Debra Dawes

Biography

Since the early 1980s, Debra Dawes has explored the interplay between life and the language of abstraction in painting. She has exhibited her paintings in public and in privately run galleries.

In 1984–85, while still studying, she was co-director of the artist-run space Union Street Gallery in Sydney.

Dawes’ work has been included in many major exhibitions, including Australian Perspecta (1990), Abstraction (1990–91), Phenomena: New Painting in Australia 1 (2001) and Starlite (1993) at the AGNSW, Cross Currents: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art (2007) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 21st Century Modern, Adelaide Bienniale (2006) at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Geometric Painting in Australia 1941–97 (1997) at the University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Good Vibrations (2002) and On the Brink: Abstraction of the 90s (2000) at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, and Ornamentalism (1997) at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Dawes' work is represented in major collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the AGNSW, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

For a detailed CV and illustrated information about Dawes' work please go to www.debradawes.com.au.

Research

There is a long and intensely explored tradition of geometric abstraction in painting that comes from the philosophical position of abstraction/autonomy. It is difficult to harness this visual language into debates concerning social transactions. This, however, is the premise of Dawes’ exploration of the radical dialogue between geometric abstraction and contemporary politics.

In the series Clockwise (2004), the gap between art and life is specifically addressed. The aim is to recharge existing paradigms with contemporary social and political concerns. Each canvas within the series of 12 records the rhythm of the artist’s presence and absence in the studio over a 12-month period. The series radicalises the tradition of the sublime in abstraction and reorients it towards a contemporary paranoia of accountability.

Cover up (2006) responds to the post-9/11 political landscape through the lens of deception and suspicion. Cover up challenged the strategies deployed in the name of ‘border protection’ in Australia. An arctic camouflage net positioned in the gallery predetermines the passage of the viewer in such a way that the viewer is caught between two interconnecting realities: the net and its shadow. One is purely illusory and the other, a device of deception.

Double-dealing (2007) deploys two systems of spatial construction, Renaissance perspective and Modernist planar space – opposed visual and philosophical systems – to interrogate the tensions and the synergies between the two. Double-dealing seeks to throw light on contradiction and duplicity, thus challenging viewers to negotiate their own shifting realities between these systems.

Recent Exhibitions

Cross Currents: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2007

21st Century Modern, Adelaide Bienniale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2006

Everydaynow, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, 2005

clock wise, SCA Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2005

Good Vibrations, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Victoria, 2002

Phenomena: New Painting in Australia 1, AGNSW, Sydney and Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, 2001

Suburb, Museum of Sydney, Sydney, 2000

Geometric Painting in Australia 1941–97, University Art Museum, University of Queensland, 1997

Abstraction, AGNSW and touring, 1990–91

Research Supervision

Liz Miller, PhD, 'The integration of contemporary art: Reversing institutional alienation'

Ernest Aaron, MFA, 'An investigation into the artistic representation of the ideas associated with the psychology of visual perception'

Erin de la Cruz, MFA, 'Illusions of paradise: The role art plays in tropical tourism'

Sepideh Farzam, MFA, 'TBA'

Karena Keys, MFA, 'Painting as sculpture and interior occupation'

Kate Wilkie, MFA, 'Mimesis and index symbiosis'

Awards & Grants

2005 Australia Council clock wise
1997 Australia Council Trace of Passage
1994 Australia Council Gingham
1990 Australia Council Houndstooth

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