Garry Shead is an Australian artist and filmmaker. His paintings are in many galleries in Australia and overseas, and he has won several awards, including the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

in 1992. He has spent time in Japan,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, France, Austria, and Hungary, returning to Australia in the 1980s.

Early life and education

Born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, he studied at the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...

in the 1960s.

Career

He was a founding member of the Ubu Films collective in the late 1960s, with whom he made numerous experimental film works,Peter Mudie - ''Sydney Underground Movies: Ubu Films 1965-1970'' (UNSW Press, 1997) and he also worked for the ABC as an editor, cartoonist, filmmaker and scenic painter before his first major solo exhibition with Watters Gallery in

. He was a friend of

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley Order of Australia, AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize, Archibald, Wynne Prize, ...

and participated in the famous Yellow House activities. He has shown in more than seventy group exhibitions and had over fifty solo exhibitions, as well as illustrating numerous books. He spent six months in Paris in 1973. In the 1980s he spent time in France, Spain, Italy and Holland. During a residency at the Karolyi Foundation, in Vence in southern France, he met Hungarian sculptor Judith Englert, and spent a year in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

with her before returning to Australia. In 1987 they eventually settled in the seaside suburb of Bundeena, south of Sydney. During the late 1980s his style (figurative, allegoric, lyric, moody) crystallized with the Bundeena paintings, the Queen series and the D. H. Lawrence series. This last is based mainly on Lawrence's novel '' Kangaroo (novel)'', which was inspired by the Lawrences' stay at Thirroul, near

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

. Shead became interested in Lawrence after he came across letters by the author while on an expedition with the ABC to the Sepik Highlands in

in 1968. The 21st century saw him branch out into a complex set of paintings celebrating the Ern Malley series of hoax poems.

Personal life

In 1967 he married folk singer and civil rights activist

Odetta Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...

. They later divorced.

Awards

Shead won the Young Contemporaries Prize in 1967. He won the Archibald Prize in 1993 with a portrait of Tom Thompson. He also painted a portrait of Brett Whiteley's ex-wife Wendy Whiteley for the Archibald Prize, but that entry did not win.Picture this: Steve Meacham, Brisbane Times, 23 February 2008
/ref> He was a finalist in the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. He won the Dobell Prize in 2004 with ''Colloquy with John Keats''.

Collections

Shead is represented in the National Gallery of Australia and all state galleries, many regional galleries and numerous private and corporate collections, both nationally and internationally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shead, Garry Archibald Prize winners Australian painters Living people Artists from Sydney People educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School 1942 births 20th-century Australian artists