Del’s work has a strong foundation of drawing, although she has recently begun to work with painting. She cites artists Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, John Currin and Shirin Neshat as influences, as well as the drawings of Henry Darger, botanical art and fabric design. Her early works featured Egon Schiele-like drawings of naked female bodies entwined with rabbits (which appear repeatedly in her work) but also birds and native animals. The explicit nature of the drawings – with the female genitals depicted in detail and the animals often emerging from the figure’s body – have frequently been read as pornographic. However, rather than intentionally explicit or titillating, the drawings are the product of Del’s interest in the relationship between humankind and nature. She sees a spiritual presence residing in the natural world and is concerned with the effect of this on humankind’s physiological and metaphysical existence.
Source: Art & Australia Magazine
Known for its vibrant, figurative imagery, Barton’s work combines traditional painting techniques with contemporary design and illustrative styles. Although she does a lot of figurative work, much of it self-referential, she doesn’t do a great deal of portraiture though she was represented in last year’s Archibald Prize with a painting of art dealer Vasili Kaliman.
Born in Sydney in 1972, Barton has a Bachelor of Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, where she taught for three years until 2003. She has had regular solo exhibitions since 2000 and has participated in national and international group shows including the Helen Lempiere Travelling Art Scholarship, the Blake Prize for Religious Art and the Sulman Prize. She was a finalist in the 2007 Dobell Prize for Drawing. (source: http://www.thearchibaldprize.com.au/winners/archibald)
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