Mel Douglas
Mel Douglas’ minimalist work explores the potential, versatility and flexibility of glass as a material for drawing. She says that her ‘objects and drawings are often thought of as two separate entities. Her pieces explore and interweave the creative possibilities of this liminal space, where the form is not just a support for drawing; but a three-dimensional drawing itself. Using the unique qualities of the material, and the rich potential of mark making on and with glass, she is using line as a way to inform, define and enable three-dimensional space.’
Mel Douglas has worked as an independent studio artist since graduating from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 2000, where she has also been a lecturer. Earlier this year (2020), she received her PhD based on research she carried out at the ANU’s Glass Workshop and at Bullseye in Portland, OR. In addition to winning the 2020 Tom Malone Prize, a prestigious award through which a work is acquired each year into the collection of the National Gallery of Western Australia, Douglas has received several major awards including the Ranamok Glass Prize in 2002, the International Young Glass Award in 2007 from the Ebeltolft Museum of Glass.
In 2019 her work was the inaugural acquisition for the NGA’s Robert and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design Fund. Douglas’ work is held in the private collections and public institutions internationally, including the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; the Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; the Ebeltoft Museum of Glass, Denmark, the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia; and National Gallery of Australia, Australia.
