Debra Dawes

Debra Dawes (born 1955) is an Australian contemporary painter best known for her abstract paintings of gridlike structures and geometric patterns, as documented on Wikipedia.

Practising since the early 1980s, she is regarded as one of the leading figures in Australian abstract art - her work builds a grid, then deliberately disrupts it, producing optical effects she has described as "both mesmerising and unsettling."

She holds a Doctor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong, a Postgraduate Diploma in Painting from the Sydney College of the Arts, and a Diploma in Art from the Newcastle College of Advanced Education.

She went on to lecture at the Sydney College of the Arts and direct its Graduate Program, shaping a generation of Australian art students before moving to the Upper Hunter.

Alongside her partner, fellow artist Jelle van den Berg, she built a dedicated studio in Murrurundi, where she frequently lives and draws inspiration for her sensory and geometric abstract practice.

She has held over 25 solo exhibitions since 1983 - including Skin Deep at Ames Yavuz Gallery, Sydney - and more than 60 group exhibitions since 1984, in cities including Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth, and internationally in the Netherlands, Italy and Hong Kong.

Notable works include Starlite (1993) and Unfinished Business (1998), both held in major public collections.

Her work is held in national, state and private collections around Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the National Gallery of Victoria.

See more of her practice on her website, or read her full profile via Ocula.