle Martland, accompanying artists Michelle Martland, Anna Walsh, Charlie Kerekes, 138 Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 MADA NOW, Mada Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 BLINDSIDE-BSIDE 2020, accompanying artist Caitlin Royce, Blindside Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2020 Metamorph, curated by Hayley Haynes, No Vacancy Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2019 VCA Art GRAD.SHOW.2019, Victorian College of the Arts, Naarm/Melbourne
2019 Inaugural Du Rietz, Gympie Regional Gallery, Gympie, QLD
2019 FiX 003, curated by Skye Baker, Buxton Contemporary, Naarm/Melbourne
2019 SEVENTH Alumni Fundraiser, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2019 Small Works, Brunswick Street Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
PROJECTS:
2021 TWWOF (That Which Was Once Familiar) by Zoe Bastin, Artist Assistant
2020 'Abyss Lessons: Vortextual Thinking amidst the Ecological Turn,’ Bus Projects, Collingwood, VIC
2020 Draw In: Round 2, created and run by Kari Lee McInneny-McRae and Brigit Ryan, VIC
2020 Quivering in Quarantine, Founder and Co-curator
2018 Proud, Curator,VCA ArtSpace, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, VIC
PUBLICATIONS:
2023 ‘Pre-presence: An Upheaval of Eden’s Garden,’ Text for ‘The Bad Gardener,’ exhibition, FUTURES Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 “Freckles of Spring.” Text for Charlotte Alldis’s solo show, ‘A chance for possibility’ at Backwood’s Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 “Diane Keaton Not Too Sure If She’s Found the One Or It’s The First Time She’s Been Treated With Basic Dignity Since Receiving a Pet Rock From Jack Nicholson.” Emerging Writers Program, SEVENTH Gallery.
2020 "Orchestrating Instability: Diffusing dualisms, anthropological binaries and phantasmic fetishes." Tesserae Press, USA
2020 Solo___Show, Chapter 5: Behind the Times, curated by Abby Lloyd and Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York, USA
2020 "My gift to you." Heart of Hearts Press 01: DISRUPT.
2019 "Turba philosophorum." Emerging Writers Program SEVENTH Gallery.
2019 "Venus fly trap/Eyeball." Neptune: COVID-19 Collective Dream Journal, Research project by Manisha Anjali.
PRESS:
2021 ‘Spaces of reflection between parts’, Immerse 2021 Artist Interview, Interviewed by Kate Stewart
2021 ‘Immerse 2021 Artist Interview with Molly Stephenson,’ Interviewed by Will Tait
2020 Thornton-Smith, Madeleine. "Lockets: Framing the Past." The Journal of Australian Ceramics.
2020 Zaia, Patrick. "The Splayed Rectum of Reality." Emerging Writers Program SEVENTH Gallery.
SELECTED AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS:
2020 Hatched 2021: National Graduate Show, Longlisted, Boorloo/Perth, WA
2020 Quick Response Art Grant, Melbourne City Council, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
2019 National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Women's Association Award, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
2019 Individual Creative Grant, City of Boroondara, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
2019 John Vickery Scholarship, Victorian College of the Arts, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
PROGRAMS:
2019-2022 Emerging Writers Program, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
VOLUNTEER:
2024 - Library Assistant, Melbourne Art Library, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 - Studio Dax Program Volunteer, The Dax Centre, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 - Gallery Volunteer, Milk Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2017 - Gallery Volunteer, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2021 - Gallery Volunteer, Connors Connors Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne