Biography
Molly is a Melbourne/Naarm based artist whose practice involves summoning the material past into the imaginary present through the process of assemblage. Diaristic in nature, she collects and archives found objects of significance and clusters them to create condensed, three dimensional forms. Informed by performance theory, new materialism and hauntology, Molly comments on what it means to attune to what lingers, authorship and affectual sensibility through reading, writing and making. Currently, she is undertaking a professional mentorship with Craft Victoria x Wyndham Council, engaging in a research project that explores the relationship between performance, aesthetics, waste and grief with Art Programme, and preparing to present her abstract ‘Flesh to Form: Mapping the Lived Body of Adenomyosis through Art - A Heuristic Autoethnography’ at the 21st Biennial ESHMS Conference in Hamburg, Germany. She has exhibited with galleries such as No Vacancy Gallery, Blindside, and Seventh Gallery, and undertaken research residencies and delivered public programs with Blindside Gallery and Melbourne Art Library. She has published written pieces for Futures Gallery, Heart of Hearts Press and Seventh, and has received grants and other scholarships to nourish her professional development, such as the John Vickery Scholarship from VCA, The Women’s Association Award from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and a response grant from Melbourne City Council.
My process usually begins one of two ways - 1. When my eyes flicker to a particular colour, texture, phrase or silhouette, whether that be within my studio, on the side of the road, when reading a book, on my lunch break, and so forth. This might look like plucking out scraps of fabric found on my studio floor, scrunched up notes rolling in balls of dust under my bed, or dried shards of plaster found from a previous work. Once collected, I create a little cluster of objects in the palm of hand, or store these same objects in an old plastic plaster bucket - a temporary new home. Or, 2: I am reading a book and my eyes fall on a phrase, story or theory that sparks an intense feeling of excitement or curiosity within me. I begin to annotate with my pen, look to the footnotes, and begin my search on the topic. Hopefully, I can find the source of what sparked this same excitement in another. I then begin to write choppy, disjointed reflections about my findings in a spare paper pocket diary with a 2B pencil, or hop onto my laptop and type away. Through an embodiment of these two processes, a third process manifests’: I begin to assort and cluster these physical and conceptual situated knowledges together. Each object, colour or shape no longer exists in isolation, but instead exists in relation to how it has been geographically placed or ‘housed’ - creating a unique ‘micro-climate’ that only exists out of the social context in which it was made.
I want to play with the role of the artist as actor, witness and participant, and how this act of manipulation and ‘role playing’ can inform how we relate to more than human beings through a playful, sensory exploration of material.
CV
Molly Stephenson
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
UPCOMING:
2026 21st Biennial ESHMS Conference:“Mental Health in Times of Uncertainty.” Presenting Flesh to Form: Mapping the Lived Body of Adenomyosis through Art , A Heuristic Autoethnography . UKE, Hamburg, Germany (forthcoming-August 2026)
2026 Crafted Futures: West. Professional mentorship program with Craft x Wyndham City Council, Naarm/Melbourne (forthcoming- May 2026)
2026 Through the Flock, BLINDSIDE Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne (forthcoming)
2026 Caring in all of its colours: on Aesthetics, Affect & Attunement, Art Programme (forthcoming)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2026 Uncanny Loops: Summoning the Material Past into the Imaginary Present, curated by Mythra Schwartz, No Vacancy Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2024 Saprophytes, No Vacancy Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 Frosty silence without colour, No Vacancy Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2021 Spaces of reflection between parts (Immerse 2021), curated by Made Spencer-Castle, 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 Conscious Systems, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2026 A Library of Libraries, curated by Grey Dear, BLINDSIDE Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2023 Last Drop, MILK Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022 Singing Praises, curated by Diego Ramírez, 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
2020 Solo___Show, Chapter 5: Behind the Times, curated by Abby Lloyd and Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York, USA
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
RESIDENCIES:
2026 Artist Research Residency, BLINDSIDE Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
PROJECTS/PROGRAMMES:
2026 Artist Syllabus #2, Melbourne Art Library x Blindside Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
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
2019-2022 Emerging Writers Program, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2018 ‘Proud,’ Curator,VCA ArtSpace, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, VIC
TEXTS:
2023 “Pre-presence: An Upheaval of Eden’s Garden,” Text for ‘The Bad Gardener,’ exhibition, FUTURES Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2023 “The Benefits of Eco-Art Therapy based Interventions for Outpatients who have Completed or are nearing Completion of Oncological Treatment: A Mixed Methods Program Evaluation,” The School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Olivia Newton John Cancer, Wellness and Research Centre, 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 “The Hauntological Seabed: Re-fleshing the Oceanic Gothic,” Fine Art (Honours) exegesis, Monash University, Melbourne/Naarm
2020 "Orchestrating Instability: Diffusing dualisms, anthropological binaries and phantasmic fetishes." Tesserae Press, 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
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
2021 - Gallery Volunteer, Connors Connors Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2017 - Gallery Volunteer, SEVENTH Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne