Sylvia Convey is one of Australia's most distinctive outsider artists. She was born in a refugee camp Itzehoe near Hamburg Germany in 1948. With her Lativan parents and elder sister she sailed to Australia on the Skaugum in early 1950. They were part of the first wave of immigrants to arrive in Australia after World War II. This group of displaced persons' had a profound effect on what was then an Anglo Celtic monoculture. From her childhood Sylvia had the gift of being able to transmute her joys and sorrows into poetic images which have the power to enchant and disturb. A true outsider artist her images are derived from her own day to day and oneiric experiences. Intuitively she has tapped the richness of her ancestral heritage which adds a decorative radiance to her images. An engaging eroticism is also a dominant theme in her work.
