Jo Darvall is an established and versatile painter and printmaker whose art is driven by the joy of conveying stories about places and people.

From Naarm (Melbourne), Jo Darvall’s career has spanned over thirty years and three continents.

“Darvall’s Paintings take the patterns of West Australian Forests to conjure the space and spirit of the landscape.” Dr Kevin Robinson

A recent recipient of the Edith Cowan University and Western Australian Parliament Artist in Residence programs (2024). At the conclusion of her residency, the Western Australian Parliament acquired a four-meter diptych and several other works. In 2023, she was awarded the Collie Award, the richest regional art prize in Australia, valued at $50,000. Jo has also received government funding for a solo exhibition in Beijing (2017), an exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Singapore (2016), a printmaking residency and group exhibition in Fiji (2023), and a solo exhibition in Melbourne (2016).

Her works are collected by important private, corporate, and government collections across Australia, China, Fiji, Vienna, Singapore, the UK, Berlin, the US, and Canada.

Jo Darvall’s works have been featured in twenty solo exhibitions and fifty-eight group exhibitions in Australia, China, London, Fiji, and Singapore. Her art articulates her sensory encounters with landscape, inspired by frequent walks in nearby forests and coastal areas where she draws, paints, and listens. Jo’s work highlights her connection to place, blending abstraction and figuration to express the interplay between the two.

Jo Darvall studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, receiving a BA in Fine Art in 1990. In the 1990s, she co-founded the Artists for Kids Culture Trust with fellow Roar Artists, raising over A$1 million for charitable projects in Melbourne. She has taught at the Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) and the University of Western Australia (UWA) and is currently a sessional academic at Curtin University. In 2017 Jo co-founded the Swan River Print Studio in at the Goolagatup Heathcote Gallery in Western Australia.

Jo is represented by Art Forum Singapore, Fox Galleries Melbourne, Linton and Kay Galleries Perth, and Studio Galleries Yallingup.

More information:
Artist Profile has published an online article on Darvall's Wandoo with excerpts from Dr Kevin Robertson's essay; the article is available to view here.