Deidre But-Husaim

Deidre But-Husaim (b. 1959), based in Adelaide, South Australia, undertook her formative art study at the Adelaide Central School of Art, where she has since taught painting. After some years’ travel, exhibiting and working independently, she completed her degree through Adelaide Centre for the Arts in 2006. Since then, in a number of portraits of both notable Australian public figures and ‘unknown’ subjects, she has sought to explore the dichotomy of the public and private self. Her work has featured in solo and group exhibitions in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney, and has been selected for exhibition in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award, the Sulman Prize, the Waterhouse National Science Art Prize, the Archibald Prize, the Sunshine Coast Art Prize, the Albany Art Prize, the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize and the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize. In 2014 she became the first artist chosen to undertake a Guildhouse Collections Project at the Art Gallery of South Australia, producing a quiet series of paintings of people engaging with artworks in the Gallery. She won the Kennedy Arts Foundation Award for her work The Ineffable in 2016. But-Husaim’s work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia.