Theresa Byrnes (b. 1968) is a painter, writer and performance artist who first exhibited her paintings in 1986 at the age of sixteen. The following year she was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia, a rare and terminal degenerative disease of the nervous system for which there is no cure. She began using a wheelchair in 1996 when she was twenty-six. In 1997 she was nominated as NSW Young Australian of the Year for her work in establishing the Theresa Byrnes Foundation to raise money for research into the disease. After publishing her autobiography The Divine Mistake in 1999, she moved to New York the following year, where she has lived ever since. Byrnes regularly exhibits her paintings in New York, Washington, London and Sydney, and received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant for her painting in 2003 and 2006. Best known for her provocative performance works, she uses her whole body to create edgy artworks using materials such as diesel, ink and mud.
Photographer Greg Weight took this image for the cover of Byrnes' autobiography. In his book Australian Artists, Weight described Byrnes as 'a woman with a mission … determined to fulfil her life's purpose and her ambition as an artist while she is still able'.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2024
Patrick Corrigan AM (130 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Greg Weight on working with Jiawei Shen, and starting out as a photographer.
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
