Jude Rae’s observational painting practice is analytic of objects, space and light. Her work is as much concerned with the generative energy around things and the relationships adhering between them as the things themselves. Rae works within the genres of still life and large-scale interiors and landscape and the conceptual and perceptual propositions they offer as within a laboratory, subtly manipulating the variables of composition. She chooses objects emptied of sentimentality and familiarity and places them under “inquisitorial” (Rae) light. Her paintings explore the perceptual and emotional experience of looking, using ordinary objects and environments to evoke the complexity of everyday experience.

Rae has presented a solo survey exhibition at Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra (2017) and exhibited extensively in group exhibitions including The Intelligence of Painting (2025) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney and Know My Name (2020–2022) at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Alongside her exhibition practice, Rae has produced a significant body of portraiture, including official commissions for parliamentary, university and corporate collections in Australia and New Zealand. Rae is the recipient of several major prizes, including the 2025 Wynne Prize, the 2016 Bulgari Art Award and the 2005 and 2024 Portia Geach Memorial Awards.