Photo by @jackephillips
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Fine Arts - University of Western Sydney, 2000
Career Highlights
2011 -
Highly Commended in Blacktown City Art Prize
Finalist in Hornsby Art Prize and Gosford Art Prize
2012 -
Finalist in Sulman Prize
Finalist in Mosman Art Prize
Finalist in Gosford Art Prize
Highly Commended in Blacktown City Art Prize
2013 -
Finalist in Calleen Art Prize
'Towing the Line' group show at Old Cellars Gallery, Pambula
Work included in Blackheath Art Society Winter Exhibition
'Little Plenty' group show at Arts on Burgundy, Melbourne
Works included in Springwood Art Show
Finalist in Blacktown City Art Prize
Semi-finalist in Doug Moran Portrait Prize
2014 -
Finalist in Gallipoli Art Prize
Finalist in 'Art in the Hills' show at Oakhill College
Finalist in Blacktown City Art Prize
2015 -
'Endless Summer' solo show at Me Artspace, St Leonards, Sydney
'Guarding the Home Front' group show at Casula Powerhouse
Works on show at the Norman Lindsay Gallery Cafe, Faulconbridge
Finalist in Hawkesbury Art Prize
Highly Commended in Blacktown City Art Prize
'Simply Black and White' group show at Me Artspace
2016 -
Finalist in Gallipoli Art Prize
'Reworked' solo show for Anala Art Advisory, North Sydney
'Icons Uncovered' group show, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne
'Dystopia' group show, Tortuga Studios, St Peters
'Unpopular Penguins' solo show, Palette Dining, Katoomba
'Five Senses' group show, Virgin Walls Gallery, Blackheath
'An Evening with Art' group show, Cohen Handler HQ, Sydney
2017 -
'Street Art' solo show for Anala Art Advisory, Glenbrook NSW
'Echoes' group show for Art Month Sydney 2017, at Tortuga Studios, St Peters, Sydney
'Contempa' group show at KAB Gallery, Terrigal
'A Room With A View' solo show at Michael Reid Gallery, Murrurundi NSW
'Cover Versions' solo show for Anala Art Advisory, Glenbrook NSW
2018 -
Finalist Gosford Art Prize
Finalist ANL Maritime Art Prize
Winner DP World Emerging Artist Award
'Summer Reading' solo show at KAB Gallery, Terrigal
'FAKE' group show at Tortuga Studios, St Peters, Sydney
'Imaginary Albums' group show at Platform Gallery, Katoomba NSW
'Bluethumb Sydney' group show at M2 Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney
2019 -
'Collector's Edition 6' group show at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba NSW
'Blue Mountains Portraits' group show at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba NSW
'Wish You Were Here' group show at Me Artspace, St Leonards NSW
Featured in the Australian Financial Review (10th Jan 2019)
Featured in the Grand Designs Australia Sourcebook Vol 6
Winner of the 2019 Hawkesbury Art Prize
Finalist Gosford Art Prize
'Constant Reader' solo show at Michael Reid Murrurundi
'Pause and Reflect' group show at Sydney Road Gallery
'Summer Annual' group show at Sydney Road Gallery
Semi-finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize
Inaugural group show at the Wellington Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney
2020 -
'Untitled' group show at Traffic Jam Galleries, Neutral Bay, Sydney
2021 -
'Eat Art' group show at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery
'Space YZ' group show at the Campbelltown Arts Centre
'The Australian Country Table' group show at Michael Reid Murrurundi
2022 -
Affordable Art Fair in Sydney and Melbourne
'Let it Roll' solo show at Satch & Co. Gallery, Holbrook
'Inland See' group show at Grafton Regional Gallery
2023 -
'Modern Tables' group show at the Bluethumb Gallery, Richmond VIC
'Comfort Food' group show at The Toowoomba Gallery
Affordable Art Fair in Sydney and Melbourne
Lives in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia.
Unpopular Penguin series
I started painting these in October 2015, and had immediate success with them. Edmund Capon, former director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, said of the first painting in this series, "An evocative imagining of the familiar Penguin Paperback... it was a painting we all liked very much for its rich texture, its sense of memory and its sort of nostalgic humour."
When I started the series, I was thinking of Jasper Johns' 'Flag' series, and how he took a known and popular subject and transformed it into art, distorting clean lines with thick and layered paint. These paintings, of course, are based on the 'Popular Penguins' paperback books. The earliest were particularly minimal, with lines and dashes instead of text and very chaotic brushwork. I now alternate between cleaner designs and more expressive ones. They retain the essence of the original books, while also becoming something new.
In a similar vein, in 2016 I began to appropriate imagery from the classic boardgame Monopoly, Uno cards, and tarot cards. In 2017 I began to paint distorted versions of classic album covers.
