Wangaratta Art Gallery acquires work by Matthew Harris

Wangaratta Art Gallery has announced the acquisition of Yeddonba (2023), a major painting by Wangaratta-born artist Matthew Harris, made possible through funding from the Robert Salzer Foundation Acquisitions Fund and the Friends of Wangaratta Art Gallery.

Harris, now based in Melbourne, explores his European and Aboriginal heritage through abstracted forms and traditional First Nations materials. Yeddonba, created with white ochre, charcoal and acrylic binder on hessian, depicts the stone shelters of the Yeddonba Aboriginal Cultural Site in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park, an ancient rock art site linked to both Dhudhuroa-speaking and Waywurru-speaking peoples.

“The blobby grey and black paintings are forms taken straight from natural stone shelters and sites not far from Wangaratta where I was born and grew up, a region important to my family in both the ancient and recent past – the black family, the white family, the all mixed up grey family,” says Harris. “Aboriginal people lived among the rocks and the rocks were part of the family.”

Gallery Director Rachel Arndt expressed gratitude for the acquisition, stating, “This important painting is an outstanding example of contemporary painting, with the content having a clear and resonant connection to the Wangaratta region by this acclaimed Wangaratta-born First Nations artist.”

The work will be displayed alongside With a Warm Embrace (2023), a textile sculpture donated by Harris, as part of a major exhibition in late 2025. Harris’ work is also held in the National Gallery of Victoria and has been exhibited at the Yokohama Triennial and Melbourne Now 2023.

Visit the Wangaratta Art Gallery website for more information.