The Art Award

Thea Anamara Perkins (born 1992) is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon artist. Her paintings incorporate portraiture and landscape to depict First Nations peoples and Country. Through her work, she questions representation and how First Nations peoples can and should be portrayed in contemporary Australia.

Raised and based in Sydney, Perkins has family ties to the Redfern community and Mparntwe/Alice Springs. Her family includes Arrernte elder Hetty Perkins (her great-grandmother), activist Charles Perkins (her grandfather), curator Hetti Perkins (her mother) and film director Rachel Perkins (her aunt).

Perkins routinely delves into her family’s photographic archive for source material, attracted by the hyper-saturated, almost cinematic glow of old photos and the melancholia that comes with seeing a moment in time you can no longer access.

The Art Gallery will acquire four works by Perkins for the La Prairie Art Award. The group comprises four portraits representing three generations of her immediate family: a portrait of her sister surrounded by family at the moment candles are being lit on her birthday cake; a Bondi Beach scene of her grandfather, mother and uncle from the late 1960s; her mother and grandfather at his university graduation ceremony in 1966; and a portrait of her grandfather and aunt at Telegraph Station in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.

Photo credits: Thea Anamara Perkins Bondi Beach 2023, acrylic on board, 30.5 x 40.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, La Prairie Art Award 2023 © Thea Anamara Perkins, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales

Photo credits: Thea Anamara Perkins Warren Ball Avenue 2023, acrylic on board, 30.5 x 40.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, La Prairie Art Award 2023 © Thea Anamara Perkins, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales

Photo credits: Thea Anamara Perkins The Bungalow 2023, acrylic on board, 40.5 x 30.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, La Prairie Art Award 2023 © Thea Anamara Perkins, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales

Photo credits: Thea Anamara Perkins The Graduation 2023, acrylic on board, 30.5 x 40.5 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, La Prairie Art Award 2023 © Thea Anamara Perkins, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales