ABOUT

Curriculum Vitae - CV:

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
COMMISSIONS
GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
COLLECTIONS
PUBLICATIONS
CATALOGUES AND BOOKS ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

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REPRESENTED BY

GALLERYSMITH, Melbourne
gallerysmith.com.au

​Nancy Sever Gallery, Canberra
nancysevergallery.com.au
WILMA TABACCO
Picture
​​Wilma in the studio 2023
Photo: Mark Ashkanasy
​Wilma Tabacco was born in the province of L’Aquila, Italy and has lived in Australia since childhood.  She received a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University in 1972 and Diploma of Education in 1973.  In 1979 she undertook a Diploma of Fine Art at Phillip Institute, Melbourne and whilst lecturing in painting and drawing at the University of Melbourne, continued studies at RMIT University where she completed a Master of Arts in 1995 and a PhD in 2006.  Wilma has lectured variously in painting, drawing and printmaking at the University of Melbourne, Canberra School of Arts and at RMIT as part of the international programme in Hong Kong and in Melbourne.
 
She has received several grants from the Australia Council Visual Arts and Craft Board including a studio residency in Italy, and has also worked and exhibited in Seoul as the recipient of an Asialink residency in Korea.
 
In 2011 she, together with Dr Irene Barberis, established Langford120, a contemporary gallery space. The gallery space was closed in 2018 although projects are still are still planned for the future.
 
In 2018 Wilma commenced conducting workshops in colour and composition for The Art Room, Footscray.  She also presented several Zoom lectures on abstract art and art interpretation.
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PDF - Download, Wilma Tabacco CV, Exhibitions & Collections - 2025
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Picture
Wilma in the studio 2025 Photo: Mark Ashkanasy

Prima Donna Podcast

Audio Podcast
March 2023
Prima Donna Podcasts is a series of sonic portraits of Australian artists. Composer Nat Grant captures interviews with practitioners from all disciplines. The portraits comprise interview recordings collaged with Nat’s original compositions: telling these artists’ stories in their own words. They are both oral history and sonic artwork.

Lella Cariddi, initiator and super supporter of so many ‘multi-cultural’ projects, in particular those involving Italo-Australian women artists, recommended me to Nat.  My personal storey – or at least some parts of it – I have happily shared with Nat on this recording. Without such support many of the stories recorded in this series of podcasts may have remained untold.

I extend my thanks to both Lella and Nat for their generosity and devotion in providing a platform for those of us who speak quietly. 
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You can listen to more stories on: primadonnapodcast.com
Wilma in the studio 2019. Photo: Mark Ashkanasy
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VILLAGGIO  ITALIA

Amerigo Vespucci

world tour

2023-2025
​MEI (Museo Nazionale dell’Emigrazione Italiana) - The National Museum of Italian Immigration (Genova) will use images by Wilma Tabacco as part of the MEI Immersive Experience during the Amerigo Vespucci event in Darwin from 4-7 October 2024.
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Videos of the artist and her family immigration images will be projected at the Italy Village in Darwin harbour for the arrival of the Vespucci from 4 to 7 October 2024 on a central convex screen of 24 linear metres. 
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Here is a link to the Italian Embassy in Canberra website which outlines the Amerigo Vespucci Tall Ship visit to Darwin in October:  Website Link


​Il Globo

In Parallel
                       
by Silvia Ferretti
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August 15, 2022 


​Il Globo

Vite sospese, tra memoria e conscienza
                       
by Benedetta Ferrara
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September 7, 2021 


​Il Globo

A conversation with
Wilma Tabacco

​by Benedetta Ferrara
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January 7, 2021


The Canberra Times

Highlights from the Australian National University's impressive art collection lifts the spirits

​by Sasha Grishin
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December 19, 2020
The exhibition of highlights from the ANU Collection is a hastily assembled selection that was brought together in this most disrupted year in the university's history. It consists of a mixture of early works and early acquisitions by artists including Roland Wakelin and Donald Brook and very recent donations by collectors and art school alumni.

The Drill Hall, after being dormant due to the virus for four months, deliberately has sought to show signs of vibrant life with the desire to boast of new admissions to the collection and to celebrate some of its gems. The painting that stopped me in my tracks is a glorious and huge work by Yannima Pikarli Tommy Watson, his Pikarli, 2014. Tommy Watson was a senior Pitjantjatara elder and law man of the Karima skin group who only started painting when he was in his mid-sixties and through his vibrant colour-saturated paintings attained considerable fame before his death about 16 years later.
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There is also a large and powerful painting by Wilma Tabacco, her Zephyr, 2002. This veteran, Melbourne-based artist is as yet to receive the recognition that she deserves. Some of my other favourites at the exhibition include Anne Zahalka's monumental pigment print Star City Casino (after Breughel), 1999, Vivienne Binns' Lino Canberra, tile formations and orange, 2001, Derek O'Connor's Plate, 2004 and the stunning John Peart, Royale, 1971.
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READ MORE: 
Wilma in the studio 2011. Photo: Mark Ashkanasy