Destiny Deacon is an artist, performer and political activist. Since 1990, she has exhibited her photographs, videos and installations in numerous solo and group exhibitions, nationally and internationally.
In 2005 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney held a major retrospective of Deacon’s work titled: Walk & don’t look black, which toured to the Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo, the Tjibao Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia and Wellington City Gallery, New Zealand. In 2002 Deacon was the only Australian artist to be chosen for Documenta II in Kassel, Germany and she has been included in many other important survey exhibitions such as the Havana Biennale in 2009 and 1994, the Biennale of Sydney in 2008 and 2000, the inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial 2007: Culture Warriors at the National Gallery of Australia, the Yokohama Triennale in 2001, the Adelaide Biennale in 2000, the Australian Perspecta in 1999 and 1993,and the 1st Johannesburg Biennale in 1995. Other group exhibitions include Rising Tide: Film and Video Works from the MCA Collection, Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego 2009, Half Light: Portraits from Black Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2008, Yours, Mine & Ours: 50 Years of ABC TV, Penrith Regional Gallery 2007; Why Pictures Now, Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK), Vienna in 2006; Image & Imagination, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, Canada in 2006; High Tide: Currents in Contemporary Australian Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw in 2006 and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Deacon’s work is held in most major public collections in Australia as well as Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK), Stifting Ludwig Vienna, Austria and Museum Sammlung Essl, Austria.
Deacon was selected for the prestigious Clemenger Prize at the National Gallery of Victoria in September 2009.
