Thea Anamara Perkins

Thea Anamara Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon artist who was raised and lives in Sydney on Gadigal Country. Working with paint and archival photographs, Perkins explores portraiture – its history and its hierarchies.

Perkins paints onto Claybord, a kaolin-covered surface, which creates a flat finish and intensifies the blocks of colour she uses in her compositions. Her portraits Grace, Nyinta, Doris, Sally and Betty, Tangentyere artists painted in their art centre in 2019, are examples of Perkins’s signature style. At a quick glance they might appear as though they are digital images.

Throughout her practice, Perkins explores her own questions around portraiture broadly: who gets painted and how are they portrayed? By working alongside the artists in their art centres or studios, as they create paintings themselves, Perkins not only amplifies the importance of First Nations artists, but also takes charge of the representation of First Nations people, challenging the misinformation and misrepresentation that can occur in the media and other forums.

Delving into her family archives, Perkins found an impulse to paint the people in the images she found. She says:

There is something that draws us to images of ourselves. They are a portal to a moment, and the greater history that shaped us – whilst reflecting on the inherent fallibility of memory. [1]

Thea Anamara Perkins-Zabidin, Arrernte people, Northern Territory, Kalkadoon people, Queensland, born Sydney 1992, *Betty*, 2019, Sydney, synthetic polymer paint on clay board, 30.5 x 40.5 x 2.5 cm; Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art supported by BHP 2020, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © the artist, photo: Saul Steed.

Perkins uses these photographs as a departure point for her paintings. The images to which she is drawn touch on broad themes – from the radical spirit and civil rights movements that emerged from the 1960s, to the difficulties of accessing tertiary education and establishing grassroots movements in Sydney. Sometimes it is simply the mood and atmosphere of an image that arouses her interest.

Perkins seeks to re-create ‘glimmers’ experienced in her own family life, and which speak to the wider First Nations experience – of loving, strong families and communities. Used in psychology, the term ‘glimmer’ refers to small moments that spark joy or peace – cues for our nervous system to feel calm or safe. In essence, ‘glimmer’ is the opposite of a ‘trigger’ – commonly known as something that can affect one’s emotional state and cause distress.

Thea’s Arrernte name ‘Anamara’ describes a river and a creation story that runs north of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) – the place that keeps calling her back – a place to which her family is connected. Perkins’s 2020 portrait of her grandfather Charlie and aunt Rachel is self-described as ‘a love note to Alice’. Titled Tent Embassy, the painting began with a treasured family photograph depicting father and daughter sharing a moment, focused and tender, in the midst of the public and political space of a land rights protest in Canberra. [2]

In recent times, Perkins has also been painting landscapes, often sites with complex or loaded histories, as well as places on Country to which she has a personal and spiritual connection. Her 2022 series Home began during bushfires and continued through floods. She has said of it: ‘I think [painting this series] was a way of processing my fears and grief. Country is our home – we must protect it’. [3]

[1] Thea Perkins, email correspondence with Kylie Neagle, December 2022.

[2] Lisa Slade, ‘Thea Anamara Perkins’, Art Collector magazine, Issue 95, January–March 2021, p. 123.

[3] Thea Anamara Perkins, artist statement, Wynne Prize 2022, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ prizes/wynne/2022/30394/

Look online at a range of portraits painted by Perkins and select your favourite one. What is your first impression of the painting and what is your first impression of the sitter?
How might you describe this portrait to someone who hasn’t seen it? Is it realistic or has it changed in some way? What materials and techniques has Perkins used?
Are there any clues in the work that might tell you more about who this person is, where they live or what they do?

Perkins is part of an extraordinary dynasty of First Nations activists and creatives, who include activist Charles Perkins (her grandfather), Arrernte elder Hetti Perkins (her grandmother), art curator Hetti Perkins (her mother) and acclaimed film director Rachel Perkins (her aunt). Investigate the work of Perkins’s relatives to learn more about the history of First Nations people.
Using works of art in the AGSA collection, discuss how artists have responded to the history of Aboriginal peoples’ rights and freedoms since 1950.
Compare The Sign Says It by Richard Bell and Untitled by Daniel Boyd with A rich life by Perkins. Unpack the story in each image: what is happening in the works and what events are being referenced? What is similar and different about these works? Consider who is depicted in the portraits, as well as the medium.

What is the purpose of a portrait? Look at different examples of portraits throughout history. How has portraiture changed? How has Perkins changed portraiture?
In 1839 the first photograph of a person was taken. Despite the invention of photography, artists continue to paint portraits. Why do you think Perkins has painted her sitters rather than take photographs of them?

Using coloured paper, create a collage portrait of a person, a pet or a place you have a connection with.