NOEL MCKENNA

b. 1956, Brisbane, Australia

Lives and works, Sydney, Australia.

McKenna has exhibited regularly since the early 1980s and recent solo exhibitions include- Art of Collecting- Noel McKenna, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sydney (2016), Art Basel Hong Kong 2014 with Mother's Tankstation, Noel McKenna, Absurdia: Noel McKenna- A Focus, Newcastle Art Gallery, NSW (2012), Michael Reid at Murrurundi, NSW (2010), Noel McKenna - 29 centimetres closer, Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand (2010), Northland, mother’s tankstation, Dublin, Ireland (2008,2011,2015), and The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKenna, National Art School Gallery, Sydney (2008). McKenna’s work is frequently included in group exhibitions including, The Popular Pet Show, National Portait Gallery, Canberra, (2017), Solitaire, Tarrawarra Art Museum, Victoria (2014), Conflict: Contemporary Responses to War, UQ Art Museum(2015), South of No North, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2013), Basil Sellers Art Prize 2010, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Fully Booked, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne (2010), avoiding myth & message: Australian artists and the literary world, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2009) and Look out Wembley Arena, MOP, Sydney (2008).

His work is held in many significant public and private collections throughout Australia and New Zealand including Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Bank, Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australia, Macquarie Bank, Sydney, Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia, and Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand.

“It is precisely through insisting that every scenario convey constriction and every impulse towards motion is circumscribed—the cat-up-a-tree syndrome, we could call it—that McKenna brings his allegory of escape alive. In choosing vulnerability as the point of composition—jumping, balancing, falling, staring, disappearing—McKenna invests the ‘not-muchness’ of each painting with the quality of an involving struggle. It’s as if McKenna looks at the world and is immediately, effortlessly existential. The effort comes in combating dread with care and feeling...“

(excerpt from Noel McKenna by Damien Wilkins, 2005)

ARTIST INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHY

1956	Born Brisbane, Australia
1974-75	Architecture, University of Queensland, Australia
1976-78	Brisbane College of Art, Brisbane, Australia
1981	Alexander Mackie College, Sydney, Australia
1994	Winner, Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
1997-	5 time winner of the Trustees Watercolour Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
2001	Winner, Melbourne Savage Club Prize
2003	Winner, Mosman Art Prize, NSW
2011	Winner, NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize
Currently	lives and works in Sydney, Australia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018	Tied Up Dogs Rose Bay, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
2016		The Interior, GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide Noel McKenna at Ten Cubed, Ten Cubed, Melbourne Art of Collecting - Noel McKenna, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Sydney Seltzer, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 1 August (1992 - ), Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
2015		Concealing the Spot, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland
2014		Absurdia: Noel McKenna - A Focus, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle The Psychiatrist's Dog, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia A Walk from One Tree Hill to Half Moon Bay, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand Art Basel Hong Kong, Mother's Tankstation, Stand
2013		Animals and Men, Greenaway Art Gallery, South Australia Twelve old, Twelve new, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Polluting the Acid: A Selection of Etchings and Lithographs 1977 - 2013, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
2012		The piano of my brother, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Travel Notes 2, Heiser Gallery, Queensland
2011		All That Heaven Allows, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide Homes 4 Sale NZ, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Works on Paper, Michael Reid at Murrurundi, New South Wales
2010		Drawings from the Bath, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 29cms Closer, Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand Clay Works, Heiser Gallery, Queensland
2009		News of the Swimmer Reaches Shore, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Google Series, Men Smoking Pipes, Autumn, Men Fishing, Cats etc, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
2008		Northland, mother’s tankstation, Dublin, Ireland The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: The Return Journey, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKenna, National Art School Gallery, Sydney
2007		Travel Notes, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide The Democratic Potter, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2006		From Watsons Bay to Waterloo, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
2005		Merrylands, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Somewhere in the City, Queensland University of Technology, Sydney Sheltered Life, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand Ceramics 1993 - 2005, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2004		Australia II including The Queensland Room, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia Noel McKenna: Animal Works 1977-2003, touring exhibition, including St. George Regional Museum, Sydney, Australia
2003		Australia, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia A small private eye, Horsham Regional Art Gallery and touring Australia Recent work 2003, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia 2003 Hermans Art Award, Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney, Australia Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2001		Found and Lost, Niagra Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Hong Kong, John Batten Gallery, Hong Kong SMH Watercolours, 1997-2001, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2000		Southland, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1999		Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
1998		Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia Bowen Galleries, Wellington, New Zealand
1997		Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
1996		Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
1995		Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
1994		Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart, Australia
1993		Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
1992		Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia ARS Multiplicata, Sydney, Australia
1991		12 Sturt Street, Sydney, Australia Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
1985		Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1983		Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney, Australia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019	Dobell Drawing Prize, Sydney Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2018		Sydney Contemporary, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Spring 1883, Melbourne
2017			Spring 1883, Melbourne
2016				SPRING 1883, Room 224, Hotel Windsor, Melbourne Close to Home: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2016, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Country & Western: Landscape Reimagined, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, NSW; Orange Regional Gallery, NSW Identity, Dominic Mersch Gallery, Sydney 2016 Fleurieu Art Prize, Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia, Adelaide Equus, curated by Kate Smith and Edward Hoddle, Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney
2015				Country & Western: Landscape Reimagined, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, (touring) Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Sydney, S.H. Ervin gallery, Sydney Art Basel Miami, mother’s tankstation, Miami Beach Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Collectors' Space, Surry Hills, Sydney
2014				Sublime Point: The landscape in painting,Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Spring 1883, Suite 224, The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne Melbourne Art Fair, Stand E117, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne David Malouf and Friends, Museum of Brisbane,Queesland Conflict: Contemporary responses to war, UQ Art Museum Holiday + Memory, Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia Solitaire, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Melbourne Basil Sellers Art Prize 2014, Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia The Phantom Show, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2013				Wynne Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW South of No North, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2012				New Work, Greenaway Art Gallery, South Australia Selected Works, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Korea International Art Fair, Niagara Galleries, Seoul Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Buliding Gold Coast International Ceramic Art Award, QLD underSTATEd 2012 - NSW Parliment Collection, Fountain Court, New South Wales Parliment, Sydney Revealed: Inside the private collections of South Australia, Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum, SA ANIMAL/HUMAN, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane Walking with Alice, SASA Gallery, UniSA, Adelaide Wynne Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW Volume One: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art A View From Where I Was Sleeping, Wellington, NZ Blue Chip XIV: The Collectors' Exhibition, Niagara Galleries
2011				NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, NSW Parliament, Sydney Going where the weather suits my clothes... a fall of light on fabric, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland The Armory Show, New York
2010				Christmas Exhibition, Heiser Gallery, Queensland One-off, Greenaway Art Gallery, South Australia The Ipswich House, Ipswich Art Gallery, Queensland Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Basil Sellers Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne The Working Kitchen with Brendan and Greg O'Brien, Bowen Galleries, Wellington, New Zealand Fully Booked, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne
2009				Basil Sellers Art Prize Finalists°ò Exhibition, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Twelve Degrees of Latitude: Regional Gallery and University Art Collections in Queensland, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Queensland Fremantle Print Prize Finalists Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia The Geelong Acquisitive Print Awards Finalists Exhibition, Geelong Gallery, Victoria Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand Step Right Up!, Albury City Art Gallery, New South Wales and The Arts Centre, Melbourne Adventures in Collection: Gems from the Reg and Sally Richardson Collection, National Art School Gallery, Sydney Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing: Exhibition of Finalists, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney Sulman Prize: Exhibition of Finalists, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Moran Prize: Exhibition of Finalists, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Ungrand, Wollongong City Art Gallery, New South Wales
2008				Thoughts On Paper, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide Who let the dogs out – the dog in contemporary Australian art, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery and Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, New South Wales Look out Wembley Arena, MOP, Sydney, Australia
2007				Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand Den Haag Sculptuur 2007: De Overkaan / Down Under, The Hague, Netherlands
2006				Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, VIC Drawcard Exhibition, NAS Gallery, Sydney Getting on Mother's Nerves: Psychological Drama and Contemporary Drawing, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW 25th Gold Coast International Ceramic Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
2005				Moist: Australian Watercolours, National Gallery of Australia and touring, Canberra Artists for Kids Culture: 2005 Annual Art Exhibition and Auction, Melbourne Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council Chambers, Double Bay We Are All Animals, La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Melbourne UnAustralian, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland 2005 Island Art Prize, Stanley Town Hall, Tasmania Absolut Secret, National Art School, Sydney The Sound of Painting, George Adams Gallery, the Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia
2004				2004 The Year in Art, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia National Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Municipal Council, Sydney, Australia The Visibility of Practice, National Art School, Sydney, Australia Mind’s Eye, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia Gambling in Australia: Thrills, Spills and Social Ills, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
2003-04				Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection, touring National Gallery of Australia Fair Game. Art + Sport, NGV Response Gallery, Melbourne, Australia Sport: More than heroes and legends, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia A Modelled World, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Victoria, Australia
2003				National Sculpture Prize & Exhibition 2003, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia Art & About, College and George Streets, City of Sydney, Australia
2002				2002 The Year in Art, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia Briefcase 50, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, Australia Nocturne, images from night and darkness from colonial to contemporary, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria Australia
2001				Black/White & Grey, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia The Gambling Show, John Batten Gallery, Hong Kong Wynne Prize for Watercolour, Wynne Prize and Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia The Melbourne Savage Club Art Prize, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia A Century of Collecting 1902 –2001, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, Sydney, Australia
2000				Parihaka – The Art of Passive Resistance, The City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand Small Tapestries and Works on Paper, Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia Pets, Prey & Predators – Introduced Animals in Recent Australian Art, Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, New South Wales, Australia Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Dobell Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia The Dog Show, King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney, Australia Re/Brand?, Wollongong City Gallery and Wollongong University, Australia
1999-2000				On The Road – The Car in Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
1999				Pets, Prey & Predators – Introduced Animals in Recent Australian Art, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia Wynne Prize for Watercolour, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia Persuasive Humours, Mosman Region Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1997-99				Cartoons and Caricature in Contemporary Art, touring exhibition, Geelong Art Gallery, Hamilton Art Gallery, Waverley City Gallery, Gippsland Art Gallery, Mornington Peninsula Art Gallery, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Australia
1998				Metamorphosis, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, Australia Australian Contemporary Art, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea Sulman Prize, Wynne Prize and Watercolour Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
1997				A face in the crowd, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
1995				Muswellbrook Acquisitive Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Gallery, Australia

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, C, review, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 1989
Angeloro, D, ‘State of origami’, Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, 24 September, 2004
Barkley, G, Horizontal eclecticism’, catalogue essay, Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay collection, National Gallery of Australia, 2003
Barkley, G, ‘Op-Shop Aesthetics’, catalogue essay, Noel McKenna, Darren Knight Gallery, 2002
Barkley, G, ‘Op-Shop Aesthetics’, Lino, 01, March 2003
Catalano, G, review, The Age, 16 May 1990
Chivas, A, Quiet moments: the prints of Noel McKenna, Antiques & Art in New South Wales, Sept/Dec 2004
Clabburn, A, Whimsey in the White Cube', catalogue, Cartoons and Caricature in Contemporary Art, catalogue essay, Geelong Art Gallery, 1997
Fenner, F, 'The new metaphysics', catalogue, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, 1992
Fenner, F, 'Much ado about criticism', The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 1994
Fenner, F, ‘Noel McKenna: Artists’ Artist’, Australian Art Collector, September 1999, Issue 9, July – September 1999.
Frost, A, Australia’s 50 Most Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector, Issue 19, January – March 2001
Frost, A & Bokor, J, Artist’s Questionnaire – Noel McKenna, A Public of individuals, no. 4, Feb-April 2003
Gill, R, 'Diverse art bound by an unsettling melancholy', The Age, 7 September 1994
Hart, D, ‘Home Sweet Home: an artist-collector’s passion’, Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay collection exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, 2003
Heathcote, C, 'Unassuming pictures from an alcove at an imaginary exhibition', The Age, September 1992
Heathcote, C, 'The thick and thin on show', The Age, 7 September 1994
Hynes, V, ‘Just add watercolour’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24-30 August 2001
James, B, ‘Sacred Sights in Search of a Site’, review, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 January 1999
Kidd, C, ‘Understated Power’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 August 2000
Knight, D, Silks’ Gallery, Silks, Spring, 2003
Low, LA, ‘A houseful & more of works, & all have spoken out to their owner’, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 October 2003
Low, LA, ‘Juice gigolo’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25-26 August 2001
Loxley, A, 'Noel McKenna', catalogue essay, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 1994
Loxley, A, 'The drama of drawing from three different angles', The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 August 2001
Loxley, A. & McKenna, N, Open Gallery, Art & About, catalogue, City of Sydney, October, 2003
Loxley, A, ‘Mixed media in frame’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December 2003
Lynn, E, 'Abstract form shows its hand', The Australian, 11-12 June 1994
Lynn, E, 'Mixed metaphysics', The Australian, 5-6 December 1992
McKenna, Noel, ‘Painting 101’, Australian Style, February 2002
McDonald, J, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 1996
Mendelssohn, J, 'Welcome to Done Place, Tim Storrier, Khovar Dreamings', The Australian, 21 June 1996
O’Brien, G, ‘Changing The Light, Noel McKenna’, exhibition catalogue essay, Niagara Galleries, 1999
Owens, S, ‘To canvas the racetrack moment’, Silks, Winter, 2003
Plant, S, ‘More than meets the eye’, The Herald Sun, 1 August 2001
Radok, S, 'Viva la vida', The Adelaide Review, July 1995
Rainbird, S, ‘Visionaries, Donors, Gifts and Bequests: Celebrating a Decade of Benefaction 1991-2001, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, 2001
Reid, M, ‘New quest for the most collectable a right resolution’, The Australian, 3 December 2003
Rooney, R, 'Figuring out fun of the fair', The Australian, 10-11 October 1992
Rooney, R, 'Is an artist's stature based largely on size?' The Australian, 26-27 May 1990
Rich, P, ‘Noel McKenna Drawings', catalogue, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney 1991
Ryan, Anne, ‘The value of things’, Art and Australia, Vol.42, No. 1, Spring 2004
Simpson, P, 'Parihaka. A Very real Symbol', review, Art New Zealand, No. 97 Summer 2000-2001
Small, S, ‘Restrained menace’, The Advertiser, 23 April 2003
Smee, S, ‘Australia’s champion of the outsider’, The Art Newspaper, no.141, November 2003
Thomas, D, 'Outlines in Australian Art, The Joseph Brown Collection', 3rd Edition, Macmillan, 1989
Watson, B, Art and Australia, Winter issue, 1989
Williams, A, 'Exhibition', The Domain, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 June 1996
Web review, ‘State of Origin’, ARTLIFE, HYPERLINK "http://www.artlife.blogspot.com" www.artlife.blogspot.com, September 2004

COLLECTIONS

Allen, Allen & Hemsley Collection, Sydney; Artbank, Sydney; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide; Brisbane City Council, Qld; Chartwell Collection, NZ; Derwent Collection, Hobart; Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW; Ipswich City Council Art Gallery, Qld; Joseph Brown Collection, Vic; Kelvin Grove CAE, Brisbane; Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Vic; Mackay Regional Art Gallery, Qld; Manly Shire Council, Sydney, Macquarie Bank, Sydney; Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, Vic; Mosman Art Gallery, NSW; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Muswellbrook Regional Gallery, NSW; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; New Parliament House, Canberra; NSW Parliament, Sydney; Newcastle Region Art Gallery, NSW; Qld Art Gallery, Brisbane; Qld University of Technology Art Collection, Brisbane; Rockhampton Art Gallery, Qld; Southern Cross University, NSW; The University of Qld Art Collection, Brisbane; University of WA, Perth; Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Warrnambool Art Gallery, Vic; Western Mining Collection, WA

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