Anne Zahalka

Anne Zahalka (born 1957) is an Australian artist and photographer. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia. In 2005, she was the recipient of the Leopold Godowsky Award at the Photographic Resource Centre in Boston.

Early life and education Zahalka was born to a Jewish Austrian mother and Catholic Czech father. Her parents met and married in England during the Second World War. Zahalka subsequently developed an interest in Australia's migrants and diverse cultures.

She studied at Sydney College of the Arts (undergraduate and postgraduate), 1979.

Career Zahalka's artwork revolves around Australian culture, focusing on themes such as gender roles, leisure activities and the conventions of art. She has spoken in interviews of her family and how her upbringing has influenced her work. She reflects on the lack of migrants' written documents, images and texts about Australia. Another major art commission, Welcome to Sydney, was completed in 2003 for Sydney Airport.

Her residency in 1986–87 at the , Berlin, gave her an opportunity reconnect with her European origins. Emulating complex interior scenes based on Dutch and Flemish masters like Vermeer, it led to sets of work collectively title Resemblance (1987) and Resemblance II (1989).

Exhibitions Haimish, The Jewish Museum, Melbourne, 1998 Leisureland, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2000 Fortresses and Frontiers, Robert Sandelson Gallery, London, 2000 Hall of Mirrors: Anne Zahalka Portraits 1987–2007, National Portrait Gallery, 2007/08. A mid-career retrospective. Wild Life, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, 2008 A Time and a Place, group exhibition, Griffith University Arts Gallery, South East Queensland, 2015 Wild Life, Australia, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, 2019 Zahalkaworld, Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne, 2023

Awards 2005: Leopold Godowsky Award, Photographic Resource Centre, Boston.

Collections Zahalka's work is held in the following permanent collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Monash Gallery of Art, Monash, Melbourne, Victoria National Gallery of Victoria.