Rhonda Dee - Shifting Identities

Rhonda Dee, The Living Boat, ceramic sculpture, 32 x 25 cm
$1400

Rhonda Dee

Shifting Identities

14 November - 5 December 2026

Art Atrium 48 is proud to present Rhonda Dee's latest exhibition, Shifting Identities, a body of work that traverses the liminal space between who we have been and who we are becoming. In her long-standing exploration of metamorphosis and transformation, Dee merges human, animal and botanical forms into figures that evoke the theatrical, the uncanny and the otherworldly. Materialised through ceramic sculpture, layered painting, drawing and assemblage, these hybrid beings resist simple categorisation, blurring the boundaries between the familiar and the strange.

Central to the exhibition are busts and portraits informed by the conventions of nineteenth-century portrait painting and early photography. Through hybridity, Dee reimagines the gesture, costume, expression and symbolic attributes that once conveyed character and status, creating works that are both recognisable and surreal.

Dee's engagement with the Australian National Maritime Museum has brought her closer to stories of migration and arrival, particularly the ceramic keepsakes and talismans carried across borders and oceans. Drawing on maritime journeys and mythology, the sea is cast as a threshold between worlds, where settled ways of being loosen and new possibilities emerge.

Approaching identity not as a fixed state but as something in perpetual flux, Shifting Identities asks what we carry through times of change, how unfamiliar places and encounters alter us, and how, in turn, we continue to remake ourselves.

Exhibition Opening

Exhibition Opening to be launched by:
Rhonda Davis
Senior Curator at Macquarie University Art Gallery

Saturday 14 November 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm

Artist Talk

Rhonda Dee in conversation with:
Dr Lorraine Kypiotis
Head of Undergraduate Studies, National Art School
Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory

Saturday 5 December 2026
2:00 - 4:00 pm

Artist Statement

“My work examines the space between who we have been and who we are becoming, where familiar identities give way to new and unexpected possibilities.

Through ceramic sculpture, layered painting, drawing and assemblage, I bring human, animal and botanical forms together to create hybrid figures that inhabit the space between the familiar and the strange. Often theatrical, uncanny or otherworldly, these beings resist easy definition.

The bust and portrait form are central to this body of work. Drawing on my research into nineteenth-century portrait painting and early photography, I explore how gesture, costume, expression and symbolic attributes communicate character and status. I reimagine these conventions by merging animal features and botanical forms with the human face and body, creating portraits that are both recognisable and surreal.

My work also draws on maritime journeys; mythology and the objects people carry between places. The sea is a threshold between worlds, where familiar ways of being loosen and new possibilities emerge. My engagement with the Australian National Maritime Museum has brought me closer to stories of migration and arrival that resonate with my practice, particularly ceramic objects carried across borders and oceans as keepsakes and talismans.

I am interested in what we carry through times of change, how unfamiliar places and encounters alter us, and how we continually remake ourselves. My figures inhabit this uncertain territory, suggesting the possibility of becoming something not yet known.”

— Rhonda Dee

About the Artist

Rhonda Dee was born near the Texas–Mexico border and now lives in Sydney. Working across sculpture, painting, installation and public art, she has spent the past 25 years producing works that explore the fusion of humans, animals and the natural world. Her practice is concerned with identity, metamorphosis, transformation and flux, and with stages of life that resist categorisation. Not easily labelled, her hybrid creatures share characteristics that place them between identities – no longer what they once were, and not yet what they will become.

Her influences range from Mexican folk art and Western mythology to Surrealist film, science fiction and ancient artefacts. Recent works consider the social history of the ceramic figurine as a storytelling vehicle. Each piece is hand-built and worked with oxides, retaining her mark-making as an act of expressive drawing within the sculpture.

Dee holds a BFA (Honours) from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, a Master of Art (Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychology (Honours) from Torrens University’s Jansen Newman Institute. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Long Island University, New York; the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, São Paulo; Macquarie University; and the Australia China Arts Foundation, as well as in private collections. She has held major exhibitions at Hurstville Museum & Gallery, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Mclemoi Gallery in Chippendale, the Cementa22 festival and Macquarie University Art Gallery. Her work has been featured in publications including Artspiel (New York), Artist Profile, The Art Life, Art Czar, ArtsHub and the Torrens University blog.

Beyond the studio, Dee is involved in community-led projects, including Cementa22 and a multidisciplinary residency with Urban Theatre Projects in Bankstown. She has created numerous public artworks and, for over a decade, has developed public art programs for Macquarie University, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Blacktown Arts Centre, Penrith City Council, Fairfield City Art Museum and Liverpool Regional Museum.

Full Catalogue to be posted soon.

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