Jo Darvall

Originally from Melbourne, Jo Darvall has been exhibiting for over three decades, her works of art have featured in twenty solo exhibitions and forty-eight group exhibitions in Australia, China, London, Fiji and Singapore. A recent award winner of the richest regional art prize, the Collie Award in WA. Jo’s work articulates her sensate encounters with bushland and the ocean arising from her frequent walks in nearby forests and coastal areas during which she draws, paints and listens. Her work enlivens connections of being enmeshed in place, in combining these elements, she expresses the free interplay between abstraction and figuration.

Jo Darvall studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, receiving a BA in Fine Art in 1990. She established the Artists for Kids Culture Trust with fellow Roar Artists in the 1990s, and has raised over A$1M for charitable projects. Over the past Jo has taught at the Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC), UWA, is currently a sessional accademic at Curtin University, and co-founded the Swan River Print Studio at the Goolagatup Heathcote Gallery.

For Jo, art and storytelling are intrinsically linked. A love of story inspires her work and invests it with tension and texture.

Whether she’s exploring a true historical narrative or a timeless fable, it’s the modern vibrations that interest her. The links between people and the ways in which we connect are key themes in her visual arts practice.