amanda wright
Amanda Wright is a Palawa artist whose family, on her mother’s side, is from Bruny Island, Tasmania. Amanda grew up and went to school in Boronia, before doing a Fine Arts degree at RMIT. Amanda comes from a family of artists, including her mother, her maternal grandfather, Amanda’s sister, and her mother’s cousin. When Amanda was three or four she recalls her uncle painting, and at that moment she decided that painting was for her. She has been painting ever since.
Amanda sees her practice as being linked to her state of mind, and represented by stages throughout her artistic life. At university she used a palette knife composing full-length bodies on large canvases. Now her work is focused on tenderly conceived portraits of Aboriginal people that give a window into the subjects’ spiritual and emotional worlds. She doesn’t always know who the people are that emerge in her compositions. The current period of prolific painting she believes was triggered by a family reunion where she learnt more about her family and began researching her family history. Amanda’s painting is inspired by her thoughts of her mother, grandmother and her great-grandmother, the circumstances they survived, their strength and their resilience.
'I found family and now I’m trying to find spirit. I just have to paint every day. I have so many ideas. Painting is all I have ever known.’
Artist CV
An experienced practicing artist with more than 25 years experience. Amanda has been employed by Melbourne, Maroondah and Yarra Valley councils to create public artworks and has been in many group and solo exhibitions and donated works to Indigenous organizations such as Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place.
Education
2004, Bachelor of Fine Arts
RMIT, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2009, Bachelor of Teaching, (Visual Arts)
Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria
Awards
2014, Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place NAIDOC Art award.
Exhibitions
Council Grants
Aboriginal Grants Program, EACH
Amanda sees her practice as being linked to her state of mind, and represented by stages throughout her artistic life. At university she used a palette knife composing full-length bodies on large canvases. Now her work is focused on tenderly conceived portraits of Aboriginal people that give a window into the subjects’ spiritual and emotional worlds. She doesn’t always know who the people are that emerge in her compositions. The current period of prolific painting she believes was triggered by a family reunion where she learnt more about her family and began researching her family history. Amanda’s painting is inspired by her thoughts of her mother, grandmother and her great-grandmother, the circumstances they survived, their strength and their resilience.
'I found family and now I’m trying to find spirit. I just have to paint every day. I have so many ideas. Painting is all I have ever known.’
Artist CV
An experienced practicing artist with more than 25 years experience. Amanda has been employed by Melbourne, Maroondah and Yarra Valley councils to create public artworks and has been in many group and solo exhibitions and donated works to Indigenous organizations such as Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place.
Education
2004, Bachelor of Fine Arts
RMIT, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
2009, Bachelor of Teaching, (Visual Arts)
Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria
Awards
2014, Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place NAIDOC Art award.
Exhibitions
- Off The Kerb Gallery, Collingwood. 2015
- Splendour, Melbourne Pavillion, 2015
- Raw, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, 2015
- Hawthorn Studio and Gallery, 2015
- Immerse Exhibition, Dragonfly Café, The Basin. 2015
- End of the line Exhibition, Belgrave 2015
- Sistas in Art and Culture, Smith Street Fitzroy. 2016
- Neighbourhood Justice Centre, Mel, 2016
- Cultural connections, Mel, 2017
- Eye of our Ancestors, Realm Ringwood, 2018
- Off the Kerb Gallery, Collingwood, 2018-2019.
- Highway Elephant gallery, Belgrave, 2020
- Hearth Gallery, Healesville, 2020-2021
Council Grants
- Design of Sarah’s Walk at Ferntree Gully Aboretum, 2009.
- Projections of my artwork on walls in Peel Street, Collingwood. 2016
- Mural, Eastland carpark, working with members of Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place, 2017
- Paintings at Each Boronia, 2018 to present day.
- Public Art, 6 Paintings In Boulders at Badger Creek, Healseville. 2018
- Murals in 2 Family rooms at Maroondah Inpatient, 2018
- Mural, Doveton Kinder, 2020
- Mural, Croydon Gums Kinder, 2020
Aboriginal Grants Program, EACH
- Boronia Heights Primary School, Mural, 2019
- The Basin Primary School, Mural, 2019
- Boronia West Primary School, 2019
- St Joseph’s Primary School, 2020
- Healesville Primary School, 2020
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