Danelle Bergstrom

Born 1957, Sydney, Australia 

Lives & Works – Hill End (Wiradjuri) & Åland, Finland

Danelle Bergstrom creates wildly evocative landscapes that pictorialise the artist’s lived experiences, personifying the land as a vessel for emotion. Autobiographical expressions of recent experiences in Hill End, Australia, and Åland, Finland, her meditative and transformative paintings invoke a broad emotional and psychological exploration of environment, functioning as revised narratives – tangible footprints along well-trodden roads winding through the artist’s memory.

Bergstrom has been the recipient of major residencies in Åland, Finland (2017), Konstepidemin, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016, 2011), Northern Territory Supreme Court, Darwin (2008) and Cill Rialaig, in Sweden, Paris and Ireland (2007). She has been a finalist in numerous prestigious prizes including the Archibald Prize (2016, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2001, 1998, 1995), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 1999, 1993), Paddington Art Prize (2007), Salon des Refusés (2011, 2005), and received the Archibald Packing Room Prize (2007, 1995), People’s Choice Award, Portia Geach Memorial Award (2013, 2010, 2009, 2006, 2005), People’s Choice Award, Salon des Refusés (2011, 2009). Bergstrom has painted over twenty public commissions and her work is held in many important collections including the National Portrait Gallery and National Library in Canberra, The Australian Club, Sydney District Court, Charles Darwin University, Adelaide Justice Department, University of Technology Sydney, Adelaide University, Northern Territory Justice Department and Westmead Children’s Hospital.