“. . . it’s the vulnerable parts of myself and others that I want to engage with.”
Art Almanac sat down with recent La Prairie Art Award winner Thea Anamara Perkins who uses personal narratives in her highly detailed paintings that challenge misconceptions. The Sydney-based artist has just moved from her studio at Carriageworks Clothing Store into a home/portable studio in anticipation of a year of travelling, seeing art, and developing her technical skills – she takes us behind the scenes and shares more of her international and domestic trips, what we can expect artistically, and insights to her view of the world.
Thea Anamara Perkins in her Carriageworks studio from the 2022 Clothing Store Artist Studios Program shoot. Photograph: Jacquie Manning Photography
Can you tell us what you have planned for the La Prairie Art Award and the influence of the 2021 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship? What else do you have coming up?
I’m still in shock! For the La Prairie, I will be travelling to Europe, mainly Switzerland, Italy, and France. My goal is to see as much art as possible and engage with the history of expression in these places as well as contemporary conversations. I always find it interesting to unpack colonial paradigms, but I also find it wonderful how artists find fresh ways to engage within old traditions.
I will be travelling to Art Basel, which I’m sure will be eye-opening as my first international art fair. Support is crucial, and the Brett Whiteley Scholarship was no exception. It was fantastic to connect with peers, as artmaking can be solitary at times. I’m currently working towards a show in September and will also have work in Sydney Contemporary, which is a first.
Thea Anamara Perkins, Warren Ball Avenue, 2023, acrylic on board, 30.5 × 40.5cm. Courtesy the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney
Family plays such a huge role in your works. I first saw your paintings in the installation exhibition History House, 2018, at Firstdraft, and from there, your vignette-style artworks replicate moments as though taken directly from your memories. How does it feel to have your personal life and work so entwined?
The way we interact with the world is through the lens of ourselves, and I think the personal is inextricable from everything we do. It can be a confronting experience, but it’s the vulnerable parts of myself and others that I want to engage with. There are a host of interesting elements to explore around the personal, elements both in constant flux and concrete, the subjective and the enduring. Things like what connects us, drives us, and what we love. I like to speak to my own experience, spun from universal threads that resonate with others. There is a lot of misrepresentation and misinformation about Aboriginal families; my archives are in direct contradiction to this – presenting these personal images felt like an incisive subversion.
Thea Anamara Perkins, The Bungalow, 2023, acrylic on board, 40.5 × 30.5cm. Courtesy the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney
From often relatively small artworks – like the ones in The National 4 – to then creating the larger-than-life mural Stockwomen, 2022 at Carriageworks, how did the process differ between making and presenting the two exhibits?
I’ve returned to this size as something that is large enough to draw a viewer in, yet small enough to give a sense of intimacy, that one is privy to a private moment. It’s the way that we’re accustomed to interacting with these records. I like the challenge of the precision smaller works can require.
Stockwoman was a whole other ballpark, and I really enjoyed throwing myself into that process. Gesturally it was heavily in the shoulders in contrast to the wrist and fine motor skills of smaller works. It was very freeing leaning into the big rhythmic strokes – I also learnt a lot about how paint and pigment behave working at scale. All the technical considerations, like composition and balance, have different approaches.
What can we expect from your upcoming exhibition Atherreyurre at N.Smith Gallery in Sydney?
I’ve really been honing in on a technical level, and it’s been wonderful to see breakthroughs by interrogating my style – and consolidating what I’ve absorbed doing different projects. It will be focused on Mparntwe (Alice Springs), where I spent most of my time generating it, cherishing the deepening that occurs returning to beloved subject matter.
Emma-Kate Wilson is an art and design writer and editor based on Gumbaynggirr Country (Bellingen, New South Wales).
