Anna Austin was born in Adelaide in 1981 and grew up in the Adelaide Hills. Anna studied printmaking at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts, where she was mentored in mezzotint printing by master printer Bill Young through the Helpmann Academy’s Optus Mentorship Scheme. After graduating, she completed a six-week summer internship at Anchor Graphics printmaking studio in Chicago.
Over the past two decades, Anna has developed a dedicated printmaking practice, working across etching, mezzotint, lithography, and linocut. She has held solo exhibitions at Hill Smith Gallery (Adelaide) and The Art Vault (Mildura) and has exhibited widely in group shows both in Australia and internationally. Her residencies include The Art Vault (Mildura), Curtin Springs Station (Northern Territory), Art Print Residence (Barcelona) and Baldessin Press (Victoria).
In 2016, Anna participated in a traditional washi (Japanese paper) making workshop at the Awagami Factory on Shikoku Island, Japan. Following the workshop, she and her partner travelled the Tokushima Prefecture section of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage - an historic Buddhist route encircling the island. This journey inspired a body of work in etching and mezzotint, with blue tones drawn from a day spent indigo dyeing (aizome), referencing the region’s long-standing tradition of indigo cultivation.
Anna returned to Japan the following year to take part in a kozo and mitsumata harvesting workshop - plants used in washi production - and to complete the Kochi Prefecture section of the pilgrimage. After a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Anna completed the remaining sections of the pilgrimage in 2024.