Biography 

Ashlee Becks is an impasto painter specialising in the need to better understand and live with the self. A material sensibility guides the work, with thick impasto mark making acting as a metaphor for self-discovery and healing. Loving, performative, and visceral strokes juxtaposed with intricate detail enables viewers to sense the presence of the artist.

In 2020, Ashlee Becks graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Arts at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith. In October of that year, she won the Emerging Artist Award at the Brisbane Portrait Prize and also exhibited her first solo show at Grey Street Gallery in Brisbane. In 2021, Ashlee undertook a short-term residency at Salamanca Art Centre and was selected as a finalist for the Brett Whitely Travelling Art Scholarship and the Sunshine Coast Art Prize. Ashlee has participated in many group exhibitions and has been the recipient of the Arts in Bark Bursary and the Individuals Funding Program by Arts Queensland. In May of 2022, Ashlee presented her second solo show at POP Gallery in Fortitude Valley. She completed her second residency at House Conspiracy at the end of 2022. Her studio is based in Brisbane, Meanjin, where she lives with her partner, Henry. 

Prizes | Awards

2021  Arts Queensland Grant Individual Funding Program
2021  Recommended Artist Award, ’40 under 40’
2020  Emerging Artist Award, Brisbane Portrait Prize
2020  The Griffith Award for Academic Excellence
2017  The Griffith Award for Academic Excellence 2017
2017  Griffith University Scholarship - ‘Arts in Bark’ Bursary 2017
2016  Top of Subject Award - Visual Arts - Senior Years
2016  Thomson Art Award (Overall Secondary Winner)
2015  Heaney Visual Art Award - Senior Art
2012  Top of Subject Award - Middle Years

Solo Exhibitions

2022  POP Gallery, Fortitude Valley
2020  ’To have and to hold’, solo exhibition, Grey Street Gallery

Finalist

2021  Sunshine Coast Art Prize
2021  Wyndham Art Prize
2021  Brett Whitely Travelling Art Scholarship

Group Exhibitions

2021  ’40 under 40’, Cooroy Butter Factory
2020  ‘2020 Honours Graduation Show’, Project Gallery
2020  ‘Brisbane Portrait Prize’, Brisbane Powerhouse
2020  '40 under 40’, Cooroy Butter Factory
2019  ‘Bloomed’, The Foundry
2019  ‘Age of the Selfie’, Grey Street Gallery
2019  ‘Rub the Lotion on the Skin’, Project Gallery
2019  ‘Twenty Something More’, POP Gallery
2018  ‘Twenty Something’, NARS, New York
2017  Brisbane Art Prize, Judith Wright Centre
2017  Noosa Regional Gallery ‘Taste of Art’

Commissions

2020  ‘Horizon Festival’

Education

Griffith University: Queensland College of Arts - Fine Arts
Honours 2020 (Graduated with First Class Honours)
Griffith University: Queensland College of Arts - Bachelor of Fine Arts 2019

Commission Enquiry