Artist CV — Rosalee Firth

Rosalee Firth is a prize winning Melbourne based artist.

+ About | Artist Bio

Rosalee Firth (Australian, b. 1962) is an artist living in inner city Melbourne, who has worked steadily making art since childhood. Her first major painting at age 12 depicted her grandfather slaughtering a sheep. Raised on a sheep and wheat farm on traditional Baraparapa land, Firth’s early work was strongly influenced by the harsh but intrinsically beautiful land and experiences of her early childhood.

Death, decay and cruelty were daily occurrences, which continue to imbue the work, although not always overtly evident. ‘I almost always work within the figurative, exploring the human condition, often through narrative.’

Firth graduated in 1997 with a BA in Art and Architectural History from Deakin University with units in Sculpture and Drawing, and in 1999 with a BTeach (Hons) from Melbourne University with MA units in printmaking, and 2012 with a Master of Fine Arts (Painting) from Monash University. She was awarded a travel grant in 2010 and spent four months in Europe which included research at Cambridge University and a two month residency in Rome.

Firth began exhibiting in 1998 whilst at Melbourne University and has had three solo shows, which included ‘People and the Inner City’, ‘Colour, Kitsch and Christ’, and ‘Caput Mortem’. She has participated in many group shows and in 2010 won the Palais Prize at the Linden Postcards show, and was a finalist in the BSG Drawing Prize.

Firth’s work has been collected in Australia and Overseas.