Tara Green
BFA, MCCL – UNSW
Tara Green is a visual artist based on Gadigal land (Sydney), whose work centres on painting, memory, and matrilineal connection. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership from UNSW.
Working primarily in oil on linen, Green incorporates painted representations of cross-stitch and lace passed down from her mother and grandmother, weaving their domestic handiwork into her contemporary feminist practice. Her work explores themes of inheritance, the unseen labour of women, and the beauty found in what is often overlooked or disappearing.
Green’s paintings hold space for tenderness, strength, and transformation—blending personal
history with broader cultural narratives. Her practice is rooted in storytelling, care, and reverence
for the quiet strength of inherited women’s work.
She is the Pattern
In this series, I use the body of my niece as both subject and symbol. She stands in a position of strength—above the viewer, unwavering in her gaze. She sees before she is seen. This reversal of the traditional power dynamic between viewer and subject is central to the work. Her hand guides, not in submission but in quiet command—an invitation to look, to feel, to witness on her terms.
The works hold a layered interplay of intimacy and defiance. Through her, I explore intergenerational agency, femininity, and the embodied gaze. She is muse, sentinel, and storyteller—anchoring each canvas with poise and presence.
My work is rooted in memory, domestic rituals, and the unspoken gestures passed down through generations of women. I’m interested in the quieter forms of resistance — in how lace, linen, or the act of collecting cicadas can carry a kind of radical softness. I stitch together personal and collective histories to reflect on what we inherit, what we hide, and what we choose to remember. In a time that often prioritises speed and spectacle, I think there’s relevance — and power — in slowness, intimacy, and the unresolved.