Vivienne Binns

Vivienne Joyce Binns (6 December 1940 – 1 August 2026) was an Australian artist known for her contribution to the Women's Art Movement in Australia, her engagement with feminism in her artwork, and her active advocacy within community arts. She worked predominantly in painting.

Early life Binns was born in Wyong, New South Wales, Australia, on 6 December 1940. She was the youngest of five children of her parents Joyce and Norman. Her most well-known painting, Vag Dens, featuring a brightly-coloured vagina with teeth, was hung alongside Phallic Monument, which featured male genitals. Some critics excoriated her work, using phrases such as "monumental repulsion", "pure obscene horror", "the most disturbing artwork I've ever seen". Artist and critic Elwyn Lynn wrote that her work "affronts masculinity".

After this show, Binns felt that she needed a break from painting, and became involved in community arts. and doing a huge amount to stimulate and promote community arts. ), teaching several subjects.

In 1990 Binns travelled to central Australia and learnt some of the creation stories, art and culture from Pitjantjara women.

In 2019 Vivienne Binns was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection. In the interview Binns talked about her life, her art and her inspirations.

, aged 81, she still worked and painted in her studio, although at a slower pace and sometimes intermittently; she had one painting on the go for two years. and starting a run at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney in July. The exhibition included more than 100 works, including prints, sculpture and drawing as well as her earliest paintings.

Death Binns died in Canberra on 1 August 2026, at the age of 85.

Art practice Binns worked across many media, including painting, printmaking, performance, sculpture and drawing. Her diverse range of artistic engagements resulted in her being well respected amongst her Australian and global contemporaries, particularly within the feminist community. and Phallic Monument, this exhibition has been recognised as a key starting point for the development of feminist art in Australia. This exhibition was one of the first of its kind, predating Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party and "critically affirming the power of women's sexuality whilst also provoking... a good measure of castration anxiety amongst the patriarchy".

Through decades of experimentation with colour and form, Binns conceptually explored ideas ranging from feminism to colonial critique within her painting practice.

Women's Art Movement

Alongside feminist contemporaries such as Barbara Hall, Frances Phoenix (nee Budden), Beverly Garlick, Jude Adams and Toni Robertson, Binns was at the forefront of the development of The Women's Art Movement (WAM) in Sydney. Beginning in 1973 and inspired by Linda Nochlin's essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", WAM aimed to address discrimination and sexism within the art world through various actions and exhibitions. Binns was a founding member in 1974.

Community art Binns was a prominent figure in the development of community arts in Australia. In 1972 she collaborated with Mike Morris and Tim Burns on The Artsmobile, a travelling community arts project that brought Dada and Surrealist style performance work to centres along the north east coast of NSW. Described as "the offspring of a marriage between Fluxus and a local town council bookmobile", the Artsmobile brought a variety of art-based activities to schools, seniors centres and public parks.

Continuing with her interest in community arts and also related to the questions raised by the Women's Art Movement, Binns developed Mothers' Memories, Others' Memories through facilitating a space where participants could come and share stories of the various craft and needlework skills that they had been taught by their mothers and other members of their family. Described as "dense, fragmented, [and] multilayered" the final work was exhibited as a series of postcards installed on a postcard rack. The project continued until 1981.

In 1989, Binns began another community art project, The Tower of Babel, at the Watters Gallery. It started with 50 small dioramas, created by herself as well as friends, mentors, students and acquaintances, including Irene Maher, Mike Brown, Ruth Waller, Bonita Ely and Eugene Carchesio. The project is still ongoing as of 2022, when it comprised 90 boxes.

Recognition and awards According to the Australia Council, "Binns was one of the first artists in Australia to critically engage with feminism and pioneered dialogues between Australian art and international feminism".

Exhibitions Binns' work was displayed at many exhibitions spanning over fifty years of art practice, including: 1991 Frames of Reference: Aspects of Feminism and Art, Pier 4/5, Sydney 1996 Women Hold Up Half the Sky: The Orientation of Art in the Post-War Pacific, MUMA, Melbourne 1997 I had a Dream: Australian Art in the 1960s, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1998 Patterning: Layers of Meaning in Contemporary Art, curated by Merryn Gates, touring to Canberra; Bandung, Jakarta, Ubud, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Lahore, Pakistan; and Manila, Philippines 2000 On the Brink: Abstraction in the 90’s, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne 2007 Cross Currents: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2012 Sixties Explosion, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney 2014 Binns + Valamanesh, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney 2015 Pop to Popism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2017–18 Unfinished Business: Perspectives on Art & Feminism, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne

Major collections Her work is represented in private collections as well as in many major collections, including: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Australian National University, Canberra BHP, Melbourne Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra Griffith University Art Collection, Queensland Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne National Gallery of Australia, Canberra National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, New South Wales Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Queensland Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane University Art Gallery, Queensland University, Brisbane University of Western Australia, Cruthers Collection of Women's Art Wesfarmers, Perth