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Artist reconciles war with scholarship
Auburn based visual artist, Carla Wherby is the first recipient of an innovative new scholarship designed to improve access to arts and cultural funding for artists with disability. Wherby’s uses extraordinary graphic and representational skills in drawing to depict the complexity of war in political and social history alongside the resilience of the human spirit.
With personal experience of mental health issues, Wherby’s own resilience is evident in the vibrancy she creates in her work. Since recommencing her practice in 2007, after a 20 year break, she has been awarded the Auburn Mayoral Art Prize 2009 and her works have featured in street press magazine The Brag and at Penrith Regional Gallery. She will use the $4,000 scholarship funded by Arts NSW for 2011, to attend the National Art School and to visit the War Memorial in Canberra to study war objects, memorabilia and ephemera.
“I would like to make a valuable contribution to the fantastic legacy of social and political art created by a long list of Australian artists. I am also interested in the psychological effects of war on those who served their country,” Wherby states.
Wherby’s latest works are being exhibited at SCA Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts until 5 November 2011 as part of Framing Gravity. This national exhibition of excellence by artists who experience disability is presented biannually by Accessible Arts to create opportunities for increased participation in the arts for people with disability. Find out more about Accessible Arts at the website aarts.net.au.
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For further information about this release contact:
Jacqui O’Reilly, Communications Coordinator, P: 02 9251 6499 ext 101 M: 0414 828 544 E: info@aarts.net.au