Tonee Messiah
Chronicles of Nelson
November 2 – 18, 2006

'Sydney based artist, Tonee Messiah makes like the prophet of the people and brings us images that tell a thousand tales. Her delicate and unusual portraits of quirky individuals conjure stories from times untold.' Millie Ross, 2004

Messiah’s most recent body of work explores the folksy tales of life and living. These large ink on paper portraits conjure up shadowy stories with subtle gestures. The ‘Chronicles of Nelson’ are beautifully painted and the subject matter is deliberately dramatic. In the past Messiah has sketched on buses and trains, catching everyday people, but in these works it is obvious that a darker story has unfolded. It works like an opera that is building up to a crescendo, playing out the scene till the last moments before the French horns blow.

At the tender age of 23 and just out of College, Messiah won the Zelda Stedman Young Artist Scholarship and the William Fletcher Trust Artist Grant in 2005, in 2004 the NAVA Visual and Craft Artists’ Grant and in 2003 the Sir William Dobell Arts Foundation Scholarship.

Messiah says of her hometown, “Sydney is a curious place when it comes to inspiration, it’s hard-edged urbanity can often be off putting but I think once you become part of its fabric you learn to either source from it or push directly against it.”

Messiah's next exhibition with Helen Gory will be in 2008