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Helen McCullagh

Sam Field

I paint many things, including but not limited to landscapes, still lifes, portraits and genre paintings.  The subjects of these works include race, identity, masculinity, and our relationship with landscape, embodied through metaphorical forms and loaded symbology.

 

I am endlessly fascinated by the Australian narrative, whatever that means. For the large part, the whole Australian meta-narrative post colonisation has been derived from a small number of historical events, stories, and mythologies. They have been painted and sung about, and embodied in poetry, language and school curricula. They ‘define’ us as a nation and as a people and lay the foundation of our ‘esprit de corps’.   As we move into a globalised culture this idealistic (and patriarchal) vision is waning in its relevance and popularity – and some may say rightly so. I paint to unpack that lexicon. To understand what it means to be an Australian, a man, and a white man. It is to understand why I am here and how that effects who I am. I suppose my paintings are about romance and an attachment to the mythic past which is neither tangible nor real, and the realisation of this fiction.

Studies and Employment

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17 – 18   Artist Assistant for Luke Sciberras

13 – 16   Bachelor of Fine Arts UTAS

 

Solo Exhibitions

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2018   Have One on Me, Despard Gallery, Hobart

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

 

2019 Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney

2019 Genius Loci, Amber Creswell Bell, Stanley St. Gallery, Sydney

2019 Beyond the Range, AK Bellinger gallery, Inverell

2018   Hadley’s Art Prize, Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart

2018   Despard Summer show, Despard Gallery, Hobart

2018   Shrines, Visual Bulk, Hobart

2017   RACT Portraiture Prize, Long Gallery, Hobart

2016   The Sun Will Burn Your Eyes But Only People Make You Cry,

           Entrepot Gallery, Hobart

2016   Bay of Fires Art Prize, St Helens

 

Prizes

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2016   Contemporary Arts Tasmania (CAT) Prize

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