Jim Conway, harmonica player, composer and music producer, began his career with the frenetic jug outfit, the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, in the 1970s. Captain Matchbox was fronted by Conway’s brother, Mic (later the founder of Circus Oz). Jim played harmonica and kazoo and sang with the band on releases such as the definitive album Wangaratta Wahine (1974). The siblings played together in the Conway Brothers’ Hiccups Band from 1984 to 1988. That year Jim joined the Backsliders, who toured Australia for many years and released a number of critically–acclaimed albums. In 2006 he left the Backsliders to focus on Jim Conway’s Big Wheel. Director of the Balmain Acoustica music festival since 2005, Conway is also a session musician in demand, working across blues, jazz and country styles. He has composed, produced and recorded music for many film and radio projects; a documentary about his music and his life with multiple sclerosis was made in 1999.
Artist Greg Warburton has worked for many years for organisations assisting people with disabilities. Symptoms of multiple sclerosis often worsen in hot weather, and sitting in Warburton’s hot studio, Conway closed his eyes, as he often does while performing.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2009
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Greg Warburton
Accession number: 2009.53
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Greg Warburton (2 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Penelope Grist spends some quality time with the Portrait Gallery’s summer collection exhibition, Eye to Eye.
Anne Sanders and Christopher Chapman bring passionate characterisation to Express Yourself, the Portrait Gallery collection exhibition celebrating iconoclastic Australians.
Eye to Eye is a summer Portrait Gallery Collection remix arranged by degree of eye contact – from turned away with eyes closed all the way through to right-back-at-you – as we explore artists’ and subjects’ choices around the direction of the gaze.
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