BIO and CV
Helen Otway is a full-time Australian artist based in the Northern Rivers, working between the coast and the hinterland. Her practice moves across painting, installation, and emerging textile-based works, using these frameworks as sites of enquiry into memory, perception, and the psychological presence of place. Still life, interiors, and landscape form recurring points of return within her work, not as fixed genres, but as evolving ways of thinking.
Landscape, central to her early practice, remains an underlying influence—now internalised and reconfigured through atmosphere, restraint, and spatial tension. In recent works, objects, domestic spaces, and tactile materials carry much of this charge, allowing place to be felt rather than described. Textiles and installation have begun to enter her practice as material extensions of these concerns, offering new ways to hold memory, fragility, and lived experience.
Helen’s work is shaped by an ongoing enquiry into absence, impermanence, and belonging. She is interested in how environments—both inhabited and remembered—leave psychological traces, and how artworks can act as quiet repositories for these experiences. Her practice resists immediacy, favouring slowness, attentiveness, and the unresolved.
Deeply curious about both historic and contemporary art, Helen approaches making as a form of dialogue. Her work sits in conversation with artists concerned with interiority, stillness, and emotional resonance, drawing on influence intuitively rather than illustratively. This engagement informs not only what she makes, but how she thinks through problems, possibilities, and material decisions.
Beginning her career as an art teacher, Helen has long advocated for arts education and the role of creative practice within communities. She completed a Diploma of Teaching (Art) and a Bachelor of Education (Art, Film, and Video) at Victoria College, and is currently undertaking a three-year Visual Arts course at the Byron School of Art (2024–2026), where her practice continues to deepen through research, experimentation, and critical reflection.
Since establishing her studio at the M-Arts Precinct in 2020 and opening Mist Gallery in Cabarita the same year, Helen has exhibited widely across Australia. Her expanding program of solo and group exhibitions reflects a growing professional presence and an active commitment to extending her practice within diverse gallery contexts.
Helen’s work is not driven by resolution, but by enquiry. Across painting, installation, and textile-based explorations, she continues to test how materials and forms can hold complexity, invite contemplation, and open space for quiet psychological encounter.
Qualifications:
Undergraduate: Diploma of Teaching - Major Art - Victoria College - Toorak, VIC
Post Graduate: Bachelor of Education - Major in Art, Film and Video – Victoria College – Preston, VIC
Visual Arts – Byron School of Arts – 2024 – 2026 Mullumbimby NSW
Residencies:
2025
Nancy Fairfax AIR Studio - Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Centre (Dec 8-22)
Prizes:
2025
Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award - Online Salon
Dean Cogle Portrait Prize - Currumbin, QLD
The Doyles Art Award - Mudgeeraba, QLD
Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery - Fitzroy VIC
Nimbin Art Fair and Prize - Nimbin NSW
Swell Art Prize – Gold Coast QLD
2023
Lethbridge Gallery 20000 Small Scale Art Prize – Brisbane QLD
C.A.S.E.S Postcards Art Prize – Mullumbimby NSW
2020
Border Art Prize – Tweed Regional Gallery, Sth Murwillumbah NSW
Moonee Valley Art Prize – Strathmore, Melbourne VIC
2018
Moonee Valley Art Prize – Strathmore, Melbourne VIC
Tacit Gallery – Palette Art Prize – Collingwood, Melbourne VIC
2017
Albert Park College Art Prize - Albert Park, Melbourne VIC
Solo Exhibitions:
2025
Echora, Sth Murwillumbah - If These Walls Could Talk - (December)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Silva Luna - Oeuvre (Sept)
2024
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – 11:11 Hopes and Dreams
2023
Art Post Uki, Uki – Quiet Repose
2021
Art Post Uki, Uki – Take Me To Your River
2020
Keith Café, Murwillumbah – Mist
M-Arts Precinct – Studio exhibition
2019
Art Shelter, Kingscliff – Escape
2018
Marios Café, Fitzroy – Escape
Group Shows:
2026
Australian Galleries, Melbourne - Prelude (March)
Station Steet Co-Op, Bangalow - Portraits in the Front Room (February)
2025
The Side Gallery, Brisbane - Tenfold
Gallery 3, Byron Bay - Micro 40 (recipient of First National encouragement award)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Oeuvre (Sept)
Bird Nerds Pop Up Gallery, Murwillumbah - Bird Nerds (Aug - Oct)
Black Fig Gallery, Alstonville - Ways of Seeing (August)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Winter Light
Incognito Show, Sydney
Gallery 3, Byron Bay - Micro 30
2024
Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby – Colour Theory
The Bank Gallery, Mullumbimby – Grand Opening
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Season of Renewal
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach - Summer Love
2023
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Women of the Tweed
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Harvest
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Place In The Sun
2022
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Habitat
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Dare to Dream
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Style de Maison
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Charis
Incognito Show – Sydney
2021
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Encore
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Dream Big
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – The Home Show
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Love Where We Live II
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Summer Breeze
2020
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – The Great Outdoors
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Wild at Heart
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Love Where We Live
Contact:
[email protected]
0419870305
Landscape, central to her early practice, remains an underlying influence—now internalised and reconfigured through atmosphere, restraint, and spatial tension. In recent works, objects, domestic spaces, and tactile materials carry much of this charge, allowing place to be felt rather than described. Textiles and installation have begun to enter her practice as material extensions of these concerns, offering new ways to hold memory, fragility, and lived experience.
Helen’s work is shaped by an ongoing enquiry into absence, impermanence, and belonging. She is interested in how environments—both inhabited and remembered—leave psychological traces, and how artworks can act as quiet repositories for these experiences. Her practice resists immediacy, favouring slowness, attentiveness, and the unresolved.
Deeply curious about both historic and contemporary art, Helen approaches making as a form of dialogue. Her work sits in conversation with artists concerned with interiority, stillness, and emotional resonance, drawing on influence intuitively rather than illustratively. This engagement informs not only what she makes, but how she thinks through problems, possibilities, and material decisions.
Beginning her career as an art teacher, Helen has long advocated for arts education and the role of creative practice within communities. She completed a Diploma of Teaching (Art) and a Bachelor of Education (Art, Film, and Video) at Victoria College, and is currently undertaking a three-year Visual Arts course at the Byron School of Art (2024–2026), where her practice continues to deepen through research, experimentation, and critical reflection.
Since establishing her studio at the M-Arts Precinct in 2020 and opening Mist Gallery in Cabarita the same year, Helen has exhibited widely across Australia. Her expanding program of solo and group exhibitions reflects a growing professional presence and an active commitment to extending her practice within diverse gallery contexts.
Helen’s work is not driven by resolution, but by enquiry. Across painting, installation, and textile-based explorations, she continues to test how materials and forms can hold complexity, invite contemplation, and open space for quiet psychological encounter.
Qualifications:
Undergraduate: Diploma of Teaching - Major Art - Victoria College - Toorak, VIC
Post Graduate: Bachelor of Education - Major in Art, Film and Video – Victoria College – Preston, VIC
Visual Arts – Byron School of Arts – 2024 – 2026 Mullumbimby NSW
Residencies:
2025
Nancy Fairfax AIR Studio - Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Centre (Dec 8-22)
Prizes:
2025
Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award - Online Salon
Dean Cogle Portrait Prize - Currumbin, QLD
The Doyles Art Award - Mudgeeraba, QLD
Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery - Fitzroy VIC
Nimbin Art Fair and Prize - Nimbin NSW
Swell Art Prize – Gold Coast QLD
2023
Lethbridge Gallery 20000 Small Scale Art Prize – Brisbane QLD
C.A.S.E.S Postcards Art Prize – Mullumbimby NSW
2020
Border Art Prize – Tweed Regional Gallery, Sth Murwillumbah NSW
Moonee Valley Art Prize – Strathmore, Melbourne VIC
2018
Moonee Valley Art Prize – Strathmore, Melbourne VIC
Tacit Gallery – Palette Art Prize – Collingwood, Melbourne VIC
2017
Albert Park College Art Prize - Albert Park, Melbourne VIC
Solo Exhibitions:
2025
Echora, Sth Murwillumbah - If These Walls Could Talk - (December)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Silva Luna - Oeuvre (Sept)
2024
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – 11:11 Hopes and Dreams
2023
Art Post Uki, Uki – Quiet Repose
2021
Art Post Uki, Uki – Take Me To Your River
2020
Keith Café, Murwillumbah – Mist
M-Arts Precinct – Studio exhibition
2019
Art Shelter, Kingscliff – Escape
2018
Marios Café, Fitzroy – Escape
Group Shows:
2026
Australian Galleries, Melbourne - Prelude (March)
Station Steet Co-Op, Bangalow - Portraits in the Front Room (February)
2025
The Side Gallery, Brisbane - Tenfold
Gallery 3, Byron Bay - Micro 40 (recipient of First National encouragement award)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Oeuvre (Sept)
Bird Nerds Pop Up Gallery, Murwillumbah - Bird Nerds (Aug - Oct)
Black Fig Gallery, Alstonville - Ways of Seeing (August)
Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - Winter Light
Incognito Show, Sydney
Gallery 3, Byron Bay - Micro 30
2024
Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby – Colour Theory
The Bank Gallery, Mullumbimby – Grand Opening
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Season of Renewal
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach - Summer Love
2023
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Women of the Tweed
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Harvest
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Place In The Sun
2022
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Habitat
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Dare to Dream
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Style de Maison
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Charis
Incognito Show – Sydney
2021
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Encore
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Dream Big
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – The Home Show
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Love Where We Live II
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Summer Breeze
2020
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – The Great Outdoors
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Wild at Heart
Mist Gallery, Cabarita Beach – Love Where We Live
Contact:
[email protected]
0419870305