Davida Allen
Davida Frances Allen is an Australian painter, filmmaker and writer.
Early life and education
Davida Allen was born on 20 October 1951 in Charleville, Queensland.She studied under Betty Churcher at the Stuartholme School, Brisbane and later under Roy Churcher at Brisbane Central Technical College.
Career
Allen has written and illustrated two books, and has created a 50-minute film, Feeling Sexy, on the struggles of an artist attempting to reconcile the conflicting demands of bohemia and suburbia. The film was invited to the Venice Film Festival.She frequently confronts the themes of family and sexuality; regarding the latter she has said: "if we are truly feminist in the fullest sense of the word, we shouldn't have felt we had to lock it away or be really careful about it. We should be chauvinist in our womanhood."
Allen is represented in all major public collections in Australia, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Awards and nominations
- [List of Archibald Prize List of Archibald Prize 1986 finalists|1986 finalists|1986]: Archibald Prize, for her portrait of her father-in-law, John Shera
- 1999: Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, nominated for "Best Direction", won "Best Original Screenplay" award
- 2010: Tattersalls Club Landscape Art Prize
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
- College Gallery, 1984
- Museum of Contemporary Art in South Brisbane, 1987, a major retrospective survey
- Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, 2018
Group exhibitions
Ray Hughes Gallery at Pinacotheca, Pinacotheca Art Gallery, 1981Nine Queensland artists, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, 1981Contemporary Art in Australia – A Review, inaugural exhibition of the Museum of Contemporary Art in South Brisbane, 1987Blue chip X : the collectors' exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2008Commercial galleries
- Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, in 1973, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1986
- Australian Galleries, Sydney, in 1993, 1996, 2001
- Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016.