Jody Graham
“My life is enriched by unexpected encounters with wild creatures that drop in randomly when they want. I draw with gloves I invented while listening to recorded bird noises. I do this, so my drawing movements respond to the calls I am hearing. My aim is to capture the energy I feel, see and hear connected to Australian birdlife.”
Jody Graham is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, mixed media, sculpture, installation and performance. Drawing lies at the heart of her practice, and she continuously reinvents it using unconventional tools such as rocks, bones, wire bound to her hand, bent umbrellas and kangaroo bones, to create new symbolic marks and challenge traditional techniques. Drawing inspiration from her early experiences working in her father's scrap-metal factory in western Sydney, she developed a fascination with visual chaos, machinery, and found materials. Themes of impermanence, loss, displacement and restoration recur throughout her work, reflecting her commitment to rescuing discarded materials and repurposing them into expressive forms.
Graham has presented over sixteen solo exhibitions and regularly exhibits in group shows across Australia. She has won major awards, including the Greenway Art Prize in 2017 and 2020 and the prestigious Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2022. She has also been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Dobell Drawing Prize, and numerous regional art contests. Her work is held in significant public and private collections, including the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings and the Adelaide Perry Drawing Collection. It is also held in council collections in Waverley, Blacktown and Western Sydney, as well as in private collections in Australia, the UK, the USA, Dubai and New Zealand.
