Judith Wright
Judith Wright is an established contemporary visual artist who lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. Wright explores the physicality and emotional characteristics of the human body in her work using a variety of media, including painting, drawing, video, sculpture, and installation. Wright's background as a dancer with the Australian Ballet has influenced the way her pieces, whether literal or abstract, maintain a strong gestural intonation.
Judith Wright has been included in The National 2021: New Australian Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art; 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Here We Are at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2019) and The Lover Circles His Own Heart: MCA Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2019).
Her major installation A Wake was exhibited in Contemporary Australia: Women at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (2012) and A Journey was included in the 18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2012).
Her work is held in major public and private collections throughout Australia, including Artbank, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and the Parliament House Collection, as well as in the collection of Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan.
Judith Wright’s work has the power to surprise and, perhaps, perplex viewers. Wright is known for her severe, near minimalist works. She is also known as a video artist. Wright joins cool pure abstract statement in an unlikely combination with the noisiest figurative medium, television. It should not work, but, through a calculated legerdemain, it does. But it is not exclusively through contrast that Wright achieves her effect, but something more subtle: a twist here, a tweak there, to pull each distinct element into precarious balance and counterbalance. With a ‘contrapposto’ of media, scale, and surfaces, Wright creates some of Australia’s most original and compelling works.
– Excerpt from Michael Desmond Essay
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JUDITH WRIGHT IN 'MEET THE ARTISTS' EXHIBITION AT STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND
The James C Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews consists of interviews with significant Australian artists and figures in the art world that provides insight and context to the practice of some of our most respected artists.
The exhibition features contemporary works by Judith Wright, Vernon Ah Kee, Luke Roberts, Fiona Foley, Leonard Brown, Anne Wallace, Sandra Selig, and Eugene Carchesio, along with screenings of all 35 James C. Sourris AM Collection of Artist Interviews.
Free exhibition, now showing until 9 July 2023
Open daily: 9 am – 5 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday
State Library of Queensland, SLQ Gallery, level 2
JUDITH WRIGHT IN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) presents MCA Collection: Eight Artists opening on 17 March 2023 in the Level 1 South Galleries.
This new display curated by MCA Curator, Manya Sellers, gives focus to eight significant Australian artists represented in the MCA Collection: Judith Wright, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Raelene Kerinauia Lampuwatu, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Naminapu Maymuru-White, Sandra Selig, Esme Timbery and Gulumbu Yunupiŋu.
The materially seductive surfaces of the five paintings in Relative Conversations by Judith Wright have been built up through layers of pigment and beeswax. Sweeping curves and tonal shifts create a dynamic interplay between positive and negative space, giving these large-scale works on paper a sense of depth and tactility.
Image: Crop of Judith Wright's Relative Conversations (2006) used in a banner to promote MCA's upcoming exhibition: Collection: Eight Artists
JUDITH WRIGHT FINALIST IN 2022 MOSMAN ART PRIZE
We are delighted to announce that Judith has been selected as a finalist in the 2022 Mosmon Art Prize.
Established in 1947, the Mosman Art Prize is Australia's oldest and most prestigious local government art award. It was founded by the artist, architect and arts advocate, Alderman Allan Gamble. The 2022 judge of the Mosman Art Prize is Rhana Devenport ONZM. She is the first female director of the Art Gallery South Australia.
As an acquisitive art award for painting, the winning artworks collected form a splendid collection of modern and contemporary Australian art, reflecting all the developments in Australian art practice since 1947.
Congratulations Judith Wright for becoming a finalist in this prize, we wish you great success moving forward.
Image: Judith Wright, Carnivale: Second Stage (10), 2021, acrylic on Japanese paper, 100 x 100 cm
JUDITH WRIGHT IN ART COLLECTOR
A dossier on Judith Wright by Louise Martin-Chew is featured in the current issue of Art Collector. Martin-Chew discusses how the artist explores the otherworldliness of everyday happenings.
Wright's next solo exhibition will be held at the gallery in September 2021. To request a preview, please contact the gallery.
JUDITH WRIGHT IN KNOW MY NAME
Works by Judith Wright will be included in Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now Part Two.
Know My Name showcases art made by women. Drawn from the National Gallery of Australia's collection and loans from across Australia, it is one of the most comprehensive presentations of art by women assembled in this country to date.
The exhibition will be on display until 26 January 2022.
Image: Judith Wright, Sightlines [4], 2019
JUDITH WRIGHT IN THE NATIONAL
Judith Wright’s work is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in The National 2021: New Australian Art, a major collaborative venture between the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks and the MCA. The exhibition includes artists considering diverse approaches to the environment, storytelling and intergenerational learning through their works. The National is on display until 22 August 2021.
Image: Judith Wright, Nature/Nurture, 2020, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, for The National 2021. Photo: Anna Kucera
JUDITH WRIGHT IN VAULT
Judith Wright is featured in the current issue of Vault.
Wright is known for her severe, near minimalist paintings, drawings, videos and installations, and her ability to sustain dialogues between different media. Creating art that is original and compelling, Wright is drawn to themes such as the vulnerability and impermanence of life. Her works are often about the body and its relationship – either physical or psychological – to other animate and inanimate presences, as well as the fluidity between the conscious and unconscious mind.
To enquire about available works, please contact the gallery.
Image: Works by Judith Wright featured on vaultmagazine.com
JUDITH WRIGHT AT MORNINGTON PENINSULA REGIONAL GALLERY
Judith Wright was selected as a finalist in the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG)'s National Works on Paper Prize.
Established in 1998, the prize supports and promotes contemporary Australian artists working on or with paper a $15,000 major acquisitive award. The exhibition of finalists is on display at MPRG until 21 February 2021.
Image: Judith Wright, Sightlines [6], 2019
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