Australian Women Artists

Richard Graham

Australian women artists have been (and continue to be) underrepresented and undervalued in this country despite the stunning artistic works that have been produced since the mid nineteenth century.  This podcast will shine a light on those artists and their spectacular art works. I'll be talking to the artists themselves, both established and emerging, as well as experts on Australian women artists in history. 

  1. 1d ago

    Kathrin Longhurst

    Australian Women Artists  The podcast  Ep 93   Kathrin Longhurst   Kathrin Longhurst’s story is – to this show – unique. And fascinating.    Kathrin is a German-born Australian figurative painter known for her powerful oil portraits that blend classical realism with themes of personal displacement, gender, and resilience.    Growing up behind the Berlin Wall, she was steeped in the visual rhetoric of that era and has utilised that to promote and celebrate individual female autonomy and strength.    From her breakout series re-evaluating that period’s iconography to winning the Archibald Packing Room Prize with her portrait of singer Kate Ceberano, and the many finalist awards in major art prizes in between as well as having over 25 solo exhibitions, Kathrin has established herself as one of the most compelling voices in Australian contemporary portraiture.   “Her large-scale paintings celebrate autonomy and defiance, a reminder of the power in rewriting one’s narrative.”     To have a listen to our conversation, head to where you normally find your podcasts and search Australian Women Artists, or hit the link in my bio above.      Kathrin is represented by: Eloise Cato Gallery (@cato_gallery) Gallery One (@galleryone_art) Flinders Lane Gallery (@flinderslanegallery)   To see more of Kathrin’s work, including some works still available, head to www.kathrinlonghurst.com Images 1.   KL by Greg Weight 2.   Falling too Far, 2020 oil on linen 180 x 180 3.   The Burial of Love, 2020 oil on linen 180 x 180 4.   Mariana, 2020 oil on linen 180 x 180 5.   Like the Wind, 2018 oil on linen 90 x 90

  2. Oct 27

    Emily Floyd

    Australian Women Artists   The podcast   Ep 92 Emily Floyd     Emily Floyd is one of Australia's most recognisable sculptors and public artists, and even if you don't know her name, there's a very good chance you know her work...particularly if you've ever driven down Melbourne's EastLink and been stared down by a thirteen-metre black bird contemplating a bright yellow worm.    Born into a family of toymakers, Emily has spent more than twenty-five years taking the building blocks of childhood — wooden letters, rainbows, rabbits and parrots — and scaling them up into bold, colourful sculptures, installations and prints that carry big ideas.    She has exhibited at the Venice Biennale and, has been the subject of survey exhibitions at Heide and the National Gallery of Victoria, and has created public commissions from Melbourne's Docklands to the Shanghai Library East. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, the NGV, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.   To listen to our conversation, head to where you find your podcasts and search ‘Australian Women Artists’ or hit the link in my bio.     Emily is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Ames Yavuz, London, Sydney, Singapore   For more images of Emily’s fabulous work, head to her Instagram account @emilyfloyd0     Images: 1.   EF 2.   Signature Work, 2024 aluminium plate, black polyurethan paint, 4m high 3.   Public Art Strategy, 2006, painted steel, 13m high 4.   Steiner Rainbow, 2006, MDF two part expoxy paint 180 x 360 x 300

  3. Oct 13

    Jude Rae

    Australian Women Artists  The podcast   Ep 90 Jude Rae   Jude Rae is one of Australia's most respected painters. She’s an artist who has spent over four decades looking very, very hard at the things most of us walk straight past — jars, bottles, gas cylinders, fire extinguishers, empty foyers — and turning them into paintings of extraordinary stillness and presence.  Jude was born in Sydney and was the daughter of realist painter David Rae. In fact, both her father and Grandmother trained at Julian Ashton Art School...and in 1968 Jude herself joined classes there. And, having done the sums, I calculated that she was 12 years old when this occurred! Jude went on to study art and architecture of the Renaissance at the University of Sydney and undertook postgraduate study at COFA and then spent over a decade in New Zealand where she completed a Masters at Canterbury University. NZ is, as a result, a place she calls her second home.  Jude has twice won the Portia Geach Memorial Award, she’s won the Bulgari Art Award in 2016, has been a four-time finalist in the Archibald Prize, three of those times being Highly Commended. Her portraits hang in Parliament House, the High Court and the National Portrait Gallery. And in 2025 she won the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She has a very special place in the Australian art canon.     To hear our conversation, head to wherever you find your podcasts and search under Australian Women Artists...or head to the link in my bio.   Jude is represented by Philip Bacon Gallery in Brisbane and Two Rooms, Auckland NZ Images 1.   JR by Maria Stoljar courtesy JR 2.   SL 536, 2026 oil on linen (all paintings in these images are OOL) 71 x 61 3.   SL 464, 2022, 122 x 138 4.   SL 466, 2022, 112 x 138 5.   #540, 2026, 41 x 46 6.   SL 532, 2025, 41 x 46 7.   SL 527, 2026, 46 x 56

  4. Oct 6

    Louise Weaver

    Australian Women Artists   The podcast   Ep 89 Louise Weaver   Louise Weaver’s superb work asks us to look at the natural world...a little differently.   She has spent much of her career exploring the relationship between nature, culture and our often-complicated attempts to represent the world around us.   Working across sculpture, installation, textiles, painting and mixed media, Louise is perhaps best known for her extraordinary reimagining of animals and the natural environment.   Her works can be playful and beautiful...and slightly disconcerting. They seem to ask questions about extinction, conservation and human intervention.  Her work is held in many significant public and private collections including the British Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, National Gallery of Australia, Monash University Collection, Melbourne, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand and Artbank, Australia.    We are having this conversation in the Art Gallery of NSW where Louise has works in two significant exhibitions: 1.   the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial; and 2.   Super Nature.   Louise is represented by @darrenknightgallery   Images supplied by LW and AGNSW 1.   LW 2.   Taking a chance on love, 2003 3.   It would seem that eyes can live without hearts (Oracle Fox), 2005 4.   From the House of Fabius Rufus, 2008 5.   Rogue Antler, 2007 6.   Standing wave resonance, 2025 7.   Rocking stone (to become the sea), 2025

  5. Sep 29

    Emily Ferretti

    Australian Women Artists   The podcast   Ep 88 Emily Ferretti    Emily Ferretti is a Melbourne-based painter whose still-life and landscape images move between representation and abstraction. The importance of feeling and emotion becomes obvious looking at her work.   She grew up on a property in country Victoria, trained at the Victorian College of the Arts, and has since built a career via residencies at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne, the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and Greene Street Studio in New York.   Her monotype series Shifting Landscapes saw her selected as a finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and this year she begins a new chapter with representation at Chalk Horse in Sydney, alongside her long-standing gallery, Sophie Gannon, in Melbourne.  We spoke about a number of things. I was particularly interested in the evolution of her subject matter and the importance of her experience at TAFE before she got to VCA, how she ensured her momentum was maintained even just after leaving art college, the collegiate atmosphere amongst other artists and how that propelled her forward. Also the surprising affect a residency in Paris had on her art. It was surprising to me anyway. We also discussed how she broke into representation by a gallery (Sophie Gannon).     To hear our conversation head to wherever you get your podcasts and search Australian Women Artists.    Emily is represented by Sophie Gannon in Melbourne and Chalk Horse in Sydney     Images  1.   EF via Chalk Horse website 2.   Afternoon Light, 2025 ink and watercolour on paper 107 x 77.5 (Finalist R & M McGivern Prize, 2026)

  6. Sep 22

    Sally Ross

    Australian Women Artists   The podcast   Ep 87 Sally Ross   Sally Ross is an intellectually captivating painter who works between hypnotic landscapes and psychological portraiture.   Sally has spent over three decades developing a distinctive visual language defined by flattened, patterned surfaces, cool palettes, and a deep dialogue with art history.   After eight formative years living in France, (amongst other things, running an artists’ squat in an abandoned seventeenth-century hospice) and exhibiting across Europe and America, she returned to Melbourne to establish a studio practice.   A six-time Archibald Prize finalist whose portrait The Huxleys was selected for the historic Archie 100 tour.   Sally has work held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Portrait Gallery.  But it’s the experiences and lessons she’s learnt along the way that were absorbing to me...and no doubt would be valuable to those artists starting their journey. An enjoyable conversation. She’s fabulous.     Head to wherever you get your podcasts and search Australian Women Artists.    Sally is represented by Smith & Singer, Melbourne & Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney   Images 1.   SR by Mel Savage 2.   Autoportrait, 2021 (Archibald finalist) oil on board 130 x 110 3&4 The Huxleys, 2018 (Archibald finalist) oil on wood panel 130x110 5. SR with the Huxleys 6. Riverbed grevillea, 2025, oil on board, 130 x 110

  7. Sep 15

    Elizabeth Barnett

    Australian Women Artists  The podcast   Ep 86 Elizabeth Barnett     Elizabeth Barnett is a painter and printmaker who also utilises textiles and pottery. Her still life and interior paintings have become instantly recognisable — plant-filled nooks, stacked books, jugs and vases, all rendered in a distinct palette that reflects the season.   She has a deep reverence for the everyday. From her early training in the rigorous world of printmaking to lush, translucent paintings on stretched linen, and eventually to thickly layered oil works in her bushland studio.   She is also an incredible community builder, having co-founded Melbourne's iconic Schoolhouse Studios, a massive, not-for-profit creative hub.   Today, working from her home studio in the Macedon Ranges, Elizabeth continues to celebrate the gentle, wondrous beauty of daily life while acting as a passionate advocate for female representation in the arts.  “Her subjects do not sit flat upon the canvas, but instead reach up from it, enlivened by the wild and natural world. This liveliness belies the ‘stillness’ of still life painting and along with Barnett’s painterly gestures of shadow, line and colour creates a visual dynamism reaches beyond tradition.”     To have a listen to our conversation, head to the link in my bio or search Australian Women Artists wherever you find your podcasts.    Elizabeth is represented by Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne.      Images supplied by artists   1.   EB 2.   Nocturne Arrangement 2026 oil on linen 215 x 153 3.   Floribunda and Gwen 2026 oil on linen 81 x 91 4.   Nocturne 2024 oil on linen 153 x 122 5 & 6 installation shots

About

Australian women artists have been (and continue to be) underrepresented and undervalued in this country despite the stunning artistic works that have been produced since the mid nineteenth century.  This podcast will shine a light on those artists and their spectacular art works. I'll be talking to the artists themselves, both established and emerging, as well as experts on Australian women artists in history. 

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