PROFILE
Elizabeth Barden has lived in Cairns, North Queensland, since 1990. Elizabeth says that she “aspires to a realness, something strong, something that goes beyond technical considerations, to preserve a palpable presence of the subject.”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999 – ‘A Shore Thing’, the Cairns Regional Art Gallery
2003 – ‘Seeing Secrets’ – the Cairns Regional Gallery.
(Review by Karen van Harskamp, the Cairns Post, May 29 2000: “A true aficionado of the human figure, Barden’s works are compelling, classically formed studies of the person as portrait complemented by a wide range of treatments beyond the usual staged affair….Barden has a talent for allowing her subject to find their own comfort zone, so the plastic grin is pleasantly absent”.)
COMMISSIONS
Jeff McMullen,
Lisa Curry-Kenny- Olympic Swimmer and business woman,
the late Sir Sydney Williams, Dawn Casey – Director of the National Museum of Australia,
comedian Elliot Goblet,
dancer/choreographer Drew Anthony,
performer/songwriter Christine Anu,
performer Jay Laga’aia.
Many private commissions.
Elizabeth’s work is held in private and public collections locally, nationally and internationally.
2004 – Public Collection – the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra (‘Christine Anu’)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2001, 2002 , 2003 and 2004 – finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award
2004, 2005 – finalist Shirley Hannan National Portrait Awards
Artists Elizabeth Barden and Evert Ploeg at the PAA Book Launch of “The Artists’ Book – Ten Years”, Arthouse Hotel, Pitt St Sydney, 2012 – photo by Craig Peihopa