Lucas Grogan (born 1984) is an Australian artist born in

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega, New South Wales, Bega with the Riverina. ...

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 ...

. Grogan is a painter and textile artist currently based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. Grogan exhibited overseas and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

since 2005.

Art career

Grogan grew up in Maitland, and consider Maitland his hometown. Grogan left Maitland and studied art at Newcastle University in 2003 to base himself in Melbourne. According to Grogan, he "failed spectacularly", but learned on the job about life as a practising artist via volunteer and paid jobs at artist-run and commercial galleries in Newcastle and

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 ...

as gallery attendant to exhibition installer and floor manager. His career took off in 2008 when he was featured in

Biennale of Sydney The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

at the age of 24 with his two toned paintings and embroidered textiles. In 2020, he had a retrospective of his work in Maitland Regional Art Gallery. His style is almost always blue and white colours in his paintings and textile art. Grogan's inspirations and influences includes islamic motifs and patterns in his geometric line-work to traditional Aboriginal paintings. Grogan also used text in his art, using sarcastic quotes that jump out at the viewer which can be famous, overheard and everyday sayings. Many of the phrases are from the style of text messaging. On his use of texts, Grogan said, “They are sarcastic, but at times they’re also painfully honest and sincere.” All his texts and intricately detailed patterns are painted freehand. Grogan has shown in Australia and internationally such as

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Grogan received Red Gate residency in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, and completed major murals commissions in Bali, Newcastle, Melbourne and Perth. His works are in private and public collections across Australia, including

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

Newcastle Art Gallery The Newcastle Art Gallery, formerly the Newcastle City Art Gallery and Newcastle Region Art Gallery, is a large public art museum in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. History Founded in 1945 with an art collection consisting of 123 wor ...

Art Gallery of Ballarat The Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest regional art gallery in Australia. It was established in 1884 as the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by a company of interested citizens led by James Oddie. It initially rented out the first floor of the Balla ...

, Westfarmers,

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, and Ararat Gallery.

Residencies

* 2013: Artist in Residence, Red Gate, Beijing, China * 2013: Harvested Workshop Residency, Melbourne, Australia * 2012: Australian Tapestry Workshop Residency, Melbourne, Australia

Selected solo exhibitions

* 2023: ''Lucas Grogan: Cabinets,'' Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia * 2021: ''Lucas Grogan: A Short Sharp Thread'', Martin Browne Contemporary, Paddington, Sydney, Australia * 2020: ''Long Story Short'', Maitland Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, Australia * 2020: ''Lucas Grogan: Last Last Night,'' Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia * 2019: ''Lucas Grogan: Groundbreakingflorals'', Martin Browne Contemporary, Paddington, Sydney, Australia * 2018: ''Lucas Grogan: Bedrooms'', Yavuz Gallery, Singapore * 2017: ''Lucas Grogan: Skies'', Turner Galleries, Northbridge, Australia * 2017: ''Lucas Grogan: Thought & Prayers,'' Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, Australia

Selected group exhibitions

* 2024: ''Lucas Grogan and Luke Thurgate: Heralds'',

Bergman Gallery Bergman Gallery is an international commercial art gallery with an original gallery in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and a second gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. Bergman Gallery represents and has represented many significant international artist ...

, Auckland,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

* 2024: ''Aotearoa Art Fair'', Bergman Gallery,

Viaduct Events Centre The Viaduct Events Centre is a stand-alone, multi-purpose events centre built on the Halsey Street extension wharf, Wynyard Quarter of Auckland, New Zealand. It was owned and operated by Regional Facilities Auckland, an organisation under the con ...

, Auckland, New Zealand * 2023: ''Holy SMokes,'' Backwoods Gallery, Collingwood, Australia * 2023: ''Pride & Prejudice, Part 1,'' Bergman Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand * 2018: ''The Big Blue'', Bergman Gallery,

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

* 2017: ''Slipstitch'',

Mosman Art Gallery Mosman Art Gallery is the main public art gallery for the Mosman area on the north shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland ...

, Sydney, Australia * 2017: ''Sydney Contemporary'', Yavuz Gallery, Sydney, Australia * 2017: ''Art Basel Hong Kong'', Yavuz Gallery, Hong Kong * 2016: ''Antipodean'', Yavuz Gallery, Singapore * 2014: ''These Works'', Salon Zücher, Paris,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

* 2014: Melbourne Art Fair, Gallerysmith, Melbourne, Australia * 2013: ''Sacred/Iconic'', Garis & Hahn, New York, United States of America * 2013: ''Wonderworks'', The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong * 2005: ''Yellow Socks Brigade'' (with Luke Thurgate), Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle, Australia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grogan, Lucas 1984 births Living people Artists from Melbourne 21st-century Australian painters Australian artists