About
Dionisia Salas is a contemporary artist living and working on Walbanga Country in the Yuin Nation, Braidwood, Australia.
‘I have been using the canvas as a space for automatic drawing, where physical, spiritual and less structured ideas act as a starting point. The drawings play out, compete, evolve, churn and invade; form bulges out of shape, weaves with line. Moving into paint the colour mashes together to form brown, grey and deep visceral tones that contrast with the pure, tube-squeezed and clean. In paint on canvas, my automatic drawing develops to hold outline and developed, fleshy, scrubbed, built up muscle that alludes to the physical.’
Dionisia explores in-between states of being, using the material tussle of painting to tap into areas of consciousness, subconsciousness and dream states; to play around in what is reality and what is imagined. She has exhibited regularly in solo and group, commercial, curated and artist initiated exhibitions. In 2024-25, Dionisia held two major solo exhibitions Night Jar at NAP Contemporary, Mildura, VIC and Of mouth and mind Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn, NSW.
Dionisia’s work is held in private and public collections nationally and internationally including Art Bank, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Goulburn Regional Gallery Art Collection, and the Australian National University Art Collection. In 2024 she was selected as a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Art Prize, and her work was exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She has exhibited widely in state, regional and university galleries and commercial galleries including, Sutton Gallery, Narrm/Melbourne, Watters Gallery, Gadigal land/Sydney and Grantpirrie, Gadigal land/Sydney. Dionisia has exhibited consistently in the critical and vibrant artist-run scenes in both Berlin, Germany and throughout Australia including Pavillion am Milchhof, Berlin, TCB and Kings Artist Run, Narrm/Melbourne and Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Kamberri/Canberra. She has been awarded several competitive grants from state and national arts funding bodies and has been awarded funded residencies in Berlin and Australia. Dionisia was awarded a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) from the Australian National University School of Art and Design in Kamberri/Canberra.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 A fistful of light, 31 October - 7 February, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, curated by Andrew Halyday and NSW
2024-5 Of mouth and mind, 22 November 2024 - 1 February 2026, curated by Yvette Dal Pozzo, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Night Jar, 11 May - 14 June 2024 NAP Contemporary, Mildura VIC
2019 Heartbeats, ANCA art bus, City Walk, ACT
2017 - 18 Domino Gold, 1 December 2017 - 10 February 2018, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, ACT
2016 She Walked In and Pulled out a Chair, 21 September - 25 October Canberra Contemporary Art Space in the City, ACT
2014 Every hook, Every loop, exhibiting 5 new print works from the Glint Residency, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, ACT
Of feathers and a mouthful of light, Platform Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
2013 sometimes if you sit in the rain, a rich lady will come by in a limousine and take you home.., tcb art inc., Melbourne
2010 Vu du in light flight, 23 September – 23 October 2010, Grantpirrie, Redfern, Sydney
2009 2009 A*C Odyssey 27 March – 2 May 2009, Canberra Contemporary, CCAS Gorman, Canberra
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Pigment, powder, wax, sand, 11 April – 13 June 2026, ArtistsJacqueline Bradley, Rosalind Lemoh, Merryn Lloyd, Dionisia Salas, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, ACT
2025 Tender, 12 April - 15 June 2025, curated by Megan Monte, Artists: Sally Anderson, Sarah Drinan, Laura Jones, India Mark, Dionisia Salas, Julia Trybala and Amber Wallis, Ngununggula, Bowral NSW
Hot cold heavy light, 2 - 31 August, Jacqueline Bradley, Rosland Lemoh, Merryn Lloyd, Dionisia Salas, Civic Art Bureau ACT
Inner Currents: Abstraction and the Unseen Self , 28 August - 4 October Richard Blackwell, Tony Curran, Skye Jamieson, Ben Rak, Dionisia Salas, CBD Gallery; 72 Erskine St, Sydney
Altered Landscapes, 9 October - 1 November, Gallery Lane Cove; upper level, 164 Longueville Rd, Lane Cove, Sydney
2024 Exhibition 1, 5 - 26 October, Emma Beer, Vivienne Binns, Lucy Chetcuti, Liz Coats, Kirsten Farrell, Nicci Haynes, Merryn Lloyd, Raquel Ormella, Dionisia Salas Stefamie Schulte, Ruth Waller, Civic Art Bureau, ACT
2023 Spring 1883, 9 - 12 August, with NAP Contemporary at the Hotel Windsor, Spring St Melbourne
Between Things, 12 - 21 May, Joel Arthur and Dionisia Salas, Canberra Contemporary Art Space Manuka, ACT
2022 Grout, 16 September, Jacqueline Bradley, Karena Keys, Rosalind Lemoh, Merryn Llyod, Dionisia Salas, curated by Owen Lewis, Tiles, Lewisham, NSW
2021 One or two paintings, 5 – 23 May, Peter Alwast, Joel Arthur, Riley Beaumont, Rowan Kane, Dionisia Salas, Australian National Capital Artists, ANCA, Canberra
2020 Highlights from the ANU Art Collection, 4 – 20 December, Drill Hall Gallery, Acton, ACT
2019 Druids/Drones Defects, 7- 11 August, Focus on Abstraction, Pavillion am Milchof, Berlin
2018 Chris Carmody, Fiona Little and Dionisia Salas, Young Friends of the Artist, 16 March – 14 April, curated by Vivienne Binns, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Straight Outta Canberra, 21 March – 14 May, curated by Alexander Boynes, Artists: Tom Buckland, Sanne Koelemij, Julian Laffan, Cat Mueller, Dionisia Salas, Rebecca Selleck and Rosalind Lemoh, May Space, Waterloo, Sydney,
Painting Amongst Other Things, 10 August - 1 September, curated by Ruth Waller, Dr. Raquel Ormella and Dr. Peter Alwast and Su Yilmaz, School of Art and Design Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
2017 Emerging from Canberra, 1 – 18 March, curated by Ruth Waller and Damien Minton, Watters Gallery, Sydney
2014 A Necessary Evil, 21 November – 13 December, Renee Cosgrave, Merryn Lloyd, Noriko Nakamura, Dionisia Salas, Bryan Spier Kings Artist Run, Melbourne
2012 Word of Mouth, curated by Mark Bayley, Canberra Museum + Gallery, ACT
The Presence of the Past in the Future, 11 August 2012, Artists: Astrid Busch, Dominique Hurth, Dionisia Salas, Regina Weiß, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Friederike Feldmann, Jerome Chazeix, Dephine Chapuis-Schmidt, Stedefreund, Mitte, Berlin
Cliffhanger, 12 April 2012, Minken and Palme, Kreuzberg
2011 The Kids are Alright, curated by Dr. Fernando do Campo, Artists: Emma Beer, Gregory Hodge, Arryn Snowball, Dionisia Salas, The Paper Mill, Sydney
Love in the Mourning, curated by Dr. Helen Johnson, Artists: Teghan Burt, Matt Hinkley, Lewis Fidcok, Joshua Perherick, Dionisia Salas, Death Be Kind, Melbourne
Grants, Awards, Prizes
2026 artsACT Project Funidng
2023 Finalist: Sir John Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
2022 Finalist: Goulburn Art Award, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery
2020 Homefront Arts ACT Funding
2017 artsACT Project Funding
2010 Australia Council for the Arts Artstart Grant
2009 Finalist: Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship for Young Australian Artists, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2008 Finalist: Fundacion Guasch Coranty International Painting Prize, Barcelona
2008 Torres Spanish Travel Scholarship for Young Australian Artists
2007 Winner: Floriade and King O'Malley's Painting Prize
Residencies and Projects
2017 The Art Vault, printmaking residency and relief printing mentorship with Antonia Aitken, Mildura, VIC
2014 Glint, Glass and printmaking exchange, Canberra Glassworks and Megalo Print Studio, ACT
2012 Basso Studio, studio residency, Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
2011 Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, printmaking residency, ACT
Collections
Artbank
Australian National University Art Collection, Canberra
Canberra Museum and Gallery
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Megalo Print Studio + Gallery Archive, Canberra
Articles & Publications
Dionisia Salas, Of Mouth and Mind, catalogue with contributions by Elspeth Pitt, Shaune Lakin and Yvette Dal Pozzo, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Printer Spitting Image, October 2024
Undiscovered, Elspeth Pitt, Profile for Art Collector, #104 April – June 2023, Produced and published by Art Edited Pty Ltd., p99
Between things, exhibition catalogue written by Emma Beer, May 2023
Everything Matters Emma Beer in Conversation: Zooper Dooper Catalogue, Drill Hall Gallery Publishing, February 2022, pp 57 -68
The Postcard Project, curated by Raquel Ormella, Art Monthly Australasia, Spring Issue 325, 2020, p39
Pattern Play, Yolandi Norris, Artist profile for Printmaking Today, Autumn 2018, Issue 107, Cello Press Ltd. Pp12-13
Index #3, independent publishing project by Justin Andrews, 2012, Melbourne, Australia
Education
2004- 07 Bachelor of Visual Arts ( First Class Honours), ANU School of Art and Design, ACT
2006 ANU Exchange Program to L’Ecole National Superieur des Beaux Arts, Paris