The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.
Concept and setting a collaboration between sitter and photographer.
Fiona Foley (b. 1964), Badtjala artist, activist, curator and writer, grew up on Fraser Island and in nearby Hervey Bay before moving south to study at East Sydney Technical College. Since the mid-1980s, she has produced a body of pastels, photographs, prints and installations that explore Badtjala culture and history. Her work is held in major collections across Australia and has been exhibited in more than fifty group shows; she has created public artworks on commission for the Museum of Sydney, the Brisbane City Mall, the Australian National University, Redfern Park and many other venues. A founding member of Sydney’s Boomalli Aboriginal Artists’ Cooperative in 1987, she has served on boards of the Australia Council and on the board of directors of Bangarra Dance Theatre. In the early 1990s she co-curated two major Indigenous art exhibitions, Tyerabarrbowaryaou and Tyerabarrbowaryaou II at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and the Havana Biennial. In 1997, with members of her family, she led a native title claim for land on Fraser Island. Foley is now an Adjunct Professor at the Queensland College of Art at Griffith University.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2008
© Juno Gemes/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
This exhibition celebrates Australians whose unique life experiences symbolise social and cultural forces. Uncompromising individuality defines them. The portraits are drawn from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of contemporary photography and drawing.
Open Air is an exhibition of portraits of Australians in environments of particular significance to them.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.
This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.
The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency