Exhibition Thursday 1st August – Sunday 15th September 2019
Portrait of Teena McCarthy in Flannelette Shirt – Artist and Poet
acrylic on canvas 70 x 55cm 2019
Teena McCarthy is a multi-media artist and poet working predominantly in painting, photography and performance art. She is an Italian/Barkindji woman who is a descendant of the Stolen Generations. Born in Western Australia she graduated in 2014 from UNSW Art & Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Her work documents her family’s displacement and Aboriginal Australians’ loss of culture and their ‘hidden’ history. Much of her art focuses on her Barkindji ‘nanna’ Kath Mary McCarthy and also honours her mother Elina Erina McCarthy.
While acknowledging the intergenerational pain of post colonialism, McCarthy uses wit, humour and pathos to explore her identity.
I painted Teena because she is so impressive as an artist and as a person. There is sadness but strength in her eyes. The expressions on her face tell a very personal story, of the ups and downs she’s been through. She’s straightforward, direct, funny, humble and yet fiercely honest and independent. I painted her incorporating some of her favourite colours – brown, red and blue.