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Hannah Brown
- Sitter: Self-portrait
- Medium: Acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions: 100 x 119 cm
- Representation: The artist represents themselves
- Category: Sylvia Jones Prize for Women Artists
2021 Emerging Artists Award
Proudly supported by
Oxlades
About the artwork and sitter
‘Home’ is a self-portrait in the artists bedroom in her Brisbane apartment. The portrait embraces her home and her connection to Brisbane and features some of the sentimental objects that she has collected.
“Since moving to Brisbane in early 2019, I have experienced immense creative and personal growth.”
The items Brown has painted have personal symbolic significance; “.. the first plant cutting my mother gave me when I moved out, the red pillow cases that I took from my family home, my basket of stuffed animals that I’ve collected over the years, and the strange and creepy closet that came with my unit when I moved in. “
She says she considers the painting “a love letter to my favourite city.”
About the artist
Hannah Brown is a Brisbane/Meanjin Based Visual Artist. She works predominantly as a painter, exploring themes of identity and self-reflection. Hannah also works as a freelance visual artist and illustrator, creating artwork for musicians and authors. She is currently studying her third year of a BFA in Visual Arts at Queensland University of Technology and working on a large-scale body of work exploring identity and acceptance.
Judge's Notes
In this self portrait, Hannah Brown has taken symbols of the easy domesticity of her home and composed them in a way that presents a painting for our times.
Focusing on the objects close by in her bedroom, the humble houseplant and the dresser counterbalance the uneasy confidence of the gaze. The treatment of the figure and use of text invite interpretation around relationships, superficiality and authenticity.
The figure is partially painted, but dissolves into a line outline, leaving the background of the space to fill in the gaps.
Anna Reynolds
Board Chair, Brisbane Portrait Prize
2021 Judge
