Wendy Paramor

Who was Wendy Paramor?

Wendy Paramor is an important mid-20th Century Australian artist.

Paramor was born in Melbourne. After leaving school at the age of 15, she studied at the East Sydney Technical College and Julian Ashton art school. Between 1960-1963 she lived in Europe, travelling and exhibiting work in Lisbon, London and New York. On her return to Sydney in 1963 she lived in a modest terrace house in Waterloo. In 1965 she held critically acclaimed solo exhibitions at Watters Gallery, Sydney, and Bognar Gallery, Los Angeles. In 1966 Paramor moved to a property in West Hoxton, New South Wales, where she built, largely with her own hands, a Philip Cox-designed underground house. From 1966-1970 she exhibited with the Central Street Gallery in Sydney. During this time she successfully expanded her practice into sculpture, and two of her sculptures and a painting were included in the seminal exhibition, 'The Field', which opened the National Gallery of Victoria's new building in 1968. At the age of 34, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and she died in 1975.