Interview with Jo Darbyshire - Artist - Fremantle Shipping News

Jo Darbyshire was born in 1961 in Perth, Western Australia. She studied Fine Arts at WAIT/Curtin University in 1981, a Post-Graduate Diploma at Canberra School of Art in 1991 and a Master of Creative Arts in Cultural Heritage at Curtin in 2004.

Jo’s abstract paintings reference the social and environmental history of place. She aligns her work to that of the Surrealists and their aim, through manipulation of the material texture and colour of oil paint, to suggest a poetic, sensory connection.

Bluetongue, fennel and Crow, Jo Darbyshire 2021 Photo Suzi Wild

Her current work explores her strong relationship with the Western Australian coast and her interest in its underwater landscapes, islands, Fremantle Port and traces of colonial life.

Gay Museum, WA Museum 2003

She often incorporates contemporary social history into projects. In 2003 she won a museum award for her exhibition, The Gay Museum, for the Perth Festival at the WA Museum and in 2018 she created the installation, ‘Warship – The Glorious Decline of the Officer’s Library’ at John Curtin Gallery.

WARSHIP, the glorious decline of the officers library 2018, John Curtin Gallery, 14 metres x 3 metres

Jo has received State Government and Australia Council funding to attend international residency programs such as Cite Internationale des Artes, Paris; Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada and Cill Rialaig studios, Ballin Skelligs, Ireland. In 2005, Jo won the Bankwest Contemporary Art Award. She exhibits regularly and her artwork is held in all major public institutions in WA, private collections, nationally and internationally.

Mirage no 1, 150 x 150 cm, 2023, oil on canvas

Her public art commissions include the Supreme Court Civil, Perth (an 18 metre long painting and glass wall artworks) and Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Detail of River Journey, 18 metre painting, Supreme Court, Perth 2014

Jo is currently curating a not-to-be-missed exhibition titled Desperate Measures: Art, Politics and Performance in Freo 1977-1985, which will run at the Fremantle Arts Centre, 9 November 2024 – 19 January 2025.

Poster All Smart Girls Say NO! NO! NO! No Sailors, No Ships, No Bases, c. 1984, by Beth Hewton (1955-2002), City of Fremantle Art Collection, for Desperate Measures exhibition Nov 2024 at FAC

Jo Darbyshire kindly agreed to meet our Editor, Michael Barker, to make this podcast about her career and her art, and about Fremantle, a place with which she and her family have been long associated.

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