Wanda Gillespie is a contemporary artist working in sculpture, installation, and public art. Renowned for her interactive abacus sculptures and intricately carved figurative works, Gillespie is driven by a belief in the spiritual potency of physical matter. Her practice explores history, time, mysticism, and truth—drawing from ancient artefacts, sacred geometry, and the harmonious logic of nature.

A defining aspect of her work is the reimagining of known objects with new symbolic or philosophical function. Her ongoing series of abacus sculptures reinterpret this ancient counting device not only as a system of value, but as a contemplative interface—merging material, ritual, and the metaphysical. Across her broader practice, familiar forms become encoded with new meaning: sculptures become tools for reflection, devotion, and alternative cosmologies.

Gillespie has developed a significant practice with numerous solo exhibitions, residencies, and awards. Her work has featured in An Alternative Economics at the Institute of Modern Art, Numinosity at Contemporary Art Tasmania, Future Inheritance: 20 Speculative Objects for a Time to Come for NGV Design Week, and the Tel Aviv Craft and Design Biennale. 

She has been a finalist or highly commended in many major prizes including the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Blake Prize, National Sculpture Prize, John Fries Memorial Prize, and others. In 2014, she received the Art & Australia Credit Suisse Contemporary Art Award.

Major solo exhibitions include The Kinetics of Thought, Crossing the Rubicon, The Ministry for Mystical Reckoning, Higher Thinking, Levitation Practice, and Counting Frames for a Transient Era. Her projects have been supported by the Australia Council, Creative New Zealand, Arts Victoria, City of Melbourne, and Auckland Council.

Gillespie has undertaken residencies in Indonesia (Asialink), and in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts through the Art Gallery of New South Wales.