John R Walker Winter in the Fire Forest
John R Walker Winter in the Fire Forest
20 October - 17 November, 2012
Š Utopia Art Sydney
John R Walker Winter in the Fire Forest
by Chloe Watson
Winter in the Fire Forest is a body of work that can be tentatively traced to a discovery Walker made whilst painting at the edge of a mountain ash forest near Reidsdale, New South Wales some seven years ago. In the mossy quiet, amongst lush ferns, Walker stumbled across the huge, very charred stump of a burnt tree: It suddenly hit me that I was in this forest and it felt wet and cold and damp, but not that long ago, sometime in the past twenty or thirty or fifty years, it had been on fire. That sort of sums up certain things about the forests around here…1 The eucalypt forests of the regions hugging the south eastern Australian coastline depend on fire for their survival. What destroys the highly flammable trees is also their means of rebirth. It was perhaps this sense of deep time and cyclical natural forces that struck Walker as he contemplated the charcoal stump amongst verdant undergrowth. The series of seven canvases titled Winter in the Fire Forest, mainly executed this year in Walker’s Braidwood studio, are imbued with a recollection of that Riedsdale fire forest, refreshed by walks into the bush-land of the local Mount Gillamatong.2 They are dreamscapes, misty and filled with potential – not of a particular landscape but rather capturing some essence, fuelled by memory, of the Australian bush – in Walker’s words ‘a sound, or an absence of sound… a strange sort of humming.’ Andrew Sayers has said of Walker’s paintings that ‘it is almost as though the forest acts as a kind of “reserve” in his mental picture of the country.’3 Certainly, whilst Walker has often been described as a painter who places one ‘in the landscape’, his works have less often placed one ‘in the forest’ in the same way as this most recent series does. The absence of horizon line, the moody tonality of filtered light, the scratchings that might be trees and might be marks alone – all of these elements create a strong sense of being in a space that is at once familiar and fantastical. This is a space that has to be worked through by the viewer. The bones of the image are in a sense abstract – a pink daub here, a charcoal line there, a fine edge of blue wash that might just be sky. It is through the formal process of viewing one of these paintings that the shapes and structures of a landscape (whether real or imagined) emerge.
John R Walker Winter in the Fire Forest
These works can be viewed as a sequence of interconnecting episodes that work together in a rhythmic flow – each unique image building upon and deepening the motifs of the next. Walker has often worked across a schema of multiple views or moments. Site, an over seven meter long four-panel painting from 2011, works in such a way, evoking a rambling narrative of wandering through the bush around Braidwood. Similarly, Walker paints in Chinese concertina books. In this format, scenes often unfold episodically across a multitude of paper panels. In Walker’s art the history of the painting process – the visceral quality of paint on canvas, the marks over marks over marks – mimics the history of the landscape: ‘the landscape here is full of ghosts… there are all these funny traces of what has been and what isn’t there’. In this way, the delicate charred tracings of the Winter in the Fire Forest series resonate with the intricate meshwork of fence-lines and gates that Walker has been exploring for many years – marking traces of past activities within the landscape: ‘What really interests me are these funny areas that are not wilderness, but they are not urban… they are the boundary zones; places of transition’. Crust, the large-scale canvas from early 2012, is a fine example of the mesh motif in Walker’s work, emerging here at the bottom of an erosion gully rendered in wild oranges and pinks against the more typical Australian straw. Walker’s acute sense of the structures and possibilities of the Australian landscape continues the tradition of painters such as Arthur Streeton, Fred Williams and Sidney Nolan. Streeton’s Fire’s On holds a particularly important place in Walker’s art. In a similar way to his discovery of the charred stump in the Riedsdale ash forest, Walker had ‘a moment’ with this painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales some twenty years ago: ‘it just suddenly struck me how potent it was… this strange way in which the landscape is just there, and all the human dramas look really very small.’ In Walker’s most recent paintings, the grand themes of death and rebirth are absorbed into a familiar yet strange sense of place. John Donne touches upon these themes in his poem ‘Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness’. The following stanza had a strong resonance with Walker’s thinking throughout the painting process and serves as a fitting conclusion: I joy, that in these straits I see my west; For, though their currents yield return to none, What shall my west hurt me? As west and east In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, So death doth touch the resurrection.
1 All quotes from the artist are from a conversation with the author in Walker’s Braidwood studio on 5 September, 2012. 2 The ‘originating’, painting from this series is the 2005 board that has spent the past number of years on the wall of Walker’s living-room. 3 Andrew Sayers, ‘John R Walker’s Landscape’ in John R Walker: Working in the La ndscape, exh. cat., Utopia Art Sydney, 3 - 24 Nov 2007, 6.
Winter in the Fire Forest, 2005, archival oil on board, 60 x 80cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 2, 2012, arch
hival oil on polyester, 182.5 x 160cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 3, 2012, arc
chival oil on polyester, 183 x 161cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 4, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 180 x 88cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 5, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 176 x 109.5cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 1, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 180 x 85cm
Winter in the Fire Forest 6, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 117 x 185cm
Spring in the Fire Forest, 2012, arc
chival oil on polyester, 180 x 199cm
Black Wattle, 2012, archival oil on paper, 76 x 56cm
Black Wattle Ridge I, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 179.5 x 134.5cm
Crust, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 184.5 x 477cm
Birds Nest Forest, 2012, archival oil on polyester, 178.5 x 68cm
Winter in the Plum Hedge, 2012, gouache on paper, 56 x 76cm
Winter Brambles, 2012, gouache on paper, 56 x 76cm
Three Trees Bedervale, 2011, gouache on paper, 56 x 76cm
My East and My West Are One, 2008, gouache on paper, 56 x 76cm
John R Walker Biography
Solo Exhibitions 2012 2011 2010 2008 2007 2005 2004 2003 2002 2000 1999 1997 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1986 1985 1984 1982 1979
‘Winter in the Fire Forest’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Space & Time: 10 Years in the Landscape’ Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW ‘Site’ Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Shed’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Journey through Landscape’, S. H. Ervin Gallery, NSW ‘Gateless Gate’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Working in the Landscape’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Gullies, Roads, Dry Lands and Forests’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Dry Land Paintings’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Paintings from Tallaganda’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Paintings from Bundanon’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Gully’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Paintings for a New Republic’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The House of the Stare’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘In a Free State’, Tamworth City Gallery, NSW ‘Pictures from Home’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘New Paintings’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Recent Works’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘New Sculpture’, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA ‘Favourite Paintings’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Recent Figures’, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA ‘Drawings’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW Tolarno Gallery, Melbourne ‘Austral Gallery’, St Louis, USA ‘Figures on Paper’, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA ‘Utopia Art Sydney’, NSW ‘Recent Painting’, Tolarno Gallery, Melbourne, VIC ‘Deceit, Desire & Narcissus’, Mori Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Tolarno Gallery’, Melbourne, VIC ‘The Family’, Mori Gallery, Sydney, NSW Mori Gallery, Sydney, NSW The Student Gallery (later renamed Mori Gallery), Sydney, NSW
Group Exhibitions 2012 ‘Bronze’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘paperworks’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Repertoire’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW 2011 ‘Heads’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Salon des Refuses’ S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Alone off the Press’ Braidwood, NSW ‘Up Close and Personal: works from the collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM’, S. H. Ervin Gallery, NSW Fleurieu Art Prize, Hardys Winery, McLaren Vale, SA 2010 ‘Museum III’ Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’ Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘two six two two’, Goulburn Regional Gallery, NSW ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2010’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC ‘KIAF 2010, Korea International Art Fair’,COEX, Seoul, Korea 2009 ‘pinned & framed’ Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Power of Print’, NG Art Gallery, NSW ‘Mono Uno: Australian Monotypes in the Charles Sturt
2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
University Art Collection’ Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (the EMSLA)’, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW ‘The 23 Annual Packsaddle Selling Exhibition’, New England Regional Art Museum, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘The Melbourne Art Fair 2008’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Vic ‘North South East West’ Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Kedumba Drawing Prize’, Kedumba Regional Gallery, NSW ‘Art of the Nude: Work from the collection of Alex Mackay” Albury Art Gallery NSW ‘Salon des Refuses’, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Being at Bundanon’, Mosman Region Art Gallery, NSW (toured by Bundanon Trust), ‘The Big Picture’, The Delmar Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘The Archibald Prize 06’, Art Gallery of New South Wales and touring, NSW ‘View of Maitland from the riverbank’, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland, NSW ‘Chroma Collection’, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Truth and Likeness’, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT ‘The Melbourne Art Fair 2006’. Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne VIC ‘Moist’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and touring, ACT ‘Friends and Neighbours – Togetherness’, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW ‘Bleak Epiphanies’, Virginia Wilson Art, Sydney, NSW ‘Museum II’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Archibald Prize 05’, Art Gallery of New South Wales and touring, NSW ‘New Ideas 2005’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘2005 Robert Jacks Drawing Prize’, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC ‘Same Place Many Views’, Defiance Gallery, Sydney, NSW Hazelhurst Art Award 2005 - Art on Paper, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, NSW Marea Gazzard ‘the odyssey’ & John R Walker ‘dry land paintings’, Silvershot, Melbourne, VIC ‘Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting’, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2004’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC ‘Depth of Field – Anamorphosis’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘A Stroke of Art’, The Gallery, NSW Parliament House, Sydney, NSW ‘Bloomsday Door Exhibition’, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney, NSW ‘A Stroke of Art’, The Gallery, NSW Parliament House, Sydney, NSW ‘The Archibald Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales
John R Walker Biography - continued
touring exhibition, NSW ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘The Archibald Prize’, touring exhibition to NSW and VIC venues ‘Arthur Guy Memorial painting Prize’, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC 2002 ‘The Year In Review’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award’, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW ‘The Fleurieu Prize’, Mclaren Vale, SA ‘Conrad Jupiters Art Prize’, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2002’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC ‘Salon des Refuses’, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘The Wynne and Sulman Prizes’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Sculpture 2002’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Solstice’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW 2001 ‘Museum’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Gone Bush’, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, NSW ‘8th International Works on Paper Fair’, Fox Studios Australia, Sydney, NSW ‘Over the Back Fence’, Bowen Galleries, Wellington, NZ ‘The Archibald’, ‘Wynne’ and ‘Sulman Prizes’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Bat, Ball & Brush – A Summer of Cricket & Art’, Sydney Cricket Ground, NSW 2001, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Archibald Prize’, touring exhibition to NSW and VIC venues 2000 ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2000’, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC ‘The Archibald Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales and NSW regional tour ‘SCEGGS Redlands-Westpac Invitational Art Prize’, Cremorne, Sydney, NSW ‘Bloomsday Lunch Exhibition’, ASN Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW ‘Half Metre Square’, Work by teaching staff, National Art School, Sydney, NSW Landscape, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Encore’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW 1999 ‘7th International Works on Paper Fair’, Fox Studios, Sydney, NSW ‘Mosman Art Prize’, Mosman Region Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘University and Schools Club Prize Exhibition’, University and Schools Club, Sydney, NSW 1998 ‘National Works on Paper Award’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC ‘Bloomsday: Joyce & the Nymph’, Coach House Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW ‘Symbiosis’, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale and Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘ACAF 6’, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC ‘Kedumba Invitation Drawing Award’, Leura, NSW
1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987
‘Faces of Hope’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Drawn from Life’, National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition, ACT ‘6th International Works on Paper Fair’, State Library of New South Wales, NSW ‘Bronze’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Portraits’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Nineteeninetyseven’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Theresa Byrnes Foundation’, Westpac Art Auction, Westpac Plaza, Sydney, NSW ‘ACAF 5’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC ‘Return from the Art Fair’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Paperwork’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘The Gesture’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Flagging the Republic’, Sherman Galleries and New England Regional Art Museum touring exhibition, NSW ‘Ironsides’, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, NSW ‘The King of the Accordian’, New England Regional Art Museum touring exhibition, NSW ‘Works On Paper’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘5th International Works on Paper Fair’, State Library of New South Wales, NSW ‘ACAF 4’, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC ‘Contemporary Australian Painting’, Works from the Allen Allen and Hemsley Collection, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne and Newcastle Regional Gallery, VIC and NSW ‘On the Dark Side’, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW ‘ACAF3’, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC The Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘Images of Sydney’, Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Images of Women from the Holmes a’Court Collection’, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘The Sulman Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘The Annunciation’, Mandorla Art Prize, New Norcia, WA ‘Windsor and Newton Painting Prize’, Coventry Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Religious Images in Australian Art’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘The Sulman Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW ‘King of the Mountain’, Noosa Regional Gallery, QLD ‘Visual Instincts’, Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘New Year New Art’, Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW ‘Opening’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW ‘Intimate Drawings’, Coventry Gallery, Sydney, NSW ‘Drawing in the 80s’, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, ACT ‘Drawing’, Tolarno Gallery, Melbourne, VIC ‘Savage Club Invitation Drawing Prize’, Savage Club, Melbourne, VIC ‘From Field to Figuration’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘Backlash’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘Best of Young Australians from the Budget
John R Walker Biography - continued
Collection’,National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘Urban Anxieties’, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, ACT 1986 ‘A First Look’, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, ACT ‘Symbolism and Landscape’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Biennale of Sydney Satellite Exhibition, NSW ‘Modern Australian Masters’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘Ballarat Invitation Prize’, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, VIC 1985 ‘The Pleasure of the Gaze’, Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA 1984 ‘Drawing Now’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC ‘Survey ‘84’, Michael Milburn Galleries, Brisbane, QLD 1983 ‘D’un Autre Continent: L’Australie, le reve et le real’, Musee D’Art Moderne, Paris ‘Australian Perspecta’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW 1982 ‘McCaughey Prize Exhibition’, National Gallery, Melbourne, VIC 1979 ‘Eight by Four’, Students Gallery (later Mori Gallery), Sydney, NSW Collections Artbank Allens Art Gallery of New South Wales Art Gallery of Western Australia Artworks Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children Bankers Trust Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery Campbelltown City Art Gallery Commonwealth Bank of Australia Griffith University Collection Holmes A’ Court Collection James Wolfensohn Collection Macquarie Group Collection Myer Collection National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria New England Regional Art Museum New Parliament House, Canberra Orange Regional Art Gallery Phillip Morris Collection Smorgon Collection The Savage Club Collection The Australian Club, Sydney University of Sydney University of New South Wales Western Mining Corporations Wollongong City Art Gallery Publication inclusions 2011
Essay by Chloe Watson, ‘Site’ pamphlet, Utopia Art Sydney ‘Space & Time: 10 Years in the Landscape – John R Walker’,
2010 2009 2008 2007
exhibition catalogue, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 7 October – 4 December 2011 (essays by Andrew Sayers and Joe Eisenberg) Artist Profile, ‘John R Walker responds to Joe Frost’s article “Bad words and thoughts”, issue 12: Mag-blog, August 2010 Arts Etcetera ‘Walker finalist in Wynne Prize’ Bungendore Mirror, March 11. Mono Uno catalogue, Australian Monotypes in the Charles Sturt University Art Collection Journey through Landscape podcast interview with Sean O’Brien, May 2008: http://arttalk.podomatic.com/ entry/2008-05-09T02_10_17-07_00 Critics’ Choice - ‘John R. Walker Journey Through Landscape’ Time Out Magazine, May 21 - 27 ‘Poetry through Landscape – Poetic interpretations of the artworks of John R. Walker’, DiVerse, At the S. H. Ervin Gallery Art Talk: Talking to Artists and Curators, Sean O’Brien May 2008 at the S. H. Ervin Gallery transcript National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery 2008 Exhibition Calendar John R. Walker – Journey Through Landscape invitation card, National Trust S. H. Ervin Gallery John R. Walker – Journey Through Landscape public program of guest talks list, National Trust, S. H. Ervin Gallery John R. Walker, Journey Through Landscape Media Archive, National Tryst, S. H. Ervin Gallery ‘Secrets of the Self Unearthed’, John McDonald, Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald, June 7-8. ‘Lure of the Land’, Libby Peacock, Panorama, The Canberra Times, May 31st. ‘Exposing the Scars on Nature’, Elizabeth Fortescue, Sydney Live, Daily Telegraph, 27th May. John R. Walker, Journey Through Landscape, Calender entry: The Rocks - a story around every corner, official Rocks website, 21st May. ‘Walker Retrospective at S. H. Ervin’, press release, Bungedore Mirror, 21st May. ‘Journey Through Landscape’, What’s On, Central Magazine, 21st May. Critics Choice, Time Out Sydney, 21st – 27th May. John R. Walker, Journey Through Landscape, What’s On, Time Out Magazine, June 4th – 10th. John R. Walker, Journey Through Landscape, What’s On, Time Out Magazine, June 11th – 17th. ‘A Journey of Landscape’, June, Winter Diary, The Rocks official website. Event Diary, Sunday Arts, ABC TV Sunday 5pm, 6th June. Whats On Elsewhere, Look Magazine. John R. Walker, Journey Through Landscape, ‘Exhibitions’ section: National Trust Magazine, Winter 2008 Credit Suisse end of year party invitation, November 12th Essay by Andrew Sayers in Working in the Landscape, (cat), Utopia Art Sydney “The best of the rest actually the best”, Sebastian Smee, The Australian, 8 March, p,14 “Anything goes in the silly season”, John McDonald, SMH
John R Walker Biography - continued
2006 2004 2003 2001
Spectrum, 24-24 March 2007, pp16-17 “Robert Kennedy – Salon des Refuses 2007”, State of the Arts Online/reviews, 2 March 2007 Painting Australia, ABC TV series Episode #3, 11 April, 2007 Exhibition Calendar 2007, National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery Art in Restaurants, Australian Art Review, p82 Archibald 06 (cat), Art Gallery of New South Wales Winter Crow, a collection of poems by Jeremy Nelson, illustrations by John R Walker “Is the truth of portraiture vested exclusively in likeness?”, Michael Desmond, Portrait 21, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. CAPO Annual Auction 2006 (cat), Canberra Arts Patrons Organization, Canberra Australian Artist, No.253 July 2005, p.25 Archibald 05 (cat), Art Gallery of New South Wales Essay by Simeon Kronenburg in being at Bundanon (cat), Bundanon Trust touring exhibition Essay by William Wright in Gullies, Road, Dry Lands and Forests (cat), Utopia Art Sydney Moist: Australian Watercolours (cat), National Gallery of Australia “Moist: Australian Watercolours 27 August-4 December 2005”, Anne McDonald, Artonview, Spring 2004 “Art Now”, Laura Murray Cree, State of the Arts Magazine (The Design Issue), July - September “Generations of Collecting”, Jenna Price, Australian Art Collector, July-September 2003 Australian Artist, No.12 Vol. XIX, June 2003, p.29 “Experiencing the Land”, Simeon Kronenberg, Asian Art News Vol.12 No.2 March/April 2002 “Money and Collecting”, Michael Reid, The Weekend Australian 20-21 April “Critics Picks”, Victoria Hynes, SMH Metro 26 April - 2 May “The Plains: Wimmera and the imaging of the Australian Landscape”, Simeon Kronenberg, Art Monthly, November 2001, #45 “Days in Body Country”, Simeon Kronenberg, Artlink, June 2002, Vol.22 #2 Paintings from Bundanon, (cat) Simeon Kronenberg, Utopia Art Sydney “Gone Bush: Artists in the Royal”, Tracy Sorensen, St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, October 18 Over the back fence (cat), Bowen Galleries, NZ Gone Bush (cat), Jennifer Hardy, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, NSW Australian Artist, Vol.XVII No.11, May 2001, p.49 Beyond the Fatal Shore, Interview with Robert Hughes, Episode #6 BBC TV series “The Odds on the Archibald”, Sebastian Smee, SMH, March 16 “On the Canvas”, Elizabeth Fortescue, Daily Telegraph, March 15 “Go you good thing”, Sharon Vergis, SMH, March 15 “Framed and they’ve got form”, Darren Knight and John
1998 1995 1994 1992 1990 1988 1987 1986 1986 1985 1984 1983
McDonald, SMH, March 15 “Hanging out for the Archibald”, Giles Auty, The Australian “Frame and Fortune”, Edmund Capon, SMH, March 20 Australian Artist, Vol. XVI No.12 June 2000, p.21 Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed”, Sebastian Smee, SMH Metro May 26 “Utopia Art”, Andrew G Frost, Australian Art Collector, Issue #8 “Interview with collector, Hugh Jamieson”, Australian Art Collector Issue #2 “Porn Again NETurally”, Sebastian Smee, SMH Metro, October 24 Faces of Hope (cat), Amnesty International Drawn from Life (cat), Deborah Edwards and Andrew Sayers, National Gallery of Australia King of the Accordian (cat), J. Eisenberg, New England Regional Art Museum, NSW Who’s Who of Australian Artists, National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, revised and updated by Susan McCulloch Contemporary Australian Painting from the Allen Allen and Hemsley Collection (cat.) Communicative Abstraction/Philosophical Reflections, Rudolf Talmacs, Utopia Art Sydney On the Dark Side (cat), Belinda Cotton, New England, Regional Art Museum, NSW King of the Mountain (cat), Noosa Regional Gallery, Queensland Artists and Galleries of Australia Volume II 1990, Max Germaine, Craftsman House Press Images of Religion in Australian Art (cat), Rosemary Crumlin, Bay Books Australian Contemporary Drawing; Resurgence and Redefinition, Arthur McIntyre, Boolarong Press Best of Young Australians Exhibition from the Budget Collection (cat.), National Gallery of Victoria Drawing in Australia, Contemporary images and ideas, Janet McKenzie, Macmillan, Melbourne Backlash: The Australian Drawing Revival 1976-1986 (cat), Ted Gott, National Gallery of Victoria 6th Biennale of Sydney: Origins Originality + Beyond (cat), satellite exhibition, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney Review “Pleasure of the Gaze”, ArtNetwork, Summer- Autumn 1986, p.19 Pleasure of the Gaze (cat), Art Gallery of Western Australia Australian Art Review, Leon Parossien Australian Perspecta (cat), Bernice Murphy, Art Gallery of New South Wales D’Un Autre Continent: L’Australie le reve et le real (cat), Musee D’Art Moderne, Paris
John R Walker Biography - continued
Awards and Commissions 2009 2002 1998 1990 1988 1982
Winner Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA) Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW Highly Commended, Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales BT Australia, 400 George St, Sydney Windsor and Newton Painting Prize, Coventry Gallery, Sydney Savage Club Drawing Prize, Melbourne Tamarisque Prize, Alexander Mackie College, Sydney
Teaching experience 2007 “Walking the Landscape”, Art Workshops Australia, Byron Bay, QLD 2000 “Drawing the Nude”, Workshop, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, NSW 1998-2000 Painting lecturer, National Art School, Sydney Life Drawing teacher, National Institute of Dramatic Art, UNSW 2000 Visiting lecturer in Drawing and Painting, Calrossy School, Tamworth 1987-94 Art Program Co-ordinator, Panania East Hills Vocational Skillshare 1988-89 Drawing teacher, College of Fine Art, UNSW 1987 Visiting lecturer, Canberra School of Art, ANU Scholarships & Residencies 2002 2002 2001 2000 2000
Hill End Artist in Residence (invited artist) Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence (invited artist) New England Artist in Residence (invited artist) National Art School Staff Travelling Scholarship New England Regional Art Museum Artist’s Travel Scholarship
John R Walker Winter in the Fire Forest
Utopia Art Sydney 20 October - 17 November, 2012
Utopia Art Sydney 2 Danks Street Waterloo NSW 2017 Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900 email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.au www.utopiaartsydney.com.au Š Utopia Art Sydney
Utopia Art Sydney 2 Danks Street Waterloo NSW 2017 Telephone: + 61 2 9699 2900 email: utopiaartsydney@ozemail.com.au www.utopiaartsydney.com.au