Artbank Staff Profile: Oliver Watts

Name: Oliver Watts

Job Title: Senior Curator

What year did you join the Artbank team: 2018

Describe your role and what you enjoy about working for Artbank:

My role at Artbank is mainly on the support side of the program. I feel that I have learnt so much about Australian contemporary art since joining Artbank. The Roadshow has been a wonderful opportunity to take the temperature of what's coming through from Perth to Tasmania, from Darwin to Melbourne. But most of all my job means that I make connections with so many artists, dealers and Indigenous communities and provide support through acquisitions. It often takes many years of following an artist before we finally get the right work.  It is a daunting feeling, but a satisfying one, to know that I am involved in shaping a national collection.       

                      

Select an Artwork to represent you:    

#14229, Amber Boardman, 
Lake Doig, 2015, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas.

Short explanation of your artwork selection:

I love Amber Boardman's approach to figurative painting. Her work is often comedy tragedy, and this work is no exception. It seems to me that the figure represents someone a little floundering but carrying on. The boat is the romantic image par excellence but here on the lake’s edge, the canoe seems like a pretty debased version of the romantic hero. Although the figure still persists and still strives for something. This seems to me about right and its inspiring.