Photo: Virginia Cummins
|
Biography
Betra Fraval is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist whose practice explores the relationship between landscape, memory, and human impact on the natural world. She has held solo exhibitions at James Makin Gallery and Melbourne Art Fair, and has participated in group exhibitions across Australia and internationally. Fraval completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (2014). She has undertaken residencies at Sanskriti Kendra, India (2009); Sachaqa Centro De Arte, Peru (2018); Hôtel Sainte Valière, France (2019); and the Helsinki International Artist Programme, Finland (2019). Her work is represented in the Artbank collection as well as private collections in Australia, the US, and Finland. Fraval was the recipient of the Galloway Lawson Prize for Excellence (2014), the Maude Glover Fleay Award (2005), and the Seventh Gallery Exhibition Grant (2007). Fraval has also been a finalist in major awards, including the R&M McGivern Prize (2019), the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2022), the Paddington Art Prize (2024), and the John Leslie Art Prize (2024). Artist Statement Betra Fraval’s practice focuses on sites of geological significance and the transformations brought about by human intervention, such as mining and industry. Through painting and drawing, she investigates the tension between the external environment and the internal world, revealing how landscape is both shaped by and shapes our memories, bodies, and histories. Her process often begins with time spent in the field—walking, observing, and drawing—before distilling these encounters into layered, gestural compositions. Fraval’s works navigate the boundaries between representation and abstraction, using the language of painting to reflect on environmental change, resilience, and fragility. In making visible the traces left by time and human activity, Fraval seeks to open up a space for reflection: on what it means to dwell within a shifting landscape, and the marks we leave behind. -- I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which I live and work, and I pay my respects to Elders past and present. |