DAVIDA ALLEN
Davida Allen’s expressionist paintings scrutinise her experiences as a home-maker and artist in confrontational images of domesticity that include her children, husband, and sexual fantasies. Allen’s interest in expressionism was encouraged by writer and gallery director Betty Churcher and throughout her career she has sustained a commitment to the visual arts’ ability to engage audiences with direct emotional experiences.
Allen studied at the Brisbane College of Art (1970-72), holding her first exhibition while expecting her first child in 1973. She won the Archibald Prize in 1986 for her portrait, My Father-in-law Hosing his Celtus Trees and achieved notoriety that same year with a series of paintings of actor Sam Neill, revealing an eroticism that was centred on the female gaze, confronting important aspects of feminist ideology.
Her acclaimed short film Feeling Sexy, (1998), highlighted the anxieties and dilemma of caring for children while also seeking to preserve an identity as an artist. It screened at the Venice Film Festival, later winning best original screenplay at the Film Critics Circle of Australia (1999).
Allen has work in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
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