SANSOM, GARETH (1939 -)

"Egg Appeal" (c.1986-7)
acrylic on canvas
51 x 56cm
signed on verso
*private collection, Sydney
 
Sansom is an award-winning Australian Contemporary artist. He studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, (now RMIT University), from 1959 to 1964. He held his first solo exhibition in 1959 at Richman Gallery in Melbourne, opened by Arthur Boyd. After his studies at RMIT, two exhibitions were at South Yarra Gallery, in 1965 (from which the National Gallery of Victoria purchased the work, 'He Sees Himself'), and Gallery A, in 1966 (from which The National Collection - now Australian National Gallery - purchased the work 'Leaving that well known void'). In 1968 he painted 'The Great Democracy, where his influences can be readily discerned. (This painting is now in the collection of the Australian National Gallery, Canberra). In 1982, Sansom was a visiting artist at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and in 1985 he was Artist-in-Residence at The University of Melbourne.In 1991, Sansom represented Australia at the Indian Triennial held in New Delhi. At this event he exhibited watercolours made while he lived for six months in New Delhi, in 1989. His aim had been to make one watercolour per day during this period, using humble materials, but on archival paper. Many aspects of contemporary Indian life and culture infiltrated the modus operandi of these works. Back in Australia these watercolors were exhibited at Roslyn Oxley9Gallery in 1990 ('Out of India'), and at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne in 1991. From 1986 to 1991 Sansom was Dean of the School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). In 2008, Sansom won the John McCaughey Memorial Prize. He is currently represented by STATION Gallery, in Melbourne: the Milani Gallery in Brisbane, Queensland; and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, NSW. His work is represented in most major Australian galleries & institutions.