ANU Canberra Times Meet The Author
Room T2, Kambri, ANU
March 17 from 6-7pm.
Written by Len Power
How Vincent Fantauzzo, a street-fighting petty criminal, was kicked out of school at fourteen and became one of Australia’s most celebrated and successful portrait artists is detailed in his fascinating memoir, Unveiled.
A boy with a troubled home life and dismissed as a simpleton at school, Vincent Fantauzzo projected a violent and frightening persona as a means of self-protection. Inside that tough exterior, however, lived a thoughtful, sensitive and creative boy whose only wish was to be loved – and to one day break free of the intergenerational dysfunction he seemed doomed to inherit.
Arguably, Vincent’s most impressive and important achievement is his survival and the remarkable life he willed into existence despite severe and undiagnosed dyslexia that left him with no formal education and debilitating memory problems. He could never have imagined how far his dream of a better life – and an uncanny knack for drawing – would take him.
Today Vincent's work hangs in galleries around the world including the National Portrait Gallery and Federal Parliament House in Canberra. He’s sold out international exhibitions, won the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award more times than any artist and twice won the Doug Moran Portrait Prize.
Sometimes tragic, often hilarious but always deeply moving, Unveiled is a paint-spattered, star-studded, white-knuckle ride from the Housing Commission ghettos of Australia to the art galleries of Hong Kong, through the back roads of India and into the nightclubs of New York as Vincent chases his dream with humility, humour and a boundless love for people and a life better lived.
Vincent Fantauzzo, award-winning portrait artist, completed a BA and a Masters in Fine Arts at RMIT, graduating in 2005. Fantauzzo truly emerged onto the portrait scene when his striking painting of his friend Heath Ledger took out the coveted People’s Choice Award at the 2008 Archibald Prize, winning again in 2009, 2013 and 2014.
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| Portrait of Heath Ledger, Art Gallery of NSW |
In 2011, his Archibald-shortlisted portrait of chef Matt Moran won the Packing Room Prize; and his painting of director Baz Luhrmann was awarded the Moran National Portrait Prize the same year. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Historic Memorials Committee to create the official portrait of Julia Gillard for the Parliament House collection. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned Fantauzzo in 2020 to create a portrait of Hugh Jackman.
Vincent Fantauzzo will be in conversation with Helen Musa
in Room T2 Kambri, ANU on March 17 from 6-7pm.
