Chris Ferric lives and works in Naarm on Bunurong Country and Wurundjeri Country. Ferric was born in Japan, which are the islands of living indigenous cultures Ainu and Uchinānchu. Ferric would like to offer a respectful acknowledgement to the Elders of these places which they occupy and have occupied, while continuing to seek-out what that means being descended from white European settlers. One way that they attempt to do this is by Paying The Rent.
Ferric is known for slow collaborations with sitters to create larger-than-life-sized oil portraits, and fast-paced drawings, live, in response to performance. In 2025 they were the winner of the Midsumma & Australia Post Art Award. As collaborator with Snuff Puppets theatre company, their drawings unfold in front of audiences from a live digital projection for Snuff Salooon.
Ferric works onstage, backstage and atypical settings, creating performance-and-site-responsive works. Alongside oil and soft-pastel paintings, they have hand-sculpted in plaster, clay, precious metal, fabric, and quite a bit of garbage, often with intimate themes connected to bodies.
Their ongoing development of a Community Engagement Strategy includes consultation with Arts Access Victoria. In 2022 under the Creative Victoria Creators Fund, Ferric spent 6 months developing methods to represent the diversity of Disabled and gender diverse experiences within their work.
Ferric is interested in collaboration and evidence-based social change. In 2025, Ferric began collaborating with Commons Social Change Library, an online library which exists to make social movements smarter and stronger. In 2026, they have been working with dedicated and loving community on a secret project.
In the face of inextricably related systemic, relational and climate change challenges, Ferric warmly invites you to reach out to have a cuppa to talk about ways of working together.
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“And maybe the power of [Jo’s portrait] comes from the fact that it is the creation of a queer/non-binary artist painting a queer/non-binary subject in a way that to me both references a queer artist of the past (El Greco), shines a light on a better future and acknowledges the power of both our presences in this present moment. I think it’s miraculous.”