Del Kathryn Barton

In 2015 her animated film Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film.

Del Kathryn Barton studied at UNSW Art & Design. Kiki Smith is recorded as an influence. Work by Del Kathryn Barton is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia. Distinctions recorded are Archibald Prize.

• Born — 11 December 1972 • Birthplace — Sydney, Australia

Barton grew up in the bush-land of the lower Blue Mountains west of Sydney Australia, often living in sheds or tents with her hippie-like parents. Barton suffered depression as a child, and art became her therapy. She drew obsessively from an early age and lived in her imagination. Her early subjects included fairies, animals, nature, and maps. She also drew the female form, occasionally using her mother to pose for her nude works, other times copying work from published magazines. In 1990, she entered into the College of Fine Arts of the University of New South Wales, as an already accomplished artist with a wide repertoire of subjects. Her tutor during this time, whom she recalled as a “fantastic teacher”, was Michael Esson. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1993 the artist was employed as a lecturer at CoFA from 1994-96.

She held her first exhibition in 1995, and has gone on to hold numerous solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne. Her solo exhibitions include: The Nightingale and the Rose, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne, Australia (2016); the highway is a disco, ARNDT, Singapore (2015); Electro Orchid, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2014); The Nightingale and the Rose, Heide Museum of Modern Art (2012); the stars eat your body, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney (2009); the whole of everything, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne (2008) and thank you for loving me, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne (2005). On 7 March 2008, it was announced that Barton had won the 2008 Archibald Prize for portraiture, for You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella, a self-portrait with her two children. Barton said of the portrait: "This painting celebrates the love I have for my two children and how my relationship with them has radically informed and indeed transformed my understanding of who I am". A key inspiration for Barton is her experience of motherhood. In 2013, she won the Archibald Prize for her portrait of actor Hugo Weaving. Of portraiture generally, she says: "I really value the discipline" that it brings. She was also an Archibald Prize finalist in 2008, 2013 and 2018. She is represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney. Barton participated in group exhibitions that include: Like-ness, Albertz Benda, New York, USA (2016); Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014); Dark Heart, Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide (2014); Theatre of the World, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania (2012); Lightness and Gravity, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland (2012); Freehand: Recent Australia Drawing, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2010/11); 2009 Wynne Prize for Landscape, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2009); Half a World Away: Drawings from Glasgow, Sao Paulo and Sydney, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, New York (2002). Barton produced the animated film Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose, which celebrated its world premiere at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 and was shown at the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival. The movie won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film. As a result of the film, in 2015 she was also she was awarded an Australian Film, Television and Radio School Creative Fellowship. In 2020 her sculptural work, the infinite adjustment of the throat...and then, a smile, was shown in Part One of the exhibition, "Know my name: Australian women artists 1900 to now" at the National Gallery of Australia.

In 2022 her debut movie Blaze was released. It tells a story about traumatized young girl with a vivid imagination. She was a director and a co-writer of the script. Barton and Huna Amweero won Best Feature Film - Original for their feature film script Blaze at the 2022 AWGIE Awards. The script won the 2023 Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

• 1=Del Kathryn Barton 2008 exhibition Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne • 1=Del Kathryn Barton 2005 exhibition Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne

• Del Kathryn Barton, Wilderness exhibition • Behind the scenes of ARTIST PROFILE Issue 15's cover shoot, inside Barton's studio