Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 40 Amber Wallis

Amber Wallis has carved out a distinctive space in contemporary painting with canvases that blend abstraction and figuration, intimacy and intensity. Her art often emerges from deeply personal narratives.

Amber holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Canberra School of Art and a Master of Visual Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts. The VCA years were formative: she pushed an already fluid practice toward a deliberately unstable seam between figuration and abstraction, learning to let images “stain” their way into being on raw or lightly primed linen.

In 2008 Amber won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, one of Australia’s most significant awards for an emerging painter. The prize took her to Paris for a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, and we had an interesting discussion on the affect that had not just on her, but on her art.

By 2009, Amber's raw, expressive works were exhibiting regularly along Australia’s East Coast.

By the mid-2010s, Wallis had consolidated a national profile.

Amber's work entered more collections and she was shortlisted for major prizes: Sunshine Coast Art Prize, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize and the Evelyn Chapman Art Award. In 2022, she won the inaugural Wollumbin Art Award and has been a finalist in numerous other awards including the Sir John Sulman Prize (twice), Bayside Painting Prize, Geelong Contemporary Art Award.

It was a really interesting conversation as we covered a lot of her life and art.

Head to the link in my bio to hear this episode.

Amber is represented in Brisbane by Jan Murphy Gallery

Images

1. AW by Kate Holmes

2. Women 2020 oil on linen 120x150

3. Soft figure 2025 oil on linen 135x120

4. Glowing house structure 2025 oil on linen 135x120

5. Orange warm protective watchers 2024 oil on linen 150x120