Publications

Deborah Mailman AM (b. 1972), Bidjara and Māori (Ngāti Porou and Te Arawa) actor and singer, was in her early twenties when she co-devised and appeared in the one-woman stage show Seven Stages of Grieving, which was later staged in London. In 1998, for her performance in the film Radiance, she became the first Aboriginal woman to win Best Actress at the AFI Awards; five years later she was named the NAIDOC Person of the Year. In 2012, she won Best Lead Actress for her role in The Sapphires (2011) at the AACTA Awards. For Mabo (2012) and Redfern Now: Promise Me (2015), she won Most Outstanding Actress at the 2013 and 2016 Logies. In 2019 she starred in the ABC series Total Control, for which she won the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a TV drama; the second series was filmed in 2021.

Evert Ploeg painted this work on a panel of jute which he sourced from an old wool bale located in the rafters of his barn-like studio. 'I needed someone who was earthy, Australian, and my mind just naturally went to Deborah.' In speaking about the portrait to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mailman said: 'I feel he has brought to light a deeper, more contemplative side of myself.' The work was a 1999 Archibald Prize finalist.
Purchased 2000
© Evert Ploeg/Copyright Agency, 2022

The poster is roughtly A1 in size this equates to metric:

841 x 594mm

or imperial:

33.1 x 23.4in

The actual portrait reproduction varies with in the print.