Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 68 Suzanne Archer

Across six decades, Suzanne Archer has forged a singular career in Australian art, marked by independence from curatorial trends and sustained commitment to difficult subjects.

From youthful abstraction through immersion in the Australian bush to a fearless confrontation with death and time.

Suzanne has won major prizes including the Wynne Prize for landscape and the Dobell Prize for Drawing, and her work is held in significant public collections nationwide.

Her constant evolution is fascinating.

We discussed many aspects of her career. The origins of her artistic journey, her immigration to Australia in the 1960s and the incredible effect living on the NSW South Coast had on her, how she made a living in those early days from art, residencies in New York and Paris and Zimbabwe and how those experiences taught her to never shut down what is possible, how moving to the country and that sense of space had a profound effect on her and her art.

We had this conversation at Nanda Hobbs Gallery in Sydney when her recent exhibition, Manifestation, was showing.

Suzanne is represented by Nanda Hobbs, Sydney

Images

1. SA in front of a detail of Gorge Country – Wedderburn, 2024 oil on canvas 198 x 408

2. Brown velvet, 2025 oil on canvas, 153 x 153

3. Arty-Fact 2013, cloth bag, collaged embroidery, cardboard, acrylic paint, canvas mat

4. Derangement, 2010, ink, charcoal, pastel on 2 sheets of white paper (winner Dobel Prize)

5. Waratahs Wedderburn, 1994, oil on canvas, 240 x 242