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Wendy Sharpe (born 24 February 1960) is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has had many solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, been awarded many national awards and artist residencies for her work, and was an official Australian war artist to East Timor in 1999–2000.
She spent her early years in the Northern Beaches in Sydney, and from 1978 and 1979 she studied at Seaforth Technical College. She received a Graduate Diploma of Professional Art from the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1984, and a master's degree from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales in 1995.
She works in Oil painting creating large scale portrait and figurative works that depict real people as well as imagined elements. She also creates commissioned murals.
Chris Saines, director of Queensland Gallery of Modern Art said Sharpe's work explores a "...constant curiosity about the world, the outer limits of the human imagination, and the part played by art history in nourishing them both. She is, first and foremost, an extraordinarily accomplished painter who makes it all look so easy, when it never is".
Saines awarded her the prestigious Gold Award in 2022.
The City of Sydney council commissioned Sharpe in 1998 to paint an Olympic pool-sized mural on the life of Australian swimmer, actress and vaudeville performer, Annette Kellerman. It is a series of eight paintings hung suspended along one side of the pool, permanently displayed in the Cook + Phillip Aquatic Centre, Sydney.
In 2020, Sharpe was commissioned by the Inner West Council’s Perfect Match program, for their 100th mural. Titled ‘ Women’s Empowerment Mural’, it is on the corner of Church and Federation Street, Newtown, painted on the wall surrounding the home of Ewan Samway and his partner Matt Vagulans.
In 2021, she painted a forty-metre ephemeral mural, ‘Vu iz dos gesele?/Where is the little street?’, at Sydney Jewish Museum. The mural depicted her recent family research trip to Ukraine. It included a portrait of her grandmother and poetic imagery about time passing. Government imposed COVID-19 restrictions at the time meant that the mural was never to open to the public. A documentary on the mural ‘ Site Unseen’ was later shown on ABC TV’s Compass program.
Sharpe has created works through residencies with Circus Oz , Sydney Dance Company and Opera Australia and drawn burlesque performers and drag queens from the audience view and backstage. She has also drawn live on stage at various art spaces.
Sharpe was commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne in 2008–2009 to make a series of drawings to commemorate Igor Stravinsky’s ‘ Firebird and Petruska’, with choreographer Graeme Murphy.
Per the Australian War Memorial (AWM) website:
After returning from East Timor, Sharpe's paintings and drawings made on duty were added to the AWM's collection.
A major retrospective of her work, ’The Imagined Life’ was held at S. H. Ervin Gallery, The National Trust, Sydney, in 2011.
In 2024, she held a major exhibition titled Spellbound at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
She was awarded the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship in 1986, and a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 1987 (and again in 2007). These residencies were awarded through the Art Gallery of NSW.
In 2008, Sharpe was artist in residence at the Australian Embassy residence in Cairo, Egypt. She was an official guest of the Australian Ambassador, Robert Bowker. Wendy Sharpe has made two trips to Antarctica as an artist in residence. First in 2012, aboard the scientific vessel, the Aurora Australis, for six weeks. The ship travelled from Hobart to Cape Denison, Antarctica. She produced work to commemorate the centenary voyage of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson, in association with the Australian Antarctic Division. The work produced on board the ship was later shown in a major exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney; all money raised was donated to Mawson's Hut Foundation.
Her second residency to Antarctica travelled from Argentina in 2014, with Chimu Adventures. The work produced was shown in ‘ Paintings for Antarctica’, an exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum. In 2019, Sharpe and Ollis joined Chimu Adventures together aboard the Ocean Atlantic, on a trip to Svalbard in the arctic.
In 2014, Sharpe had a residency at Obracadobra, in Oaxaca City, Mexico.
Sharpe has made several professional trips to China. In 2015, she was artist in residence at Funxing-Ginger Art Space, Zhouzhuang, Jiangsu. The work she made included a series about the Kunqu.
Returning to China in 2016, she had exhibitions at: Linyi Contemporary Art Centre China, Qinghua Centre, 6th Shandong Cultural Industries Fair Jinan, ‘ China Stories’ Shanghai Cultural Centre and Art Gallery Shanghai China.
Her residencies in Sydney include Taronga Zoo (2011), and at State Library of NSW (2017-2018), during renovations and major building work. The library acquired a collection of Sharpe's folding book works.
Through the Asylum Seeker Centre, Sydney, Sharpe drew 39 portraits of refugees and asylum seekers for her exhibition Seeking Humanity – Portraits of Asylum Seekers. These portraits were all drawn from life in pastel, and 100% of sales were donated to the centre. The exhibition toured from 2014 - 2015 from The Muse Gallery - Ultimo TAFE NSW (Sydney), Belconnen Arts Centre (Canberra), Penrith Regional Gallery (Sydney) and Mary McKillop Place Museum (North Sydney). An ABC TV documentary was made about the exhibition (see Television). In 2015 she became patron of the Asylum Seeker Centre, Sydney.
In 2019, she travelled to Ethiopia with Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation. She drew patients, students and staff of the Addis Adaba Fistula Hospital, Desta Mender Rehabilitation and Reintegration Centre, and regional clinics. The completed drawings were exhibited at Macquarie Space Gallery in Sydney, March 2020, with all proceeds going to the foundation.
To assist Lou's Place Daytime Women's Refuge, Sydney; Sharpe created a fundraising exhibition titled Her Shoes. This was shown at Juniper Hall in Paddington, with assistance from Kim Chandler-MacDonald. There were 52 pastel drawings of shoes to represent how domestic violence can affect women of all ages and backgrounds.
Sharpe's subjects talked to her about themselves, their homes, careers, where they came from and the families they've left behind.
Sharpe has also appeared in a number of documentaries, including:
Sharpe has been a guest on many radio interviews and podcasts about her work, including Talking with Painters with Maria Stoljar (podcast) in 2020; Conversations with Sarah Kanowski in 2022; and TEDTalk: Asylum Seeker Portrait Project, at the University of NSW, on 22 September 2018.
Between 2012 and 2013, Sharpe was on the ANZAC Centenary Advisory Arts Committee with the Australian Government.
In 2018, Sharpe was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. She was also awarded Fellowship of the National Art School, Sydney. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Art School, appointed in 2022.
Sharpe was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to the visual arts, and to the community".
Sharpe has won many awards, including:
She has also been a finalist eight times in the Archibald Prize, and 12 times for the Sulman Prize (more than any other artist).
In 2022, she won the Gold Award at Rockhampton Museum of Art, judged by Chris Saines.
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