Benjamin Sheppard

Benjamin is a multi-disciplinary Melbourne based artist and art educator. He is the founding member of Ways and Means, an experimental collaborative drawing project and the instigator of The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (BOO) project. His work employs an expanded drawing practice to reflect on a broad array of themes from the socio-political and environmental to the phenomenological. Currently Associate Lecturer in the Bachelor of Fine Art - Drawing at RMIT, he has been working in art education alongside his practice since 2005.

Projects:

Feeling Drawing Thinking with Ruth O’Leary at Mejia Gallery Brunswick Feb 2024

Out of Office, The BOO at Fitzroy Gardens Pavilion, Melbourne Feb 2023 
Hand Festival, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Melbourne. Aug 2019
Political Poster Open Call, The BOO AAANZ Conference at RMIT Melbourne. Dec 2018
Inaugural The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (BOO) Blindside ARI January 2017
Following [Ways and Means collaborative ‘Workshop Series’] Drawing International Brisbane (DIB) Conference at Griffith University Oct 2015
The Red and The Blue [Ways and Means collaborative project] Westspace Melbourne Jan 2013
Made any Swans (?) [Ways and Means collaborative project] West Wing project space Melbourne Central August 2010
The edge of the line Utopian Slumps Collingwood October/November 2009
Pleasantries Alliance Française St Kilda May 2006



Exhibitions and awards:
621 Gallery North Fitzroy July 2024
Puffpaper 2024 Artpuff Castlemaine June 2024
Feeling Drawing Thinking Mejia Gallery Brunswick Feb 2024
Das Kapital with The BOOreaucrats, NOTFAIR at …November 2023
A Climate for Change Counihan Gallery, Brunswick November 2023
Scribbled Geometries… FIVEWALLS Gallery Footscray, September 2023
Future Tense with The BOOreaucrats, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick November 2022
ArtBOX Commission with The BOOreaucrats Oct 2022
Powerpoint by The BOOreaucrats, Bargoonga Nganjin North Fitzroy Library Feb 2022
Scribble Me This… FIVEWALLS Gallery Footscray November 2021
History and Heritage, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick November 2021
Lightscapes Lighboxes Knox Pl Melbourne Central 2021
Scribble Me This… Rey Area Cabinets RMIT 2021
Scribble Me This… Site 8 Gallery RMIT February 2021
HELL ‘N’ BACK, Caves Gallery December 2020
Blindside B—side exhibition, Blindside ARI November 2020
Shortlisted for Incinerator Art Award 2020, Change Division with The BOO (Dr Peter Burke)
The New (ab)normal RMIT Gallery, RMIT School of Art 2020
Art Schools for Fire Relief Margaret Lawrence Gallery VCA Jan. 2020
Language and Liberty Counihan Gallery Brunswick 2019
Museum of Platitudes and Aphorisms - #5 Rubicon Melbourne 2019
Museum of Platitudes and Aphorisms - #4 c3 Contemporary Art Space 2019
The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins at the AAANZ Conference at RMIT Melbourne. 2018
BOO at the Biennale of Australian Art Ballarat Ballarat (Hit me with your best shot) 2018
Double Bind, Testing Grounds Feb 2018
Cattle and Cane, Dirty Dozen art space Melbourne 2018
Open House, True Estate, Brunswick 2017
Bluestonia, Brunswick laneways Melbourne 2017
Anthropocene, Firstsite Gallery RMIT Melbourne February 2017
The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (BOO), Blindside ARI January 2017
Factivisim, Counihan Gallery Brunswick November 2016
The Carousel, The Abbottsford Convent, Melbourne Sept 2016
And how happy a time it is -, (solo) The Alderman, Melbourne June 2016
FINALIST (highly commended) - Waterhouse prize, South Australian Museum, Adelaide 2016
“Following” [Ways and Means collaborative ‘Workshop Series’] as above.
Doodle this… (solo) Firstsite Gallery RMIT Melbourne February studio residency 2015
Speak Out, Counihan Gallery Brunswick December 2014
The Crown in the Jewell, (solo) MoreART Brunswick November-December 2014
Tools of the Trade, Jugglers Art Space Fortitude Valley, Brisbane Oct 2014
FINALIST Whyalla art prize, Whyalla, South Australia 2013
FINALIST Mortimore art prize, Toured Australia 2012-13
The Red and The Blue, [Ways and Means collaborative project] Westspace Melbourne 2013
Le Coq (solo) Counihan Gallery Brunswick August 2012 (solo)
Ginestrelle Group Exhibition, Gallery Le Logge, Assisi Italy, October 2011
Le Coq, (solo) DRAWInternational Gallery Caylus, France April 2011 (solo)
Shelved, Dear Patti Smith Melbourne March 2011
Things I’d Wished I’d Known, Westspace Melbourne October/November 2010
Spring Salon and Sculpture Prize, Lot 19 Castlemaine October 2010
Made any Swans(?), [Ways and Means collaborative project] West Wing project space Melbourne Central August 2010
Structural Integrity, Next Wave Festival Meat Market North Melbourne May 2010
The edge of the line, group exhibition at Utopian Slumps Collingwood October 2009
Slide Space, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Fitzroy May/June 2009
Resist Collaborate Destroy, group exhibition at Michael Koro Galleries Melbourne 2008
Group Exhibition - inaugural opening of the new Alliance Française building St Kilda 2007
WINNER of the Casama Group Award Margaret Lawrence Gallery VCA 2006
FINALIST Athenaeum Prize at The Athenaeum Club Melbourne October 2006
Pleasantries, Alliance Française St Kilda May 2006
Shades of Now, solo exhibition at 24seven Art Space Melbourne May 2006
Flags, installation Next Wave Festival at Arts Centre Undercroft Melbourne March 2006
WINNER of Lowenstein Arts Management Award -Graduate Exhibition at VCA 2005

Professional - selected teaching and arts related
Associate Lecturer at RMIT School of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art - Drawing – ongoing
Industry benchmarking consultation with Melbourne Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Illustration 2018
Coordinator of Concepts of Representation - Fine Art Conceptual Development course RMIT Specialist Lecturer at RMIT School of Art in Expanded Studio Practice 2015 - 2018
Specialist Lecturer at Melbourne Polytechnic in Bachelor of Illustration 2016- 2018
Sculpture, drawing and art theory lecturer for DVA at the CAE Melbourne 2012-2017
Specialist Lecturer at Melbourne Polytechnic in Horticulture, Floristry drawing 2016
Arts consultant for City of Hume 2014
Researcher - Broadmeadows Town Hall redevelopment for City of Hume
Hume Art Prize judge Gee Wik Doleen Gallery, Craigieburn 2014/15
Community consultation on public art commission 2014
Mentor for Advanced Diploma students at the CAE Melbourne 2014-2015
Facilitator of Mumgu dhal tyama tyit Certificate I, II and III Swinburne University of Technology 2010
Short course Drawing and Life Drawing Teacher at CAE Melbourne 2007-current
Transport and Display Coordinator at Deutscher-Menzies art auctioneers and valuers 2007-9
Drawing Lecturer for Summer / Winter School and After Hours Programs VCA Southbank 2005 - 7
Technician in the Drawing Department at VCA Southbank 2005 - 6
Sculptural Fabrication for various artists including:
Angela Di Fronzo - Interior Design at Alliance Française St Kilda October 2006
Daniel Dewar and Gregory Giquel FR - Strike a Pose at Margaret Lawrence Gallery Southbank July 2006
Matthew Shannon - 17.04.10-15.05.10 at Conical Inc April 2010


Selected arts community work:
Opening remarks (video) for Princes Hill Secondary Graduate Exhibition Nov, 2021
Reconciliation Action Group member RMIT 2019-
Panel member Sandbox Studios discussion series ‘Should I go back to Uni’ Sept 2019
Hand Festival Peter MacCallum Hospital with Keely Macarow and Becky Hilton Aug 2019
Research Exchange Coordinator Peer to peer program for HDR candidates at RMIT 2016 - 2018
Thinking Through Practice Coordinator Peer to peer program for HDR candidates at RMIT 2018
School of Art Research (HDR) Committee member at RMIT Melbourne 2016
Programming Committee Member at Westspace ARI Melbourne 2009-10 2012-14
Next Wave festival volunteer Structural Integrity -Meat Market Arts Complex North Melbourne 2010


Selected residences:

City of Melbourne Creative Spaces – Fitzroy gardens Pavilion with The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins – (upcoming Feb 2023)
Princes Hill Primary School studio residency April/May, 2015
Firstsite Gallery February studio residency RMIT Melbourne 2015
Artstudio Ginestrelle, Perugia, Italy August-September 2011
DRAWInternational, Caylus, France March-April 2011

Selected publications/talks::
Authored/edited:
Doodling the National Self Writing and Concepts Lecture Series hosted by Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. October 2020 https://vimeo.com/466093933
For the Fun of it. Research paper presented at Drawing International Brisbane: Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, 01 - 02 October. Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research
BOOklet with Dr Peter Burke for The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins (BOO)
Held in Vancouver Library & Archive, Vancouver, Canada
and Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Collection, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins with Dr Peter Burke for journal: Art in the Public Sphere
UK 2020

Featured in:
Sporting Colours- Fleidner, Kelly Available online at http://www.bensheppard.com.au/media/
Le Coq Motif- Murray, Phip Available online at Available online at http://www.bensheppard.com.au/media/
From Nothingness to the Infinite - Fleidner Kelly Available online at http://www.bensheppard.com.au/media/
Utopian Slumps: The Collingwood years Chase and Galley Published 2011
Making Space: Artist Run Initiatives in Victoria Published by VIA-N 2007


Collections:
DRAWInternational, France
Joyce Nissan AU
The Casama Group AU
Various private AU, UK, FR, IT, USA, DE