Anna Minardo

Anna Minardo's mantra is "my life is my art".

She was raised in an artistic family, with both parents being celebrated artists. She completed her studies at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome 1966, and at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome 1968 and Mc Gill University school of Architecture 1971 in Montreal.Anna's passion for painting an drawing can be traced back to her childhood. She remembers always being fascinated by people's expressions and by capturing moments of their inner lives as well as the techniques employed by the old masters.While at school she studied their paintings in detail and she earned money with commissions of Rembrands copies.Her first exhibition was held in Rome at age 17.

A perfectionist or rather an acute observer and a meticulous painter, she was only ever satisfied once her portrait could "speak back to her"From 1968 she resided in North America working for renowned Architectural firms.In 1970 she worked in Boston at San-Vel Concrete Corporation as chief designer and technical supervisor (the first and only women to hold that role within the company).

Those early experiences equipped Anna with the basics to design, sculpt and fabricate large-scale public art works.Art and Architecture have always absorbed her and in her practice she is not willing to draw a distinction between the two disciplines.In fact she regrets not having lived in the Renaissance period where an artist could simultaneously be an architect, a sculpture and a painter.In 1992 Anna Minardo was awarded an ISS (International Specialised Skills) Training Fellowship in Australia to conduct the 3 Months of Mosaic Workshop programme, supported by the Australian Multicultural Foundation.

The course content was aimed to identify eventual skill gaps, and subsequently enhance the abilities of those working as mosaicists, or seeking to become one, as well as to raise the profile of mosaic as an art form in Australia, particularly within an architectural context. 

Since 1997 Anna has completed a number of public art commission's through various councils in Australia.In 2000 she was commissioned by the Vatican to work on the portrait of Pope John Paul II, today part of the Vatican City art collection.

Anna's oeuvres are found in private and public collections, in Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Australia and Dubai.

In 2008 she was finalist in the Archibald Portrait Price with the portrait of Brian Dawe.

In 2009 her entry to the Archibald Portrait Price was of the late Philanthropist Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, now exhibited in the Victorian College of the Arts.