Thea Anamara Perkins
Family. Land. Water.
Thea Anamara Perkins is a Sydney-based artist producing bold portraits and beautiful landscapes. Through her incredibly poignant artworks, the decorated artist explores family, heritage and identity.
Writer: Sam Williams
Photography: Jacquie Manning
Thea Anamara Perkins
THROUGH expressive brushstrokes, Thea shares a story. An exploration of family, identity and portrayal, her evocative portraiture and landscapes look to the artist’s rich Arrernte heritage and impressive photographic archive for inspiration. “My work interrogates representation,” said Thea, “and in that process I explore my identity and draw from my direct experience like my own family history.”
Warren Ball Avenue
From her studio in Tranby, a First Nations-led non-profit cooperative in Glebe, Thea immerses herself in her work. “I’m loving being around the community, it’s in a lovely old terrace. I keep it pretty spartan, no distractions, just music that isn’t too demanding.” It's here that Thea is best able to express herself on canvas, a reflection of a shared past and present.
Bondi Beach
For Thea, family is of the utmost importance, and their continued support has helped shape the artist we see today. “There are a lot of creatives in my family; my mum is a curator, and my aunt is a filmmaker. My siblings are in the arts and environmental/cultural sectors, and we have one athlete, so we're all very creative!” said Thea on her dynastic family. “We were very lucky to grow up with a lot of amazing people in the arts who have become family to us. I always knew it was something that you could pursue as a career, and it was beneficial to have insight into their practices and ways of being.”
Sisters
Atherreyurre I
In 2023, Thea’s achievements in artmaking took her international after receiving the La Prairie Art Award, an annual award for women artists in Australia, founded by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Swiss luxury brand La Prairie. Through this award, Thea had the opportunity to undertake an exclusive artist residency in Switzerland, in addition to having her award-winning work acquired for the AGNSW’s collection. “It was fantastic because it gave me time and space,” said Thea on the inspirational trip. “I saw so much art, lots of work I had only seen as reproductions in books. It was a chance to step out of the generating space and into the absorbing space. The ripple effects are still coming through in my practice.”
Atherreyurre 4
‘Return’, a recent work of Thea’s, is a brilliant piece, reflecting on her family’s connection to country. The work, featuring a bogged Holden Kingswood on a vast stretch of desert road in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), saw Thea as a finalist in the 2024 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. “The work reflects a real growth shift in my practice,” said Thea on her work, which was part of a group show at the MCA at the time of speaking. “It’s amplifying a tiny slide from the 70s, and speaks to the First Nations experience of long journeys to return to country, as well as the universal experience of going home.”
Return
Having recently taken part in the group show ‘Curlew Camp’ at Mosman Art Gallery, celebrating the history of the artists’ camp site, and ‘Sydney Contemporary’ at Carriageworks in September, Thea’s shows no signs of slowing down. And in December you can catch Thea’s amazing works in the National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia in the ACT.
@anamara_art
