Art Discovery Contest Entry: Australia's Ahn Do

This is my entry for @awispa's Art Discovery contest.

Artist Ahn Do (1977-) was born in Vietnam and came to Australia as a refugee in 1980. He originally studied to be a lawyer at University of Technology Sydney but decided to become a comedian, TV personality and author instead.

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He focused more of his time on painting portraits from 2013 (he had enrolled in fine arts at TAFE) and his portrait of his father was a finalist for the 2014 Archibald Prize, the most prestigious award for portraiture in Australia. According to Do, his father Tam ‘has had an incredible life: stared down communist soldiers, faced starvation at sea and pirates who threatened his family. But this time, despite his bravado, he looked vulnerable. He’d dropped to 50 kilos and when I hugged him I could feel his ribs. I spent the next few days wondering how long this skinny, fearless man could keep defying the odds.
‘I had everything set up to paint a famous comedian friend. But I knew I had to paint dad. I decided to use unprimed linen because I wanted the oil paint to bleed a shadow of my father. The main thing I wanted to capture was dad’s physical vulnerability juxtaposed with his defiant, untamable spirit. I painted it in a day, cried a lot and was emotionally spent at the end.’

His memoir reveals his ambivalent relationship with his father, who left Anh's mother when he was 13, which you can also read about here

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He now has a show called Ahn's brush with fame where he interviews and paints portraits of celebrities, including swimmer Ian Thrope, journalist Ray Martin, singer Jessica Mauboy, and Paralympian Kurt Fearnley.

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Ahn Do is the author of children’s books such as the WeirDo series and The Happiest Refugee which is based on his memoir The Happiest Refugee, 2011 Australian Book of the Year, Biography of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.

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I enjoy his children’s books as well as his portraits.

To find out more, read an interview with Ahn Do