Savanhdary Vongpoothorn

Last updated

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (born 1971) is a Laotian-born Australian visual artist. She immigrated with her parents as a seven-year old, and through studies and travel has integrated Laotian, Vietnamese and Australian influences in her art. [1] Her art reflects cross-cultural influences in contemporary Australia as she fuses her personal experiences, dual cultures, and painterly abstraction. [2] She has exhibited widely in Australia and Singapore, and her works are held in major state and regional galleries across Australia. [3] She was a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize 2016 and the Moet & Chandon art prize in 1998. [4] She lives and works in Canberra.

Contents

Early life and education

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn was born in Champasak, Laos, in 1971 and came to Australia as a seven year-old in 1978. [5] In 1970 her anti-communist father was about to be sent to a re-education camp and escaped to Thailand. Her mother then took the children and crossed the Mekong River into Thailand with a people smuggler. After nine months in a Thai refugee camp, an Australian aunt sponsored them to emigrate to Australia. [1] Her work today evokes her Buddhist background. [6]

Vongpoothorn is a devout Buddhist. She grew up in a community that practiced Tehravada Buddhism that is prevalent in South and Southeast Asia. Lessons from her upbringing can sometimes be reflected in the titles of her works. [2]

At school she only excelled in English and Art. She was accepted at the Nepean College of the Arts, University of Western Sydney based on her portfolio, not her HSC results. At Nepean she was encouraged to "play" and to view her cultural heritage in new ways. She began to focus on her textile heritage. [1] She was first noticed for her student work shown in the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship exhibition in 1992. [7]

She graduated with a visual arts degree from the University of Western Sydney in 1992, and then earned a masters in visual arts from the College of Fine Art (part of the University Of New South Wales) in 1993. [5]

During her last year of art school she moved to the studio-home of painter Roy Jackson who was part of the Wedderburn artistic community near Campbelltown south of Sydney and adjacent to a national park. Vongpoothorn fell in love with the bushland. [2] She often visited Wedderburn in Western Sydney where she later lived for eight years, learning about the Australian Bush and participating in the Wedderburn artistic community. [1] This was also the first time she lived outside her family environment, and found herself with full-time artists. She collected items from the bushland and integrated them into floor-based art works.

She only returned to Laos for the first time in after art school and has returned often to Laos and the communities along the Mekong River. She admits her visits influence her works. [1]

She is married to anthropologist Ashley Carruthers and has two children. [2] In 2004 she moved to Canberra, Australia. Today she and her family spend time in Vietnam every year in the town of Hoi An and Savanhdary acknowledges the influence of Vietnam in her art. [1]

Works

In the years after art school, her work integrated elements from Australian landscape and symbols from Laotian textiles. Her early works (1992 - 1994) were three-dimensional floor works. But by the mid-1990s, Vongpoothorn was creating textured works on paper and canvas. [8]

Time and motherhood helped her feel anchored in Australia and as the artist has said in interview:

"Feeling at home in Australia is an anchor, it allows me the freedom to go back to the place of my birth in my mother’s village in Champasak and research for my current work. I guess the reason why the Australian landscape is not present in my current work is because I am home." [1]

Her paintings are said to evoke the chanting and music of Laos, and the Laotian community in Australia, which her father, a Buddhist monk, serves. [5] Her work also reflects traditional crafts of Laos and Vietnam:

"When you are living outside your place of origin you tend to feel more intense about the need to have and to acquire knowledge about your place of origin. I don’t want my parents to die not knowing who is going to continue with our tradition; I will be the one to continue with our culture and religious tradition." [1]

Her residencies in various countries influenced her experimental approach to art. In Vietnam she learned to weave with Bamboo. She came back from India with a series of delicate works on paper that echo the colours of traditional subcontinental painting. In Japan she pursued a project with poet Noriko Tanaka. She created a 2019 work (Footsteps to the Nigatsu-do) that consists of rubbings made from the sacred patterns found on the steps of the Nigatsu-do temple at Nara, embellished with Tanaka’s calligraphy and her own loose characters. [6]

Overall patterns in her work recall the mandalas used for meditation in Buddhism, and also show an affinity with Southeast Asian textiles. She has also incorporated language, including Pali Script and Vietnamese braille. Savanhdary often pierces the canvas with small holes (or has her father drill them for her). In some work the viewer can see through the work. In others she has pushed paint through the holes to create surface pattern. These works evoke weaving. [8] Such delicate detail cannot be reproduced in photos; the works must be seen. [6]

Her work is represented by Martin Browne Contemporary in Sydney. [3]

Exhibitions

According to Martin Browne Contemporary, she has had the following solo exhibitions: [3]

Mutual Art [9] lists the following exhibitions:

together with nine other exhibitions.

Collections

She has works in the collections of:

She is also said to have works in the collections of the Campbelltown Arts Centre, the Wollongong University art collection, the University of Western Sydney art collection, and the Cruthers collection in the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery [14] (but is not listed in the Cruthers 2018 list of artworks and artists). [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Hester</span> Australian artist (1920–1960)

Joy St Clair Hester was an Australian artist. She was a member of the Angry Penguins movement and the Heide Circle who played an integral role in the development of Australian Modernism. Hester is best known for her bold and expressive ink drawings. Her work was charged with a heightened awareness of mortality due to the death of her father during her childhood, the threat of war, and her personal experience with Hodgkin's disease. Hester is most well known for the series Face, Sleep, and Love (1948–49) as well as the later works, The Lovers (1956–58).

Janet Dawson MBE is an Australian artist who was a pioneer of abstract painting in Australia in the 1960s, having been introduced to abstraction during studies in England while she lived in Europe 1957–1960 She was also an accomplished lithographic printer of her own works as well as those of other renowned Australian artists, a theatre-set and furniture designer. She studied in England and Italy on scholarships before returning to Australia in 1960. She won the Art Gallery of New South Wales Archibald Prize in 1973 with the portrait of her husband, Michael Boddy Reading. She has exhibited across Australia and overseas, and her work is held in major Australian and English collections. In 1977 she was awarded an MBE for services to art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bea Maddock</span> Australian artist (1934–2016)

Beatrice Louise "Bea" Maddock was an Australian artist.

Elisabeth Cummings is an Australian artist known for her large abstract paintings and printmaking. She has won numerous awards including Fleurieu Art Prize, The Portia Geach Portrait Prize, The Mosman Art Prize, and The Tattersalls Art Prize. Her work is owned in permanent collections across Australia including Artbank, The Queensland Art Gallery, The Gold Coast City Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is notable for receiving recognition later in her career, considered by the Australian Art Collector as one of the 50 most collectible Australian Artists.

Vivienne Joyce Binns is an Australian artist known for her contribution to the Women's Art Movement in Australia, her engagement with feminism in her artwork, and her active advocacy within community arts. She works predominantly in painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linde Ivimey</span> Australian sculptor (born 1965)

Linde Ivimey is an Australian sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lina Bryans</span> Australian artist (1909–2000)

Lina Bryans, was an Australian modernist painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Mills (photographer)</span>

Alice Mills (1870–1929) was an influential professional photographer from Australia, active from 1900 to 1929. She established her name among the top photographers in Melbourne after seven years of work. After her death she stayed within that group for thirty more years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Reid</span> Australian artist

Lisa Reid is an Australian artist, known primarily for her highly detailed figurative works in a variety of mediums. Reid has worked from her Northcote-based studio at Arts Project Australia since 2000, where she held her first solo show in 2015. She has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally and her work was recently selected for the landmark exhibition Painting. More Painting, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Her work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

Raquel Ormella is an Australian artist focusing on multimedia works such as posters, banners, videography and needlework. Ormella’s work has been showcased in many exhibitions in galleries and museums, including the Shepparton Art Museum and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Working in Sydney and Canberra, Ormella’s pieces are known to encompass themes of activism and social issues in many forms and has received praise.

Vicki Varvaressos is an Australian contemporary figurative expressionist painter. Sometimes referred to as a “transitional artist”, her painting style and subject matter has evolved throughout her career. Many of her works are of women and their experiences in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portia Geach</span> Australian artist, feminist (1873–1959)

Portia Stranston Geach was an Australian artist and feminist. She was a founder and a president of the New South Wales Housewives' Association, as well as a president of the Federal Association of Australian Housewives. The Portia Geach Memorial Award, established by a legacy from Geach's sister, is Australia's most significant prize for Australian female portrait artists.

Agatha Gothe-Snape is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney, Australia. Her works range from digital slide presentations to performances to works on paper and, more recently, collaborative sound installations. A number of Gothe-Snape's works are held by a range of public galleries and collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Campbelltown Arts Centre, University of Western Australia, Griffith University Art Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Monash University Museum of Art and National Gallery of Victoria. Gothe-Snape's partner is Australian artist Mitch Cairns, who won the Art Gallery of New South Wales's Archibald Prize in 2017 with a portrait of her.

Joan Ross is an Australian artist based in Sydney who works across a range of mediums including drawing, painting, installations, sculpture and video. Her work investigates the legacy of colonialism in Australia, particularly the effects colonialism has had on Indigenous Australians.

Jacky Redgate is an Australian-based artist who works as a sculptor, an installation artist, and photographer. Her work has been recognised in major solo exhibitions surveying her work has been included in many group exhibitions in Australia, Japan and England. Her works are included in major Australian galleries including the National Gallery and key state galleries.

Cristina Asquith Baker (1868–1960) was an Australian artist known for her paintings and lithographs. She studied with Frederick McCubbin, one of the key artists of the Australian impressionist Heidelberg school, but she was independent and did not tie herself to a single school of thought. She twice studied abroad, in Paris and London, gaining expertise in various other forms of artistic expression such as lithography and carpet-making.

Rita Joan Brassil (1919–2005) was an Australian artist who worked with many elements – light, sound, stones and gravel, printed poems, and electronics – to create installation art works that relate to nature. She began exhibiting her work in 1976, after she retired from teaching art in high schools. She participated in many solo and group exhibitions across Australia as well as in Taiwan and Italy. Brassil was one of the first artists to receive the Australia Council for the Arts' Visual Arts/Craft Board Emeritus Award in 1988. On 26 January 2000 Joan was awarded an AM for service to the visual arts in Australia and overseas as a sculptor.

Mandy Martin was a well-known contemporary Australian painter, printmaker and teacher. She was involved in the development of feminist art in Australia from the mid-1970s and as exhibited widely in Australia and internationally. In later recent years she used the art she created as part of the ongoing debate on climate change, an area in which she was "prolifically active". Based in Canberra for many years, she was also a lecturer at the ANU School of Art from 1978 to 2003. As well as being a visual artist, Martin was an adjunct professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Ogilvie</span> Australian artist (1902–1993)

Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie was a twentieth-century Australian artist and gallery director, cartoonist, painter, printmaker and craftworker, best known for her early linocuts and woodcuts, and her later oil paintings of vernacular colonial buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Dredge</span> Australian artist (1928–2001)

Margaret Anne Dredge was an Australian painter and printmaker, active from the mid-1950s until 1997, and teacher of art.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Savanhdary Vongpoothorn". Artist Profile. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Sambrani, Chaitanya (2019). Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, All That Arises. Canberra, Australia: Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University. pp. 18–22. ISBN   978 0 6485534 0 3.
  3. 1 2 3 "Savanhdary Vongpoothorn CV". www.martinbrownecontemporary.com. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Niagara Galleries - Contemporary Art Gallery Melbourne, Australia - Savanhdary Vongpoothorn". niagaragalleries.com.au. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 "Collections Online | British Museum: Savanhdary Vongpoothorn". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 "Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: All That Arises". John McDonald. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "Savahdary Vongpoothorn". DAAO. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. 1 2 Sambrani, Chaitanya (2019). Svanhdary Vongpoothorn, All That Arises. Canberra, Australia: Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University. pp. 42–45. ISBN   978 0 6485534 0 3.
  9. ↑ "Savanhdary Vongpoothorn Exhibitions". MutualArt. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  10. ↑ Vongpoothorn, Savanhdary. "Moonlight 1". Item held by National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  11. ↑ "Savanhdary Vongpoothorn | Of water and of clouds I-VIII | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  12. ↑ "Lifting words, 2011 by Savanhdary Vongpoothorn". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  13. ↑ QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 / appendixes appendixes / (PDF). QAGOMA. 2006. p. 52.
  14. ↑ "DAAO: Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (collections)". DAAO. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  15. ↑ "Cruthers collection of women's art: List of works as of September 2018" (PDF). UWA Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.