Denied: Portraits of Wrongful Conviction

Brisbane based visual artist, Sky Parra, paints a series of visceral oil portraits depicting those wrongfully convicted of serious crimes. Utilising the humanising agency of oil paint, Parra renders intimate works from face-to-face sittings.

Your donation allows Parra to continue with this important work by funding her studio needs and travel to meet with victims of miscarriages of justice across the country.

In collaboration with leading legal scholar Dr Robert Moles, this project unites with existing legal advocacy, bringing new understanding and awareness to this nationally urgent issue. Dr Moles asserts the seriousness of the problem stating that “Australia has the worst criminal injustice record in the Anglosphere.”

Portraying the innocent and unfairly tried, each portrait explores profound upheaval, displacement and vulnerability, highlighting poignant individual cases and systematic indigenous inequity.

DENIED will enable sitters to be represented as they need to be seen; as people who have been harmed by the system that ought to have protected them. Holding space for exchange, each portrait helps to restore their normality, humanity and dignity.

Sitters have been found innocent through forensic evidence, on the basis of misconduct and/or exoneration/acquittal. While some have been released; many are still incarcerated. It’s now our responsibility to look and engage in a critical conversation.