Painter and poster artist, was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 30 November 1955. She is said to have attended boarding school in NSW where she was taught art by Joyce Allen . Lived in Sydney for years and taught printmaking at Sydney University’s Art Workshop then moved to Canberra in c.1990 with her partner, the artist and teacher Nigel Lendon. They had a son Axel before splitting up in 2000. In Canberra she exhibits prints and paintings with Helen Maxwell; her 1990 monotypes, Erosion and Ladmarks , were included in Earthly Delights: a group exhibition about the environment at aGOG from 18 August to 6 September 1990.

The NGA has a large collection of Debenham’s screenprinted posters made at the Tin Sheds, SU in the 1980s (see printout www.australianprints.gov.au). JK has copy of her most famous print, No Nukes in the Pacific (1984) – a drawing of a Hawaiian T-shirt decorated with nuclear explosions, which Debenham made into an actual T-shirt in 1995.

This entry is a stub. You can help the DAAO by submitting a biography.

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Date written:
1996
Last updated:
2007