Artist Wendy Lugg was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1952. She holds an Associateship in Fine Art from WAIT (now Curtin University); a Graduate Diploma of Education – WASTC (now Edith Cowan University; and a Certificate in Museum Studies with High Distinction from Edith Cowan University.
Wendy’s arts practice reflects her love of WA flora and her concern for the environment. She works primarily with rescued old cloth, embedded with memory, giving it new life in stitched and printed artworks. These are often exhibited alongside her photographic works and historical artefacts, creating dialogues between them. Fabric, thread and the camera lens have been her lifelong companions.
In a career spanning four decades, Wendy has held solo exhibitions in seven countries and is internationally respected in her field, both as a maker and for her broader arts practice. This includes exhibiting and teaching internationally, curating exhibitions, undertaking arts residencies, writing about the arts and serving on arts and museum committees.
In 1994 she was appointed an inaugural Fellow of the Crafts Council of WA and her awards include receipt of an Established Artist New Work grant through Australian Council strategy Funding. Her work is held in the collections of Tamworth Gallery, Curtin University; City of Wanneroo; Brightwater Group and private collections in Great Britain, USA, Japan, Korea, and Australia.
Wendy has been Artist in Residence with History West, the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, since 2009. Her award winning 2011 exhibition Mapping Memory, a collaboration with the Historical Society and the State Library of Western Australia, juxtaposed historical artefacts and contemporary artworks to explore place, history and identity, themes which have always been central to her work. In 2015 this physical exhibition was converted to a permanent online exhibit viewable on the State Library of WA website.
Wendy lives with her husband of 50 years in a sustainable passive solar suburban home surrounded by a native garden alive with birds and other small creatures. The plants in her garden are a source of both inspiration and materials for her work.