Portraits
Amani Tia’s distinctive style is impacted by his immediate environment. A confident draughtsperson equipped with a natural aptitude for drawing, Tia enjoyed early success in the appropriation of iconic paintings by some of the great masters, including Manet, Gauguin and Picasso.
More recently Tia’s varied subject matter often pays homage to key artists and musicians from a time period roughly spanning the 1950s through to the 1970s in a style reflective of Australian modernism, bringing to mind artists such as Joy Hester.
Amani Tia has worked as a studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 2013. His work has been shown annually in the Arts Project Annual Gala Exhibition as well as in various curated group exhibitions at Arts Project Australia. In 2014, Tia’s work was exhibited at Yarra Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne. His work was selected for the Victorian Indigenous Art Awards, Art Gallery of Ballarat (2014) and the Belle Arti Prize, Chapman and Bailey Gallery (2013). In 2017, Tia undertook the Bundoora Nebula Residency at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre.
Portraits was exhibited at the Richmond Town Hall from 30 April to 22 July, 2018.
Image Credit: Not titled (detail), Amani Tia, 2015