Tango Conway

​​Tango Conway is an artist currently living and working between Bidjigal/Gadigal land, Sydney and Dharug/Gundungurra land, Katoomba. 

Her practice is centred in contemporary drawing, exploring the tensions between representation and realism. She employs processes that expand on traditional methodologies playing with the slippages between perceiving and interpreting space. 

Conway’s work exaggerates the theatricality of drawing processes. Through the manipulation and erasure of structural marks from the initial sketching stages, her final pieces are rendered with a simplified line, concealing the process from which it came. Incorporating people, objects, architecture and found images, she portrays imagined scenes that skirt on the edge of representation. Rather than serving as a precursor to another medium, Conway’s drawings celebrate drawing itself.

Bio
Tango Conway graduated from the National Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sculpture (2016) – with the academic achievement award after receiving the highest mark in her cohort – and a Graduate Diploma of Fine Arts, Drawing (2019). 

In April this year, Tango completed a one-month residency at CasCaDas ArtSpace, Barcelona, having received a NSW Small Project Grant through Create NSW to fund her professional development in Spain. 

Conway received the John Olsen Figure Drawing Prize (2016), The Jocelyn Maughan Sketchbook Prize (2016) and the Art Gallery of NSW Robert Le Gay Brereton Memorial Prize (2019). 

Her work was recently chosen as a finalist in the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (2022) with the exhibition touring across various regional NSW galleries until 2024.

In collaboration with contemporary textile artist Amelia Skelton, she formed the duo Skelton&Conway. Together, they were awarded the Sculpture by the Sea Graduate Award (2016) and the Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Artist Grant  for their major installation at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi (2017). 

Throughout her practice, Conway has exhibited regularly aroundSydney in diverse group shows at galleries including Olsen Annese, Articulate Project Space, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Tiles, NASHA Gallery and the National Art School Gallery. 

In October 2023, she presented her first major solo show: ‘PORTRAITS’ at Airspace Gallery, Marrickville. This exhibition displayed works developed  over 2 years and included a custom installation for the gallery space.

tangoconway@gmail.com