Luke Thurgate is an Australian painter and

mural artist A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

Early life and education

Luke Thurgate graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts from

University of Newcastle, Australia The University of Newcastle is a Public university#Australia, public university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1965, it has a primary campus in the Newcastle suburb of Callaghan, New South Wales, Callaghan. The univers ...

in 2007, and went on to do a Masters of Fine Arts 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 ...

, where he also teaches drawing.

Career

Thurgate's extensive exhibition history in Australia and New Zealand including exhibitions at Burra Regional Art Gallery,

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 ...

, Backwoods Gallery,

, Adelaide Central Gallery, M.Contemporary, Mop Project Space, John Miller Gallery, Watt Space Gallery and John Paynter Gallery. His works are often featured in LGBTQIA+ festivals and events such as

Sydney Mardi Gras The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest LGBT festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the ...

, Sydney

WorldPride WorldPride is a series of international LGBT pride events coordinated by InterPride; they are hosted in conjunction with local LGBT pride festivals, with host cities selected via bids voted on during InterPride's annual general meetings. Its cor ...

, and Auckland Pride Festival.

Recognition

In 2009, Thurgate was a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize. In 2020, he was a finalist in the Tom Bass Figurative Sculpture Prize and the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award. Thurgate's finalist 2019 Dobell Drawing Prize entry was featured in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

. His finalist 2023 Dobell Drawing Prize was a performance piece drawn on the opening night, a big mural that is semi-permanent, where it was eventually covered with wall paint, and no traces of the drawing would remain. This is common with Thurgate's work, where it is drawn on the walls with charcoal and displayed for a limited time only.

Residencies

* 2018: The Burra Archive, Burra Regional Art Gallery * 2017:

Seymour College Seymour College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for girls, located at Glen Osmond, Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1922 as Presbyterian Girls' College, and renamed for the Rev. J. A. Seymour, Seymour has ...

, Adelaide * 2017: Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Adelaide * 2015: Artlab Australia, Adelaide * 2005: Rocket Art, Antique Boys Artist in Residence, Newcastle

Collections

Thurgate's works are in numerous private and public collections, including

, Maitland Regional Art Gallery,

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

, Catherine Croll Collection, and Alex Seton Collection.

Exhibitions

Selected solo and collaborative exhibitions

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

, 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 ...

* 2023: ''Dress Code, .''M Contemporary, Darlinghurst, Australia * 2023: ''Adore You,'' Sydney WorldPride, NAS Gallery, Sydney, Australia * 2022: ''Lisa Jones & Luke Thurgate'', .M Contemporary, Darlinghurst, Australia * 2018: ''The Burra Archive'', Burra Regional Art Gallery, Australia * 2016: ''Face Off'', Floating Goose Studios, Adelaide, Australia * 2016: ''Efface'' (with Chelsea Lehmann), Strange Neighbour Gallery, Melbourne, Australia * 2010: ''How to Draw Sex, Violence and Death the Luke Thurgate Way'', Firstdraft, Sydney, Australia * 2005: ''Yellow Socks Brigade'' (with Lucas Grogan), Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle, Australia

Selected group exhibitions

* 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: ''Sydney Contemporary Art Fair'', M.Contemporary, Sydney, Australia * 2023: ''Holy Smokes'', Backwoods Gallery, Collingwood, Australia * 2023: ''Pride & Prejudice, Part 1,'' Bergman Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand * 2010: ''Labelled Queer'', Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland, Australia * 2017: ''The Drawing Exchange'', Adelaide Central School of Art & National Art School, Australia * 2015: ''Adorn'', Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide, Australia * 2014: ''Gematria'', Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide, Australia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thurgate, Luke Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Sydney 21st-century Australian painters