Trent Mango tree all the colours of the rainbow Trent
The subject of Victoria Atkinson’s portrait is Liberal politician Trent Zimmerman, the Member for North Sydney in the Australian Parliament.
Atkinson is an artist at Studio A, a social enterprise in Sydney that supports professional artists with intellectual disability. She is known for her paintings and textiles, marked by bold colour and energetic, rhythmic linework.
She says she painted Zimmerman ‘because he’s a nice man, I’ve known him a long time. He’s handsome and he’s gay. I like meeting Trent because he is like me – I’m a lady who would like a girlfriend.’
Zimmerman went to Studio A for the sitting. Atkinson did several sketches and took photographs. She included a mango tree to add something ‘special’ for Zimmerman. ‘I also painted a dog kennel for Trent’s dog Simba to sleep in.’
She describes the portrait as ‘a colourful rainbow. Trent and I are both Rainbow Love,’ she says, referring to their sexual identity.
She chose bright yellow for the background to make the painting ‘happy’ and to radiate ‘a good attitude, like Trent’. ‘I love using colours because it makes my heart happy.’
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Details
| Year | 2020 |
| Medium | Painting |
| Dimensions | 76cm x 101.5cm |
| ID | O-VA-011 |
| Tags | Trent Zimmerman, Mango Tree, colours, rainbow, Acrylic, Canvas |
Artist
Born and raised in Sydney, Victoria Atkinson’s rainbow palette is both a personal representation of her as an openly queer woman and a manifestation of her expressed goal with making art: to bring joy to audiences everywhere. The vivid colours and dynamic tableaus of her works strobe with kinetic energy, seemingly bleeding over the edges of their frames.
For the subject matter of her work, Victoria Atkinson draws on her passions for World Wrestling Entertainment, reality TV, her memories and her quest for love. Victoria has been a finalist in the Archibald and the Sulman prizes, and her work in the 2022 Sulman was particularly poignant, as it memorialised her mother who sadly passed away in the year prior.
Victoria’s mum had been extremely proud of Victoria’s achievements in art, including being named as a finalist in the Archibald 2021 for her work ‘Trent mango tree, all the colours of the rainbow, Trent’.
‘I painted Zimmerman because he’s a nice man’ says Victoria. ‘I’ve known him a long time. He’s handsome and he’s gay. I like meeting Trent because he is like me – I’m a lady who would like a girlfriend.’
For this work, Victoria portrayed the Federal Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman, and into her portrait she incorporated a dog kennel for Trent’s dog Simba to sleep in. Victoria was one of 52 Archibald finalists from 938 entries.
In addition to her acclaimed paintings, Victoria works in textiles. In 2018, her hand embroidered wrestling masks and belts were showcased at the Australian Design Centre as part of Meet the Maker (Mardi Gras edition), and her hand-stitched house was featured in 'Project 2060: Homeward Bound at the Coal Loader. In 2019, she expanded her practice to include animation, creating a two-channel, immersive installation set within a fabric version of the Bachelorette mansion, touching again on her recurring theme of longing for romance.
Victoria’s work has been included in Sydney Contemporary as well as in LawHack (an initiative of The National Justice Project). Her works are held in private collections as well as in the University of New South Wales collection, curated by Elena Taylor.
Words by Dr Wilfred Brandt
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