Anthea Kemp would like to acknowledge the un-ceded land of the Yorta Yorta and Waveroo she has lived on, continues to return to and source inspiration from in her art making, as well as the elders past, present and future. Anthea would like to acknowledge that people have been making, creating and living here for thousands and thousands of years before colonisation. Always was always will be.

Anthea Kemp questions the relationship between herself and place. Through painting she explores a place she grew up on northeast Victoria. Whilst her work gestures towards the personal, Anthea’s awareness of the land and histories confront her and instil a responsibility to research the layered history. She continues researching the history and heritage of this place that coincides with her painting practice. Her paintings fall in between representation and abstraction. Gestures of land formations, human made introductions and animal and plant figuration in the land are presented through an investigation of colour and composition. As Anthea further investigates this place in her practice and she continues to return to it, new notions of nostalgia arise, complexed with confrontation.

Anthea has a BFA (Painting) from RMIT, 2013 and a Masters of Contemporary Art, VCA, University of Melbourne, 2019. She has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Regional Victoria and Sydney. Anthea has been included in group exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and regional Victoria including Blindside ARI, Town Hall Gallery and Benalla Art Gallery. She was a finalist in the Macquarie Group Emerging artist prize, 2016 and the Atheneum Club Visual Research award, 2019. Anthea’s work is held in the Wangaratta Art gallery’s Collection as well as private collections.