Amelia Skelton is a multidisciplinary artist, living and working on Gadigal land (Sydney, Australia). Working at the intersection of quiltmaking, sculpture and assemblage, Amelia Skelton’s practice is a meditation on the complexity of textiles; their abundance, familiarity, significance and inextricable political implications. Adopting a methodology of working slowly and critically with and through materials, Skelton explores how textiles can serve as a lens to comprehend aspects of our world, from personal memory and history to epoch-defining phenomena like waste and capitalism. Using a combination of traditional and expanded quiltmaking including patchworking, layering and assemblage, Skelton brings to the forefront these qualities and potentialities inherent in textiles.
Skelton graduated from the National Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) in 2016 and a Master of Fine Arts (Drawing) in 2022, receiving the award for outstanding academic achievement.
Skelton has participated in several national and international group exhibitions including Op Shop, 2022 at TILES, Sydney, I Came To See…, 2021 as a part of the City of Sydney’s CBD Activation Programç and Missing Futures Inbox 2020 at Gasamrojieul, Seoul. Skelton has also donated work to the annual Firstdraft Auction since 2021.
As well as participating in group exhibitions, Skelton has presented solo exhibitions including Plastic, 2017 at Lilac City Studio, Sydney and This one goes out to the one(s) I love, 2022 at First Draft Gallery. Skelton received the National Art School’s Bonner and Tonkin Drawing Prize (2021), was a finalist in the Gosford Art Prize and Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, 2023, and Stonevilla Wearable Art Prize in 2018 and 2019. Skelton also participated in the World of Co.’s Residency in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2019.