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Steaphan Paton
Steaphan Paton is a Melbourne-based artist, descendant of the Gunai and Monero peoples, who grew up in Gippsland, Victoria. His work explores colonialism, tradition, artefacts, industrial and cultural conflict. Influenced by his home country, 'Gippsland', Paton uses painting, sculpture, installation and video to tell personal and cultural stories that have universality and ask the audience to reflect on themselves.

Paton’s most recent exhibition Wallung Githa Unsettled at Anna Pappas Gallery was a collaborative project with photographer Cameron Cope. The exhibition consisted of a photographic / performative series and a stone installation by Paton. Exposing colonial denial, frontier myths and 'settlement' the works explore frontier violence, myths and the romanticised heroism and national identity. Using the well-known frontier myth, known as The White Woman of Gippsland, Paton and Cope  confronted the violent conflict attributed to the so-called discoverer of 'Gippsland', Angus McMillan, during the early 'settlement of Gippsland'.

His project Boorun’s Canoe, was a collaboration with his grandfather Uncle Albert Mullett and photographer Cameron Cope, where the young men in the family built a traditional bark canoe and floated it near Lake Tyers. The project was about the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next. The project and the canoe was exhibtied at the Melbourne Museum in 2012 and is now on permanent display in Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Melbourne Museum.

He has held several other solo exhibitions including and Where the trees are big and green, Latrobe Contemporary Gallery (2011). Paton’s work has been included in numerous group, festival and prize exhibitions. Paton participated in the Nextwave Festival with his project My Bullock Modified (2014) and group exhibitions From where I stand, Melbourne Museum (2014); Horizons, Bundoora Homestead (2014); Melbourne NOW, National Gallery of Victoria (2013); Sketchbook project, Brooklyn Art Library (2012) and Ngujarn and Nakun: Our Eyes, Our Footprints, Melbourne Museum (2009).

Paton was a recipient of the City of Melbourne Laneways Commission (2011) for his project Urban Doolagahl. He was also a recipient of the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards-Highly Commended (2007) and has been short listed in the prize on multiple occasions (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011). Most recently his collaboration 'Transcendence' won the Koorie Art Commission at the Melbourne Museum. Paton is a finalist in the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards 2015.

Solo
2015 Wallung Githa Unsettled. Anna Pappas Gallery. Prahran Vic.

2014 New works/untitled. Dench Bakers, Fitzroy North. Vic

2013 Terra Nullius Loungeroom. Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy. Vic

2012 Boorun's Canoe. Birrarung, Bunjilaka. Melbourne Museum

2011 Where the trees are big and green, Latrobe Contemporary Gallery, Morwell. Vic.

Group
2015 Forever Now, Mona foma. Hobart, Tas.

2014 Speak out, Counihan Gallery. Brunswick, VIC.

2014 CCP Salon Prize, Centre for Contemporary Photography. Fitzroy, Vic.

2014 Group Show, Kings ARI. Melbourne VIC.

2014 Groundup. N/A Space. Brunswick East VIC

2014 What follows came before. Seventh Gallery. Fitzroy. Vic

2014 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Art Gallery of Ballarat. Ballarat, Vic.

2014 From where I stand. Bunjilaka, Melbourne Museum. Vic

2014 Horizons. Bundoora Homestead, Bundoora. Vic

2014 In your dreams. Counihan Gallery, Brunswick. Vic

2014 Nextwave Festival. Melbourne. Vic

2013 Melbourne NOW. National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne. Vic.

2013 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Art Gallery of Ballarat. Ballarat, Vic.

2013 Free sex and money. Warehouse event. Fitzroy. Vic

2013 Solutions. Danae Valenza and friends. Bus Projects. Collingwood, Vic.

2012 NAIDOC Exhibition. Stockyard Gallery. Foster, Vic.

2012 (en)DANGER, Lismore Art Space. Lismore, NSW.

2012 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, Fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne. Vic.

2012 Sketchbook project, Brooklyn Art Library. Brooklyn, New York.

2011 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, Fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne. Vic.

2010 Previous Winners of Victorian Ind. Arts Awards. Koorie Heritage Trust. Melbourne.

2009 Ngujarn and Nakun: Our Eyes, Our Footprints. Birrarung, Bunjilaka. Melbourne Museum

2007 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards. Koorie Heritage Trust. Melbourne.

2001 Family Exhibition. Lin Onus Memorial Gallery, Koorie Heritage Trust. Melbourne.

Collections
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Melbourne Museum, Melbourne.

Brooklyn Art Library, New York.

Wellington Shire Council, Sale.

Private collections

Deep Space- Forever Now