Harry J. Wedge

b. 1956, Cowra , New South Wales

Harry J. Wedge was born on Erambie Mission, Cowra and is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people. He has been a practising artist for three years. In this short period of time, Wedge has received considerable acclaim for his potent and confronting paintings and is emerging as a highly respected urban Aboriginal artist.

While some of Wedge’s works are strongly autobiographical and anecdotal, nostalgically recounting happier memories of his life on Erambie Mission, many are ascerbic political statements, forcefully expressing the devastating impact of white colonisation of tribal Aborigines and the brutal suppression of their culture. In particular, Wedge expresses his frustration at the enforced integration of indigenous communities on to Christian missions and the Eurocentric education system that attempted to indoctrinate young Aboriginal children with European history and European value systems, effectively denying them access to their own cultural heritage. Wedge also deals with pertinent, contemporary social issues that effect a broad cross-section of people from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. The A.I.D.S virus, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse and the systematic slaughter of Australian native animals are several of a myriad of social evils which Harry J. Wedge exposes in his work.

Many of Wedge’s paintings are intensely coloured and strongly expressionistic in style and are populated by images of the Wiradjuri Spirit Man, a figure who is characterised by a halo of radiating hair. More recently Wedge has composed his paintings with an intricate network of dots which is a direct reference to tribal Aboriginal art. Wedge’s works are accompanied by stories which are of utmost importance to the artist. The transcription of the artists own words when describing his paintings, ensure that they are not misunderstood by the white audience.

Harry J. Wedge’s works were selected for inclusion in the Australian Perspecta 1993 and an exhibition of his paintings was shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1993, following his four week residency there. Wedge recently was awarded the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship by the New South Ministry for the Arts and he is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery collections.