Euan Macleod

Last updated

Euan Macleod
Born1956 (age 6667)
NationalityNew Zealand
Education Canterbury University, Christchurch NZ
Known forPainting
Awards Archibald Prize
1999 Self portrait/head like a hole
Blake Prize for Religious Art
2006 Untitled Landscape with Figure

Euan Macleod (born 1956) is a New Zealand-born artist. Macleod was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Sydney, Australia in 1981, where he lives and works. He received a Certificate in Graphic Design from Christchurch Technical College in 1975 and a Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Canterbury in 1979. [1] As well as pursuing his art he also teaches painting at the National Art School in Sydney.

Contents

Style

Macleod deals mostly with landscapes and the human presence within it. The lone, anonymous figure is a common symbol in his work that embodies both the artist's self-portrait and the "Everyman" or universal experience of emptiness, worthlessness and impotence. [2] He has been described as both an expressionist and a symbolist and his dense, textured and sculptural use of paint has become a consistent feature of his work. [3] Macleod is not limited when it comes to the landscapes he paints, feeling equally at home in the picturesque New Zealand countryside and the harsh and flat Australian outback and often painting a hybrid of both landscapes. [2]

Exhibitions

Throughout his career, Macleod has exhibited frequently. In 1980 he was involved in his first exhibition Tar Paint Plastic at the Settlement Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand with artists Debra Bustin and Alison Clouston, which was hailed as an "impressive debut" by reviewer Neil Rowe. [1] Since then he has held over 100 solo shows and been involved in over 200 group shows. He exhibits most frequently with Niagara Galleries, Melbourne; Watters Gallery, Sydney; and Bowen Galleries, Wellington. Macleod has been involved in the Melbourne Art Fair since 2004 as well as the Auckland Art Fair since 2007. [4]

Collections

Macleod's work is featured in public and private collections across Australia and overseas. In Australia he is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art and Art Gallery of Western Australia as well as state, regional, university and private collections. Internationally Macleod's work is featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and collections throughout New Zealand, including the Chartwell Collection, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Christchurch. [4]

Awards

Macleod was a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 1998 with a 3m wide work "Seascape through Figures" then again in 1999 and 2003 and won the Archibald Prize in 1999, with his painting titled Self portrait/head like a hole. He was a finalist in the Sulman Prize in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000, before winning the prize in 2001, with the painting titled Exquisite Corpse with Fire. Macleod won the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2006 and the Gallipoli Art Prize in 2009. [1] He was the Archibald Prize finalist in 2018, 2019 and 2021. [5] In 2021 he won the Dobell Drawing Prize with a pastel-on-paper work entitled Borderlands. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Olsen (Australian artist)</span> Australian artist (1928–2023)

John Henry Olsen AO OBE was an Australian artist and winner of the 2005 Archibald Prize. Olsen's primary subject of work was landscape.

Nicholas Harding was a British-born Australian artist, known for his paintings, in particular portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Buckmaster</span> Australian painter

Ernest William Buckmaster (1897–1968) was an Australian artist born in Victoria. He won the Archibald Prize in 1932 with a portrait of Sir William Irvine. He also served as an Australian war artist during World War II.

Jenny Sages is an Archibald Prize People's Choice Award winning Australian artist. She is known for her abstract landscape paintings and portraits. She arrived in Australia in 1948. After being expelled from East Sydney Tech, Jenny moved to New York to study at Franklin School of Art. She was a freelance writer and illustrator for Vogue Australia until the 1980s before starting full-time painting in 1985 at the age of 52. Her career transformation was greatly influenced by a trip to Kimberley, Western Australia, where she felt enchanted by the local indigenous culture. Her unique style is created using wax and pigments and the minimal use of brushes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Quilty</span> Australian artist and social commentator

Ben Quilty is an Australian artist and social commentator, who has won a series of painting prizes: the 2014 Prudential Eye Award, 2011 Archibald Prize, and 2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has been described as one of Australia's most famous living artists.

Elisabeth Cummings is an Australian artist known for her large abstract paintings and printmaking. She has won numerous awards including Fleurieu Art Prize, The Portia Geach Portrait Prize, The Mosman Art Prize, and The Tattersalls Art Prize. Her work is owned in permanent collections across Australia including Artbank, The Queensland Art Gallery, The Gold Coast City Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is notable for receiving recognition later in her career, considered by the Australian Art Collector as one of the 50 most collectible Australian Artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shane Cotton</span> New Zealand artist

Shane William Cotton is a New Zealand painter whose work explores biculturalism, colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality, and life and death.

Imants Tillers, is an Australian artist, curator and writer. He lives and works in Cooma, New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Leach (artist)</span> Australian artist

Sam Leach is an Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at RMIT in Melbourne, Victoria. Leach currently resides in Melbourne. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows including "Optimism" at the Queensland Art Gallery and "Neo Goth" at the University of Queensland Art Museum in 2008, in 2009 "the Shilo Project" at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and "Horror Come Darkness" at the Macquarie University Art Gallery and "Still" at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010. His work is held in public collections of regional galleries of Geelong, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Gippsland and the collections of La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.

Fiona Lowry is an Australian painter who airbrushes pale colours to portray landscapes with people in them. The landscapes are beautiful and ambiguous, provoking the dangerous side of wilderness. Lowry also paints portraits and won the 2014 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a portrait of Penelope Seidler. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, as well as the state galleries of Australia and in private collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Storrier</span>

Tim Storrier AM is an Australian artist who won the 2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with The Lunar Savant, a portrait of fellow artist McLean Edwards.

Alexander McKenzie is an Australian contemporary artist.

John Peart was an Australian contemporary artist. Peart won the Wynne Prize in 1997, the Sulman Prize in 2000, and was twice a finalist for the Archibald Portrait Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas MacDiarmid</span> New Zealand painter (1922–2020)

Douglas Kerr MacDiarmid was a New Zealand expatriate painter, known for his diversity and exceptional use of colour, and involved with key movements in twentieth-century art. He lived in Paris, France, for most of his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reinis Zusters</span> Latvian-born Australian artist

Reinis Zusters was a Latvian-born Australian artist. Zusters was a prolific painter, working predominantly in oils, painting many large landscapes, including triptychs of the Blue Mountains. Zusters drew much of his inspiration from the Australian countryside, depicting the colour and form of nature as a rich and vibrant panorama.

Frances Dolina Ellis was an artist, printmaker and teacher who lived, worked and exhibited in both Australia and New Zealand. Ellis was well-known in the arts community in New Zealand and whilst living in Australia she had a significant professional relationship with artist and art teacher Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo.

Alan Pearson (1929–2019) was a neo-expressionist painter who lived in New Zealand and, in his later life, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blak Douglas</span> Australian artist

Blak Douglas, formerly known as Adam Douglas Hill, is an Aboriginal Australian artist and musician. As of May 2022 he is based in Sydney, New South Wales.

Jude Rae is an Australian artist. She has exhibited, predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, since the 1980s, and is famous for her still life paintings, large scale interiors, and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Armiger Bowring</span> New Zealand artist, cartoonist and illustrator

Walter Armiger Bowring was a New Zealand portrait and landscape painter, illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist, also successful in London and Australia. He was an unofficial World War I artist and a collection of his early work is contained in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. He entered 14 portraits in Sydney’s Archibald Prize from 1925. His subjects included public figures, such as politicians, Governors-General, military men and academics: Richard John Seddon, William Ferguson Massey, Harold Beauchamp, William Rolleston, William Sefton Moorhouse, the Earl of Ranfurly, Lord Mountbatten, Viscount Hawkesbury, Lord Jellicoe, Bernard Freyberg, and a number of prominent women. A number of his World War I works are included in the National Collection of War Art in Archives New Zealand, a collection merged in the 1950s with works from World War II; and three portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 O'Brien, Gregory (2010). Euan Macleod: The Painter in Painting. Sydney: Piper Press. ISBN   9780975190197.
  2. 1 2 O'Brien (2010) pg. 8
  3. Buchanan, Kent. "Surface Tension: The Art of Euan Macleod" (PDF). Tweed River Art Gallery. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Euan Macleod" (PDF). Watters Gallery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  5. "Archibald prize 2021: Grace Tame, Ben Quilty, Eryn Jean Norvill and more – in pictures". The Guardian. 27 May 2021. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  6. Galvin, Nick (25 March 2021). "'It's bloody fantastic': Modest artist scoops $30,000 prize". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
Awards
Preceded by Archibald Prize
1999
for Self portrait/head like a hole
Succeeded by