Rebecca Lavery is an emerging artist based in the Northern Rivers whose practice centres on narrative painting as a means of emotional inquiry and cultural reflection. Raised in Meanjin in a home rich with craft and creativity, Lavery’s early experiences fostered a lifelong commitment to making. The creative arts have remained a source of solace and self-understanding, fuelling her advocacy for arts education as essential to personal and community wellbeing.
Working primarily in oils and encaustic wax, Lavery explores painting’s capacity to hold attention and evoke critical thought in a culture saturated with digital imagery. Her process often begins with found digital fragments, which she reimagines through expressive mark-making and layered surfaces. Increasingly, her work engages speculative narratives and constructed figures to explore themes of identity, disconnection, and emotional depth.
Lavery holds a Bachelor of Art and Design from Southern Cross University, where she received multiple academic excellence awards, including the 2024 Kaske Award for outstanding studio work. Her paintings have been exhibited across regional New South Wales, including as a finalist in the Wollumbin Art Award (2022) and the Husk Distillery Ink Art Competition (2021).
Byron Shire
