Euan Macleod (born 1956) is a New Zealand-born artist. Macleod was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1981, where he lives and works. He received a Certificate in Graphic Design from

Christchurch Technical College Ara Institute of Canterbury, often simply referred to as Ara, is an institute of technology in Canterbury, New Zealand. It was formed in 2016 from the merger of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and Aoraki Polytechnic. Ara ...

in 1975 and a Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

in 1979. As well as pursuing his art he also teaches painting at the National Art School in Sydney.

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.O'Brien (2010) pg. 8 He has been described as both an expressionist and a

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

and his dense, textured and sculptural use of paint has become a consistent feature of his work. 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.

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. Since then he has held over 100 solo shows and been involved in over 200 group shows. He exhibits most frequently with

Niagara Galleries Niagara Galleries shows contemporary and Modernist Australian art in Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne, from a terrace which has been substantially remodelled in a postmodern style. History The gallery was established by Kyneton High Sch ...

, Melbourne; Watters Gallery,

; and Bowen Galleries, Wellington. Macleod has been involved in the Melbourne Art Fair since 2004 as well as the Auckland Art Fair since 2007.

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 New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and collections throughout New Zealand, including the Chartwell Collection, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Christchurch.

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. He was the Archibald Prize finalist in

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and

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. In 2021 he won the Dobell Drawing Prize with a pastel-on-paper work entitled ''Borderlands''.

References

External links

Euan Macleod's page at Niagara Galleries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, Euan 1956 births Living people Australian painters Archibald Prize winners University of Canterbury alumni Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni Blake Prize for Religious Art winners New Zealand emigrants to Australia Archibald Prize finalists Australian portrait painters