Dr. Kelsey Ashe is a contemporary Australian artist and writer, who has developed a signature aesthetic and prose that draws from themes, mysterious, esoteric and surreal, with a particular focus on unearthing the hidden historical narratives embedded in the post-colonial Australian landscape.

Kelsey Ashe has a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD Art) which directs a depth of knowledge into her contemplative works, delving into allegorical, historical and mythological narratives that are inter-cultural and often emphatically feminine.
Ashe links her work to an aesthetic of ‘Australian Gothic’ and the ‘Colonial Sublime’, where the vestiges of European Colonisation haunt the Antipodean Landscape. Ashe has responded artistically and conceptually to the Uluru Statement from the heart (2017) which asks artists to consider the First Nation Cultures of Australia in Artistic Expression.
Exploring the symbology of cultures, both ancient and modern, local and global, Ashe seeks resonances from previous era’s; sensing traces of stories or beliefs from place, to perceive perceptions or concerns for contemporary culture. Ashe’s practice-led research has traversed print and illustration, textiles and cloth, photography and film, performance and painting, with each new idea finding its unique expression of form.

Kelsey is currently a tenured Academic in the School of Design and Built Environment, where she supervises Post Graduate, Masters and PhD projects in her fields of specialization and Lectures in Design, Print and Illustration.