About Cally Lotz

Melbourne based artist Cally Lotz is primarily known for her still life oil paintings. She is a formalist who values perceptual experiences and the visual strengths of the genre more than symbolism or content. Located within the realm of representation, her current work is focused more on disruption than transcription and still life’s association with the beginnings of modernism and abstraction.

Cally Lotz completed an MFA (with Higher Distinction) in 2019 at RMIT Melbourne, a BVA (Hons) at The University of South Africa (UNISA) and attended Bath Academy of Art in the UK. Her work has been exhibited in South Africa, Germany, India and Australia. She has been the recipient of numerous residencies including Sandbox Studios Melbourne 2019-2020, AIR Vallauris France 2017 and St Vincent’s Melbourne 2014-2015. Her work is held in public collections including Sasol and UNISA in South Africa, and St Vincent’s in Melbourne.

Lotz is represented by West End Art Space, Melbourne

Statement for DipintiRecenti 2023

‘Making this work has been both liberating and a little scary. I have always been drawn to the reality of things and consumed by a desire to literally interpret what I see, but recently I’ve found this approach stifling – there has to be an element of risk taking and challenges to push through. The differences between this body of work and the previous reside in this notion of a challenge, and locate it within the realm of representation, but with the focus more on disruption than transcription.

Working with oil on rough, clear-primed cotton canvas has allowed me to explore a new formal dimension. The canvas has a distinct heavy weave, far coarser than what I’ve previously been accustomed to, which impacts both technique and representation. The absorbent surface of the canvas requires more paint as well as a vigorous painting technique, while having the benefit of naturally softening the outlines of forms.

My aim throughout these paintings is to increase the sense of indeterminacy – to amplify that which is indistinct, ephemeral and difficult to define. ‘

2019          MFA (Higher Distinction) Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, RMIT

2009          BVA (Hons) University of South Africa, UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa 

2023          Dipinti Recenti, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2021          In Our Time, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2021          The Covid Chronicles, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2021          Stiff Upper Lip, FortyFiveDownstairs, Melbourne, Australia

2019/20     Night Bottles, RMIT Art Intersect Lightbox, Melbourne, Australia

2018          Restrain, West End Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2017         Contain, Alternating Current Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2015         Simply There, Birds Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2014        Four Rooms, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2009        Apocalypse, artSpace Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2023       Inner West Art Fair, Melbourne

2023       Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne

2023       Bayside Aquisitive Art Prize, Melbourne

2023       Bayside Local, Melbourne

2023      Omnia Art Prize, St Kevins, Melbourne

2022       Tacit Still Life, Melbourne

2022       Affordable Art Fair, Melbourne

2022       Substrate 22, Tacit Gallery, Melbourne

2022       Dutch Still Life, West End Art Space, Melbourne

2022       Omnia Art Prize, St Kevins, Melbourne

2022       Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Cultural Centre, Australia

2021       Tacit Still Life, Tacit Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2021       Nino Sanciolo Art Prize, Elysium Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2018       Behind the Curtain, YSG - Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2018       One Night Stand: Aberration, The Burrow, curated by Coalesce ARI.

2017       A.I.R. Vallauris, Cote d’Azur, France

2016       Who is Looking at You? Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2015       St Vincent’s Artists in Residence Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia

2015       Small Works, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2014       4 Rooms, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2013       Nouvelle, Birds Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2012     Crumpled, Bamboo Gallery, Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011      About Face, Tatham Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

2011      Migration, artSpace Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2010      Sasol New Signatures, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

2010      A Cultural Bridge, Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

2010      The Landscape: Unity and Diversity, CEWAC, Hyderabad, India

2010      Johannesburg Art Fair, Break exhibited by UNISA, South Africa

2009     ALPOA, artSpace Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2008     ‘Start’ art award exhibition, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2007     Expanding Horizons, Garret Artists, artSpace Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2023 Finalist Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize  /  2023 & 2022  Finalist Omnia Art Prize  /  2022 & 21  Finalist Wyndham Art Prize  /  2021 Melbourne City Art Grant  /  2021  Finalist Nino Sanciolo Art Prize  /  2020 Finalist Lethbridge Art Competition  /   2019 & 20  One year studio residency Sandbox Studios Melbourne  /  2018 Finalist Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA)  /   2014 & 15 & 16  Finalist Who is looking at You Melbourne  /  2014/15  One year studio residency Caritas Christie St Vincents Melbourne  /  2010 Finalist Sasol New Signatures South Africa  /  2008  Finalist Nivea Start Art Award South Africa

St Vincent’s, Melbourne, Australia / University of South Africa, (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa / A.I.R Vallauris, Cote d’Azur, France / Sasol, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Heide Museum of Modern Art