Robyn Sweaney

Born 1957, Melbourne, Australia 

Lives & Works – Mullumbimby (Bundjalung)

The tightly-choreographed paintings of Robyn Sweaney respond to the philosophical and ontological currency of the built environment. The artist’s preoccupation with the Australian architectural vernacular – particularly from the post war period – is rooted in an enduring fascination with the physiognomy of cultural identity. Domestic dwellings divulge more than their mere exteriors, functioning as physical incarnations of the aesthetic, ideological and social structures influencing human behaviour. Informed by travel through familiar and unfamiliar rural and suburban places, Sweaney finds that, ‘certain elements of place resonate an unexplainable reaction within me – something ignites deep within memory. The landscape is somehow opened up by the search itself and my response can reach beyond its visual appearance.’

Robyn Sweaney has exhibited regularly since 1992 and been involved in over ninety group exhibitions. She was the winner of the Wynne Trustees’ Watercolour Prize, AGNSW (2019) and has been the finalist of many major awards including the Wynne Prize (2024, 2023, 2019, 2017, 2011), Salon Des Refusés (2022, 2021, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Prize (2018, 2014, 2010, 2008, 2004), Mosman Art Prize (2015, 2010, 2009), Paddington Art Prize (2023, 2015, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009), Moran Prize (2012, 2011), Portia Geach Memorial Award (2019, 2013), Fleurieu Art Prize (2013) and the Sulman Prize (2009). Her work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia including The State Library of New South Wales, Artbank, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, Grafton Regional Gallery and Lismore Regional Gallery.