Therese Ritchie (born 1961) is an Australian contemporary artist, writer and graphic designer, based in Darwin in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. She is known for her collaborations with Chips Mackinolty and Peter Cook, including founding Green Ant Research Arts and Publishing in 1990, and for her representation of

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

issues.

Early life and education

Ritchie was born in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 1961. After moving to the

in 1980, she completed a Diploma of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Northern Territory University now

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with two campuses in Darwin and six satellite campuses in metropolitan and regional areas of the Northern Territory. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Ter ...

(CDU) in 1985. In 2001, Ritchie studied

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. She was then awarded a Masters in Visual Arts from CDU in 2005.

Career

Ritchie co-founded, with Chips Mackinolty and Peter Cook, Green Ant Research Arts and Publishing in 1990. She later founded her own commercial graphic design business, Black Dog Graphics.

Selected work

Ritchie produced a range of publications and exhibitions known as ''LittlePricks'' from 2012 to 2014, featuring work by many

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ...

artists in response to comments by Rob Knight, the then Northern Territory Minister for Young Territorians, who called

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

children "little pricks" for burning the Australian flag during the Australia Day demonstrations in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. She collaborated with artists from the

Borroloola Borroloola () is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain ...

region in 2016 on ''Open Cut: Jacky Green, Sean Kerins, Therese Ritchie'' an exploration of the complex relationship between

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

and the mining companies working on their land.

Exhibitions

A retrospective of her work with renowned artist Chips Mackinolty, ''Not Dead Yet'', was exhibited at the CDU Art Gallery in 2010. A solo retrospective ''Burning Hearts'' was exhibited at the

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is the main museum in the Northern Territory. The headquarters of the museum is located in the inner Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin suburb of The Gardens, Northern Territory, The ...

in 2019.

Collections

Ritchie's work is featured in the collections of the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, Araluen Arts Centre, Gallery of Modern Art Queensland,

Artbank Artbank is an Australian art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. The program supports contemporary Australian Visual artists, artists by purchasing their Art, artworks and renting them to public and private sector cli ...

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

and Charles Darwin University.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Therese 1961 births Living people 20th-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian women artists Australian graphic designers Australian women graphic designers Charles Darwin University alumni 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century Australian artists Artists from the Northern Territory People from Darwin, Northern Territory