Judy Oakenfull has been painting and making art for over 30 years. She initially studied philosophy, politics and media arts, for an education degree, but later switched to Fine Art at Boxhill Tafe, and went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001. Since then she has been in many solo and group exhibitions in Melbourne, the Northern Rivers and Queensland. In 2020 she had a successful solo exhibition at the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley centre and had a solo exhibition, ‘Wild Coast’ at Anthea Polson Art in 2022. Her work is in collections in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and overseas. She is currently represented by Anthea Polson Art on the Gold Coast, and also has work at Pack Gallery Studios in Bangalow.
Her work mainly takes the form of painting, however it has included installation, film, printmaking, and relational art in the past. She paints in a contemporary style that emphasises geometric shapes, textures and evocative colours over realistic depiction. She is interested in our personal and systematic relationships with the natural world and this tends to be the main theme of her artwork and research. Recently our changing coastline has become a potent site for exploration. The rich and life filled dune areas and their flora are of particular interest. These places contain complex human histories of both care and exploitation. They face a myriad of contemporary challenges while also featuring heavily in our utopian yearnings.
Ballina Shire
