Savanhdary Vongpoothorn

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (born 1971) is a Laotian-born Australian visual artist. She immigrated with her parents as a seven-year old, and through studies and travel has integrated Laotian, Vietnamese and Australian influences in her art. Her art reflects cross-cultural influences in contemporary Australia as she fuses her personal experiences, dual cultures, and painterly abstraction. She has exhibited widely in Australia and Singapore, and her works are held in major state and regional galleries across Australia. She was a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize 2016 and the Moet & Chandon art prize in 1998. She lives and works in Canberra. Early life and education Savanhdary Vongpoothorn was born in Champasak, Laos, in 1971 and came to Australia as a seven year-old in 1978. In 1970 her anti-communist father was about to be sent to a re-education camp and escaped to Thailand. Her mother then took the children and crossed the Mekong River into Thailand with a people smuggler. After nine months in a Thai refugee camp, an Australian aunt sponsored them to emigrate to Australia. Her work today evokes her Buddhist background. Vongpoothorn is a devout Buddhist. She grew up in a community that practiced Tehravada Buddhism that is prevalent in South and Southeast Asia. Lessons from her upbringing can sometimes be reflected in the titles of her works. At school she only excelled in English and Art. She was accepted at the Nepean College of the Arts, University of Western Sydney based on her portfolio, not her HSC results. At Nepean she was encouraged to "play" and to view her cultural heritage in new ways. She began to focus on her textile heritage. She was first noticed for her student work shown in the NSW Travelling Art Scholarship exhibition in 1992.