Multidisciplinary Creative Researcher, Brenda L. Croft (born 1964, Boorloo/Perth, WA) is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra Peoples from the Victoria River region in the Northern Territory, and Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese/Scottish heritage. One of Australia’s most important contemporary artists, Croft studied at the Canberra School of Art (1982), Sydney College of the Arts (1985), College of Fine Arts (1990–1994) and UNSW Art + Design (2012–2021). A practising artist since 1985, in 1987 she was a founding member with nine other First Nations artists (Bronwyn Bancroft, Euphemia Bostock, Fiona Foley, Fernanda Martins, Arone Raymond Meeks, Tracey Moffatt, Avril Quaill, Michael Riley and Jeffrey Samuels), and later general manager (1990–1996) of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative in Sydney. She gained a Master’s in art administration in 1995, was awarded a UNSW Alumni Award in 2001, an honorary PhD from the University of Sydney in 2009 and completed her creative-led PhD at the University of New South Wales in 2021, with her thesis receiving a UNSW Dean's Award for Outstanding PhD thesis. For over three decades Croft has exhibited in major exhibitions nationally and internationally including The National 4 (2023), for which 48 large-scale portraits were installed in the entrance hall of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Among numerous awards, grants and commissions Croft won the 2013 Deadlys Award for Visual Artist of the Year and received the 2015 Australia Council's National Indigenous Arts Awards Fellowship. She has worked as a curator of Australian First Nations Art at state, federal and international levels, and as a senior academic at national and international levels. Currently Professor of Indigenous Art History & Curatorship at the ANU, in 2024, Croft will travel to Harvard University to be the 2024 Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair of Australian Studies.
This work is both a self-portrait, and a portrait of kinship and family traced through Croft's relationship with her son/great-nephew/grandson Christopher. A finalist in the 2023 National Photographic Portrait Prize Croft explained in her artist statement:
'blood/memory: Christopher is my son/great-nephew/grandson, I am Christopher's mother/great-aunt/grandmother. His great-grandmother is my father's older sister. They shared the same non-Indigenous father, different First Nations mothers, but still looked like peas in a pod. Our combined bloodlines include Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples and Anglo-Australian/Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish for me, Mara/Ngarrindjeri/Ritharrngu and Anglo-Australian/Irish/Scottish for Christopher. My grandfather/Christopher's great-great-grandfather's journey into the Northern Territory over a century ago is reflected in this portrait. It is a gift to share Christopher's life and I learn from him every day – blood/memory. Marntaj.'
A version of the portrait, blood/memory: Brenda & Christopher II, was the Winner of the 2023 Work on Paper award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 Finalist
Purchased 2023
© Brenda L Croft/Copyright Agency, 2024
Brenda L Croft (age 58 in 2022)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Linda Burney, Brenda Croft and Darrell Sibosado share memories of Michael Riley and his photographic practice.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
