Normana Wight (9 April 1936 – 31 January 2026) was an Australian artist, best known as a painter and printmaker.
Early life and education Wight studied painting at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (1954–57) and after a short time as a fabric designer and high school art teacher, later studied printmaking at Central School of Arts and Crafts, London (1962–63). Upon returning to Australia in 1964 she moved to Sydney, then Mittagong, New South Wales. She returned to Melbourne in 1967 to teach at the Preston Institute of Technology.
Life and career Wight's initial work focused on abstract forms in fields of bright colour.
In 1967, Wight's work came to the attention of Brian Finemore and John Stringer, co-curators of the seminal exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. Wight is one of only three women artists to have work included in The Field, the others being Janet Dawson and Wendy Paramor. Wight was represented by a large painting in two parts hung vertically, 'Untitled' 1968 (cat. no. 74). She later had to destroy the work as it was too large and awkward to store. Wight's minimal abstraction was then largely forgotten for three decades until gallerist David Pestorius shone a light on it in the exhibitions Queensland Art 2009 and Normana Wight: Minimal Painting at his Brisbane gallery in 2009 and 2010 respectively. In 2017, Wight remade her work for The Field for the National Gallery of Victoria's exhibition 'The Field Revisited' 2018, and the remade work was acquired by the Gallery.
In the early 1970s, Wight shifted focus from and began using photographic sources for her works. Whilst she had produced prints in conjunction with her abstract paintings in her earlier works, printmaking soon became her primary medium, and through her production of postcards and books she sought to challenge ideas of commodification and elitism.
Between 1981 and 1986, Wight was printmaking lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba.
Wight later became interested in computer-generated imagery. In 2000, she collaborated with the Victorian Tapestry Workshop on their first portrait commission, a portrait of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, AC, DBE for the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. The image was composed by painter Christopher Pyett, adapted on computer by Wight and woven by Merrill Dumbrell.
Wight lived and worked in Brisbane from 2001, and was represented by Grahame Galleries + Editions, Brisbane.
In 2014 Normana Wight was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection. In the interview Wight talks to Brisbane gallery owner, Noreen Grahame about her art, her artistic career, the influence computer technology has had on her art and her future aspirations.
Wight died on 31 January 2026, at the age of 89.
Work
Solo exhibitions Normana Wight: Minimal Painting, Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane, 2010 Posted, Grahame Galleries + editions, Brisbane, 2009 Pursuing the Still Life, Grahame Galleries + editions, Brisbane, 2003 Small Ceremonies: Normana Wight, Lismore Regional Art Gallery, Lismore, 2000 Extracts from a Still Life, Grahame Galleries + editions, Brisbane, 1999 Recent Work - collage and laser prints, Grahame Galleries + editions, Brisbane, 1994 Work-in-progress: the balancing act, Queensland College of Art Gallery, Griffith University, 1993. Normana Wight: recent work, Grahame Galleries, 1990
Group exhibitions New Woman, Museum of Brisbane, 2019-2020 The Field Revisited, National Gallery of Victoria, 2018 Abstraction: celebrating Australian women artists, National Gallery of Australia, touring exhibition, 2017 Queensland Art 2009, Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane, 2009-2010 Fremantle Print Award exhibition, Fremantle, WA, 1994 Artist books exhibition, Grahame Galleries, 1991 Shifting Parameters, Queensland Art Gallery, 1990 The Field, National Gallery of Victoria, 1968
Public collections National Gallery of Australia Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Art Gallery of New South Wales National Gallery of Victoria Art Gallery of South Australia Monash University Museum of Art Museum of Brisbane State Library of Queensland Griffith University Art Museum University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba University of Queensland Art Museum
Awards and nominations Wight was recognised for her contributions to Australian art through institutional fellowships and residencies.
Visiting Fellow – Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, 1993. Artist Residency – Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, 2001.
References
External links Grahame Galleries + editions artist page Normana Wight digital story, educational interview and oral history. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, 21 April 2014, 5min, 28min and 1:32hour version available to view online.