A striking photographic portrait celebrating Tina Arena's remarkable 50-year career is now on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The artwork, created by photographer Georges Antoni, features two photographs hung side-by-side as a diptych, capturing the complexity and spirit of one of Australia's most enduring performers.
The collaboration between Antoni and Arena began with childhood memories from the 1980s, when Antoni first heard Arena singing during the decade she released her debut single "Turn Up The Beat." Arena had been performing since the mid-1970s, when she first appeared on the television show "Young Talent Time" at just eight years old. Antoni's three older sisters were huge fans of Arena and looked up to her, a memory that remained vivid in his mind when he began discussions to create the portrait.
"I gasped, because it's not what I expected," Arena said upon seeing the finished portrait for the first time. "But I didn't really then know what to expect either. All I was hoping to achieve was that my personality, my spirit, would be able to come through in the photos, so I think we've collectively achieved that." She described Antoni as a "remarkable photographer" and noted their shared European heritage created a natural connection during the creative process.
"I think the fact that we're both of European descent, we just had a complicity that was so beautiful and we just really enjoyed working with one another," Arena explained. "It was just an environment of absolute beauty to be able to take that photo." The bond between artist and subject developed quickly, with Antoni noting that within five minutes of meeting, Arena "was like a sister of mine."
Antoni admitted to feeling "very nervous" when commissioned for the project. "Actually I couldn't really fathom that I had been asked to do it," he said. "I couldn't comprehend what I was being asked to do, to be honest. Once it all sunk in, and once I was told the purpose of the picture, it then turned into complete nerves and 'Am I good enough?'" However, his anxiety soon transformed into "pure excitement" about collaborating with Arena and the creative team.
Rather than working from a predetermined concept, Antoni approached the portrait with three specific goals. First, he wanted to reference Arena's ethnicity, which she had discussed as being crucial to her development as an artist. Second, he aimed to create ambiguity in the image to reflect Arena's multifaceted personality. "There are so many levels to Tina... there's a lot of complexity," Antoni explained. "If you look closely within those two shots, the feeling that you get from the photo can be one of two things – it could either be joy or it could be sadness, could be contemplation, could be anger. The attitude that you bring to the shot will determine how you see Tina at that time."
The photographer's third objective was ensuring Arena looked "incredibly beautiful" in the artwork, driven by his surprise that "Tina had never been on the front cover of an Australian glossy magazine, and that is a massive indictment on the Australian media industry." This goal reflected Antoni's desire to showcase Arena's deserved place in Australian culture and media.
Arena's career achievements span five decades of remarkable success in the entertainment industry. After her time on "Young Talent Time," she launched a solo career that would see her become the first woman in ARIA history to win Album of the Year. Her 1995 album "Don't Ask" became the highest-selling album of that year, cementing her status as a major force in Australian music.
Her influence extended far beyond Australia's borders, earning her two World Music Awards and a BRIT Award for her international success. The Australian government recognized her contributions with an Order of Australia, and in 2011, she achieved the historic distinction of becoming the first Australian to receive a knighthood of the French National Order of Merit for her contribution to French culture.
National Portrait Gallery director Bree Pickering emphasized the portrait's significance in representing contemporary Australia. "Our icons, it's never just their story we're telling, but we choose people whose story has a resonance beyond themselves, and that's Tina Arena," Pickering explained. "So everything she's achieved is absolutely about her, but what she has gone through over the past 50 years, the stories that tells about who we are as Australians, where we've come from, where we might like to take ourselves as a country, all of that can come through in this beautiful story."
Pickering highlighted the meaningful connection between Arena and Antoni, describing how Antoni's background as "a young Lebanese Australian who grew up in regional Queensland, whose aesthetic came about because of the way he was raised" created a unique perspective for the collaboration. "I think the combination of those two in this portrait just says so much about Australia," she noted.
The gallery director revealed that Arena had been on their radar as a potential portrait subject for some time. "It's been so incredible hearing people talk about this woman, and we've underestimated just how much she has defined our cultural fabric," Pickering said. "We're just over the moon to have her in the gallery." The portrait now joins the gallery's collection as a testament to Arena's enduring impact on Australian culture and her five decades of artistic achievement.
