Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep. 2 Tamara Dean

Tamara Dean is a critically acclaimed Australian photo media artist whose practice encompasses photography, installation, and moving image. She is known for her evocative and often surreal photography, particularly her series that explore themes of nature, human interaction, and the environment...almost like her subjects are in an intimate relationship with nature.

She has received numerous awards including the Goulburn Art Prize, the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, the Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award and the Olive Cotton Award. She is a three-time finalist of the National Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery and her work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House Art Collection, Art Gallery of South Australia; Artbank Australia and the Francis J. Greenburger Collection, New York, amongst others.

There's a beautiful, often ethereal quality to her work and, as I mentioned, many of the scenes are set against the immensity of nature. You can feel the story behind a lot of these works.

This conversation took place just before her exhibition The Flower Duet (7 Feb-8 March 2025) at Michael Reid Gallery in Sydney. It's sooo worth seeing. Michael Reid describes it as her 'magnificent entanglements of human and natural worlds reaching a wild crescendo with her operatic new series of lushly romantic, hyper-floral photographs, The Flower Duet – a landmark body of work in which lithe figures plunge through prismatic thresholds in a dazzling pas de deux with camellias, roses and other blooms.'

You can have a sneak peak going to her instagram @tamaradean

Just a heads up about the zoom sound - my sound, not so good (you'll still understand it all), Tamara's is good. And that's the important voice.

Image of Tamara , Jack Sewell

Image in video: Ebenezer Rock Drop, 2015 archival pigment print on cotton rag. 150x200cm unframed of 3+1 AP

Tamara is represented by Michael Reid (@michaelreidart)

Head to the link in my bio to have a listen to our conversation. Really enjoyed this. Alternatively, head to where you get your podcasts and search 'Australian Women Artists'.

Follow me on @australianwomenartists and the sister account @reallyinterestingwomen and you won't miss out on anything.