John Wolseley

JOHN WOLSELEY

Born United Kingdom 1938

Educated Byam Shaw and St Martin's School of Art, London

Lived in Paris, working with S.W. Hayter

Lived in London, worked at Birgit Skiolds print workshop

Moved back to west of England and began Nettlecombe Studios, an artists' and farmers' collective

Spent six months in Spanish Pyrenees and went on expedition up the Skrang River, Borneo

Settled in Australia. Artist-in-Residence, Newcastle CAE. Moved to Thorpedale, Gippsland. Lecturer, Gippsland CAE

Artist-in-Residence, Deakin University, Geelong

Travelled extensively in central Australia

Travelled extensively in north-western Australia. Moved to Blue Mountains, NSW.

Returned to St Kilda, Melbourne

Five months in Tasmania

Four months in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego charting Gondwana

Extensive travel and painting in northern Australia and Indonesia

Four months project in Royal National Park, NSW

Painting in Mallee and Sunset Country

Project on Fences and Boundaries, Victoria/South Australia Border fence from the Murray River to the Sea, Great South West Walk Art Project

Currently lives and works in Whipstick Forest and St Kilda, Victoria

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

John Wolseley, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (forthcoming)

Tracing the ephemeral rivers of the Wimmera Plains – recent paintings and etchings by John Wolseley, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

Recent works of Rivers and Creeks, WAMA Fundraising Exhibition, Stawell, VIC

One hundred and One Insect Life Stories, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

John Wolseley and Mulkun Wirrpanda: Maypal - Molluscs and the Warming of the Seas, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria

Midawarr Harvest: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne

Midawarr Harvest: The Art of Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley, National Museum of Australia, Canberra

John Wolseley, Malle-Maquis-Desert-Rainforest 1990-2016, Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria

Marrma dilakmala larruma gurra ŋathawu – Two Old Artists Looking for Food, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Heartlands and Headwaters, NGV Australia, Melbourne

Carboniferous, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Natural Selection: MALLEE/MAQUIS, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

The Wood, The World and The Parrot, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Bird on a Wire, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, NSW

Firebird, Chapman Gallery, Canberra

After the Fire, Leaf Surge, Seed Flight, New Growth, New Prints, Australian Galleries, Collingwood, Victoria

Memory of Fire, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

Six months in the Royal National Park: Drawings and Paintings by John Wolseley, Edmond Barton Room, Sydney Grammar School, 7 - 13 September

Tracing the Wallace Line, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, NSW, 6 September - 30 September
Tracing the Wallace Line, Bendigo City Art Gallery, NSW, 7 July - 12 August

Land Marks, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Melbourne

Patagonia to Tasmania: Origin Movement Species Tracing the Southern Continent, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne; Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

Desert: A Catalogue of Hidden Things in Sand and Paper, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1993 Million Drawings: Being an Examination of Australia's Flora and Fauna Since the Proterozoic Era, Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery, Launceston
Simpson Desert Survey, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Paintings, lithographs and sedimentary prints from the Simpson Desert, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

Life in Mud and Sand, Australian Galleries, Melbourne

The Pearl Fisher's Voyage from Ise Shima to Roebuck Bay and other recent paintings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

Nomadism: John Wolseley Twelve Years in Australia: Paintings and Drawings, University Gallery, University of Melbourne
From Wittenoom to Broome: Paintings of North Western Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

From Wittenoom to Broome: Paintings of North Western Australia, Joye Art Foundation, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

From Bendigo to Kyoto, Bendigo Regional Art Gallery; Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

A Journey from Mt Solitary to the Charles River, Realities Gallery, Melbourne

The Larapinta Land Journey, Geelong Regional Art Gallery; Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

John Wolseley, Realities Gallery, Melbourne

Selected prints, South West Arts Council, touring exhibition in East Anglia

John Wolseley, Mayor Gallery, London

John Wolseley, Mayor Gallery, London

A survey trip down the Dordogne in a collapsible dinghy, Architectural Association, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

John Wolseley: The Quiet Conservationist, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC

Essays on Earth, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC

Still Life, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne. Curated by Jacqueline Doughty

Birds & Language, Woollongong Art Gallery, Wooolongong

The National: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 

Earth Canvas, Albury Library Museum, Albury

Navigating the line (online exhibition), Australian Galleries, Sydney

ART+CLIMATE= CHANGE 2019, Geelong Gallery, Geelong

Artist Profile: Australasian Painters 2007 - 2017, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW

Midawarr - Harvest Series: Woodcuts by Mulkun Wirrapanda and John Wolseley, Tactile Arts Gallery and Studio, Darwin

RAAKLIJNEN, Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent, Ghent, Belgium

Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

International Print Exhibition, Australia and Japan, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan; Fukuyama Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan

one of each, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne

The Skullbone Experiment, UNSW Galleries, Sydney

18th Biennale of Sydney: all our relations, curated by Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster, Sydney

Djalkiri- We are Standing on Their Names - Blue Mud Bay (touring); Nyinkka Nyunyu Art & Culture Centre , Tennant Creek, Botanic Gardens, Adelaide, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, Geelong Art Gallery , Geelong, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane, Burnie Regional Gallery, Burnie, UTS Gallery, Sydney.

Picturing the Great Divide: Visions from Australia's Blue Mountains, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba

Reframing Darwin: evolution and art in Australia, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

Refugia: Siobhan Murphy, Dominic Redfern and John Wolseley, Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria

The Ecologies Project, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, curated by Geraldine Barlow and Dr Kyla McFarlane

A Bird in the Hand: Paintings by Tony Clark and John Wolseley, curated by Robyn McKenzie, La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Stolen Ritual, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Sixth Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra

Peter Lyssiotis and John Wolseley: the adventures of two artists in the State Library of Victoria, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Fire Works: Tracing the incendiary in Australian Art, Artspace Mackay (touring exhibition)

2004: Australian Culture Now, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria Australia, Melbourne

Place Made: Australian Print Workshop, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Bushfire: Our community responds, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Flies and Spiders, Newcontemporaries, Sydney

2002 National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington Peninsula, 25 June - 28 July

Meridian: Currents in Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 28 November 2002 - 2 February 2003

The Big River Show: Murrumbidgee Riverine, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

Palæographica, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Common Ground, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, University of Woollongong

Lie of the Land, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne

Art & Land: Contemporary Australian Visions, Noosa Regional Gallery (and Asialink touring exhibition)

The Rose Crossing: Contemporary Art in Australia, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney (and touring South East Asia)
Restricting the Palette, Colour and Land, Canberra School of Art Gallery

Landscapes in Sets and Series, National Gallery of Victoria touring exhibition

Southern Reflections: Ten Contemporary Australian Artists, Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition touring Northern Europe

A Constructed World (with Geoff Lowe), Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
New Australian Images through British eyes, Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra

Spirit & place: Art in Australia 1861-1996, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Australian Watercolours, Art Gallery of New South Wales touring exhibition

AMCOR Paper Awards, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne and touring
Seven Histories of Australia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
The Derwent Collection: Australian Art of the 1980s and 1990s, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

To the surface: Contemporary Landscape, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
Poster Art in Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Indo-Eco, regional Victoria touring exhibition
Off the Wall, In the Air, A Seventies Selection, Monash University Gallery and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Two Hundred Years of Australian Painting, Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto, Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Diverse Visions, Queensland Art Gallery

Green Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

Michael Johnson, Bernard Sachs, John Wolseley, Joye Art Foundation at Galerie Baudouin Lebon, Paris

The Face of Australia: The Land, the People, the Present, the Past, Australian Bicentennial Authority touring exhibition
A Changing Relationship: Aboriginal Themes in Australian Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

The centre: Works on paper by contemporary Australian Artists, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Landscape Art: Two Way Reaction, National Gallery of Australia at the Australian National University, Canberra

Lost and Found, George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne

International Print Biennale, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Artist as Selector, Oxford City Art Gallery

Florence Print Biennale, Florence, Italy
New Lane Gallery (with Print Workshop), Bradford, UK

Krakow Print Biennale, Krakow, Poland

Morley College (with Printmakers Council), UK

Wardour Music Festival (with Noah Morris), Wardour, UK

Prints 1965, AIA

Prints 1964, Hambledon Gallery, Blandford (with Julian Trevelyan)

Centenary Exhibition, AIA, Californian Society of Etchers

Royal Academy (also in 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971)

London Group (also in 1960)

AWARDS / PRIZES

Honorary degree, Doctor of Science, Macquarie University, Sydney

New Work Grant, Victorian Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council for the Arts

Visual Arts Board Emeritus Award, Australia Council

Trustees of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Watercolour Prize

Creative Fellowship, State Library of Victoria

Awarded Australia Council grant for Tracing the Wallace Line, a project exploring the line of demarcation as described by 19th century botanist Alfred Wallace, which runs through the islands of Indonesia and marks the point where the flora and fauna of Australia gives way to that of Asia

Winner, Trustees of Art Gallery of NSW Watercolour Prize

Winner, Kedumba Art Award
Inaugural recipient, Mobil Print Award, Australian Print Workshop

Awarded VACB fellowship to explore Simpson Desert

Winner, Trustees of Art Gallery of NSW Watercolour Prize

Winner, Trustees of Art Gallery of NSW Watercolour Prize

Winner, Trustees of Art Gallery of NSW Watercolour Prize

Awarded Visual Arts Board grant to explore George Gill and Peterman Ranges, N.T.

Winner, Alice Prize

Winner, Latrobe Valley SEC Prize
Winner, Capital Permanent Prize, Geelong

Winner, Kantos Prize, Florence Print Biennale

First prize, Biennale International de la Gravure, Krakow

COLLECTIONS

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Art Gallery of South Australia

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

Arts Council of Great Britain

Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs

Australian National University, Canberra

BHP Collection, Melbourne

Cheltenham College, UK

City of Banyule, Melbourne

Coopers and Lybrand, Melbourne

Contemporary Arts Society, London, UK

Derwent Collection, Hobart

Joye Art Foundation, Sydney
Geelong Regional Gallery
Gippsland Regional Art Gallery, Sale

Kedumba Art Award Collection, Blackheath

LaTrobe University, Melbourne

Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria
Mildura Arts Centre

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Newcastle Region Art Gallery
Parliament House, Canberra
Swinburne University of Technology, Prahran, Melbourne
State Bank Collection, Sydney
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

The Christensen Fund

University of Tasmania, Hobart

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
Girton College, Cambridge, UK

Harrogate Art Gallery, UK

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Huddersfield Art Gallery, UK

Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia

Ministry of Works, London, UK

Newman College, Cambridge, UK
Nuffield Foundation, London, UK
Oxford City Art Gallery, UK

Sheffield Education Committee, UK

Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK

RESIDENCIES

Art Fellow, Sydney Grammar School, Sydney

Artist-in-residence, Wollongong University and Royal National Park, Sydney

Artist-in-residence, Gorge Cottage and Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston

Artist-in-residence, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

Artist-in-residence, Bendigo City Art Gallery, Kyoto and Tokyo

Artist-in-residence, Deakin University, Geelong

Artist-in-residence, Newcastle City Art Gallery and Gippsland City Art Gallery

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

'MulkunWirrpanda and John Wolseley come together in a remarkable aesthetic journey', Visual Arts Hub, 8 August 2018

Megan Backhouse, 'John Wolseley relives his Indigenous Journey at Bendigo Writers Festival,' The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 2018

Hannah Hutchison, 'In the elements,' Look, March - April 2018, pp. 32-33

Andrew Frost, 'John Wolseley, Artists Under 5k', Art Collector Issue 77, July-Sep 2016 pp. 120-121

Elizabeth Fortescue, 'John Wolseley and Mulkun Wirrpanda are 'two old artists looking for food'', The Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2015

Sasha Grishin, 'John Wolseley, artist, emerges as a lyrical poet and a prophet' , The Conversation, 11 May 2015

Ingrid Periz, 'Review: The Skullbone Experiment: A Paradigm of Art and Nature, Feral Experimental: New Design Thinking,' UNSW Galleries, Sydney, Eyeline, Number 82, 2015

Robert Nelson, 'Visual Art: John Wolseley's Heartlands and Headwaters brings natural lore to NGV,' Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 2015

Toby Fehily, “Interview: John Wolseley, Art Guide, 7 April 2015

Andrew Stephens, “Artist John Wolseley on adventure, painting and our need to connect with the earth”, The Age, 28 March 2015

Gabriella Coslovich, 'Wolseley's Water World', Australian Financial Review, 28-29 March 2015, pp.48-49

Rosemary Sorensen, `John Wolseley-Back to earth, the artist as landscape', The Australian, April 11, 2015

Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster, 18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations Catalogue, (Sydney: Biennale of Sydney, 2012) pp 302

Owen Kraven, '18^th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations', Art Alamanac, June 2012, pp 35

Eric Waddell, 'Le Peinture Cartographique de John Wolseley', Cahiers de Geopoetique, No. 6, 2008, pp67-76.

John McDonald and Ian Lloyd, Studio: Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, Singapore: Ian Lloyd Productions, 2007

A Bird in the Hand: Paintings by Tony Clark and John Wolseley, exhibition catalogue, La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo

A Bird in the Hand: Paintings by Tony Clark and John Wolseley, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Alison Inglis, 'John Wolseley', Sixth Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall

Gallery, ANU, Canberra

Website www.johnwolseley.net.au

Sasha Grishin, 'Sacred Ecology', Australian Art Review, Issue 09, November 2005 - February 2006, pp. 55 - 57

John Hughes, 'What Remains', Southerly, Vol 64, Number 2, 2004

Clare Williamson, John Hughes, Lost and Found, Peter Lyssiotis and John Wolseley: two artists¹ adventures in the State Library, State Library of Victoria

Peter Hylands and Jean-Pierre Chabrol, John Wolseley:The Smokers have taken

the gold, DVD, Creative Cowboy Films, Melbourne, 2005

Robert Falso, John Wolseley: The Wallace Line, DVD, Double Life Films, Melbourne

Barry Hill, `Their throats, the artist's promise', in Island, 100, Autumn, p.159

Ashley Crawford, 'The harmonic patterns of Mallee birdsong', Sunday Age, 27 July 2004

2004: Australian Culture Now, exhibition catalogue, ed. Dr Charles Green, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria Australia, Melbourne, p. 205

Paul Carter, “Bearing Witness to the Eyewitness”, Material Culture, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne

Greg Weight, Australian Artists: Portraits by Greg Weight, Chapter & Verse, Sydney

Ashley Crawford, 'John Wolseley', See Here Now: Vizard Foundation Art Collection of the 1990s, editors Chris MacAuliffe and Sue Harvey, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd, Victoria, p. 146, p. 147

Jane Deeth, 'A shared appreciation', (John Wolseley and Linda Fredheim), Object Magazine No. 42, June - July, p. 26 - 28

John Wolseley, 'Bushfire Journals', in HEAT 4. Burnt Ground, ed. Ivor Indyk, November 2002, pp. 113-143

Diana Wood Conroy, Common Ground, exhibition catalogue, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, University of Woollongong, pp. 4 - 7

Peter Hill, 'John Wolseley', Meridian: Currents in Australian Art, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2002

John Wolseley and Paul Carter, 'Tracing The Wallace Line,' (exhibition catalogue), Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

Marina Mueke, 'Art & Land: Contemporary Australian Visions,' eyeline special issue, Spring, p. 50

John Wolseley, 'Rock Wallaby Dreaming,' Art & Australia, vol. 37, no. 3

Jenny Gage, Restricting the Palette, Colour and Land, exhibition catalogue, Canberra School of Art Gallery

Laura Murray Cree & Neville Drury (eds), Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House, Sydney

The Rose Crossing: Contemporary Art in Australia, exhibition catalogue, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

Sasha Grishin, John Wolseley: Land Marks, Craftsman House, Sydney

Sasha Grishin, 'The Journeys of John Wolseley', Art and Australia, Vol 36 No 1 pp 69-75

Murray Waldren, 'Wolseley's Wonderland', The Australian Magazine, October 10-11, pp27-30

Sasha Grishin, Australian Printmaking in the 1990s: Artist printmakers 1990-1995, Craftsman House, Sydney

Gary Catalano, Building a Picture: Interviews with Australian Artists, McGraw-Hill, Sydney

Sasha Grishin, 'John Wolseley: Journeys in the Antipodes', British Council/Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra

Sasha Grishin, 'Art into Landscapes: New Australian images through British Eyes', Humanities Research, Winter

E. Cross, 'John Wolseley', Southern Reflections, Ten Contemporary Australian Artists, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Cath Lovitt & Kate Allen, 'John Wolseley: A peripatetic interview,' The Interior, vol. 1, nos 9-10

Paul Carter, 'The anxiety of clearings,' Patagonia to Tasmania: Origin, Movement, Species, Tracing the Southern Continents, Melbourne

Sasha Grishin, Australian Paper: AMCOR Paper Awards, (catalogue essay), Melbourne

Ramona Kovall, 'Forces of Nature', The Age, 26 June, p 13

Gary Catalano, 'The sources of things: an interview with John Wolseley,' Art Monthly Australia, December, no. 76

John Wolseley, 'Landscape - Inscape,' Our Common Ground: A celebration of art, place and environment, AILA, Hobart

John Wolseley, Paintings, lithographs and sedimentary prints from the Simpson Desert, (artist statement), Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
Ray Arnold, To the surface: Contemporary Landscape, (catalogue) Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart

Alison Broinowski, The Yellow Lady: Australian Impressions of Asia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Janet Hawley, 'John Wolseley: Brush with nature,' Good Weekend, 18 May

Bettina McAuley, Diverse Visions, catalogue entry, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

John Wolseley, Notes about the installation `Deep Time Shallow Time: Journey from Ewaninga to Gosses Bluff,' Melbourne

Michael Johnson, Bernhard Sachs, John Wolseley, exhibition catalogue, Joye Art Foundation at Baudouin Lebon, Paris

The pearl fisher's voyage from Ise Shima to Roebuck Bay, (artist statement) Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

'John Wolseley: Painting the outback,' Frontier Country, Australia's Outback Heritage, Vol. 1, Weldon Russell, Sydney

Nomadism: John Wolseley, Twelve Years in Australia, exhibition catalogue, University Gallery, University of Melbourne

Charles Green, 'Seduction in the Landscape,' Art & Australia, vol. 26 no. 2

Josko Petkovic, 'John Wolseley: From Wittenoom to Broome, the coming of the Nomad,' Praxis M, no. 21

Robert Walker, Painters in the Australian Landscape, Hale & Ironmonger, Sydney

David Hansen, The Face of Australia: Two hundred years of Australian art, Child and Associates, Sydney

Terence Maloon, John Wolseley, From Wittenoom to Broome, (catalogue introduction), Joye Art Foundation
Jan Minchin, ANZ Bicentennial Exhibition (catalogue entry), Melbourne

Gary Catalano, Intimate Australia: The landscape and recent Australian art, Hale & Ironmonger, Sydney

John Wolseley, From Bendigo to Kyoto (artist statement), Bendigo Art Gallery

Sandra McGrath and John Olsen, The Artist and the Desert, Bay Books, Sydney

'Wolseley on Wolseley,' Deakin University Press, Melbourne

Janine Burke, Lost and Found, catalogue, Ewing and George Paton Galleries, University of Melbourne

John Wolseley, The Great Divide: The wood chip industry, La Trobe Valley Arts Centre

Robin Wallace-Crabbe, 'John Wolseley,' Art & Australia, vol. 16 no. 2