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Vincent Fantauzzo will be in conversation with Helen Musa on his memoir Unveiled, the incredible true story of how a street-fighting petty criminal, who was kicked out of school at fourteen, became one of Australia’s most celebrated and successful portrait artists.

Vincent Fantauzzo, a boy with a troubled home life and dismissed as a simpleton at school, Vincent projected a violent and frightening persona as a means of self-protection. Inside that tough exterior, however, lived a thoughtful, sensitive and creative boy whose only wish was to be loved – and to one day break free of the intergenerational dysfunction he seemed doomed to inherit. He could never have imagined how far his dream of a better life – and an uncanny knack for drawing – would take him.

Today Vincent's work hangs in galleries around the world including the National Portrait Gallery and Federal Parliament House in Canberra. He’s sold out international exhibitions, won the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award more times than any artist and twice won the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. 

Arguably, Vincent’s most impressive and important achievement is his survival and the remarkable life he willed into existence despite severe and undiagnosed dyslexia that left him with no formal education and debilitating memory problems. 

Sometimes tragic, often hilarious but always deeply moving, Unveiled is a paint-spattered, star-studded, white-knuckle ride from the Housing Commission ghettos of Australia to the art galleries of Hong Kong, through the back roads of India and into the nightclubs of New York as Vincent chases his dream with humility, humour and a boundless love for people and a life better lived.

Vincent Fantauzzo, award-winning portrait artist, completed a BA and a Masters in Fine Arts at RMIT, graduating in 2005. Fantauzzo truly emerged onto the portrait scene when his striking painting of his friend Heath Ledger took out the coveted People’s Choice Award at the 2008 Archibald Prize, winning eight the again in 2009, 2013 and 2014. In 2011, his Archibald-shortlisted portrait of chef Matt Moran won the Packing Room Prize; and his painting of director Baz Luhrmann was awarded the Moran National Portrait Prize the same year. In 2018, he was commissioned by the Historic Memorials Committee to create the official portrait of Julia Gillard for the Parliament House collection. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned Fantauzzo in 2020 to create a portrait of Hugh Jackman.

Helen Musa, OAM, CF, is an arts and cultural journalist. She is arts editor for Canberra CityNews, convener of the Canberra Critics’ Circle and Canberra representative of the Asia-Pacific Journalism Centre. In 2015, Helen was recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her service to the performing and visual arts as a critic and magazine editor.

The vote of those will be given by Cris Kennedy, Manager Public Engagement. Royal Australian Mint.

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