Louise Hearman is well known for her dark dream-like paintings that are often said to have a cinematic quality. Like film stills they capture transient moments of her personal memory and imaginary time. Since the 1980s, Hearman’s technically adroit oil paintings often incorporate otherworldly forms in imaginative compositions that imbue them with a supernatural quality. By combining commonplace imagery with personal visions of the unknown and the unknowable, Hearman hints at the wonders of the universe and the compelling nature of our nonverbal thoughts.
As Sebatian Smee states, "Louise Hearman is not the only artist who manages to combine traditional oil painting skills with an original and very contemporary sensibility. But something about the quality of her engagement with her subjects, are precarious balancing act between perverse whim and shear conviction, makes the winking mockery of better known artists [...] look precarious and self-regarding."
Exhibition view, Louise Hearman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (16 August — 6 September 2018)
Exhibition view, Louise Hearman, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2017; Photo: Andrew Curtis
Louise Hearman Untitled #1337, 2011; Oil on masonite; 66.5 x 97
Louise Hearman Untitled #1234, 2007; oil on masonite; 67 x 47 cm
Louise Hearman Untitled #1144, 2005; oil on masonite; 31 x 31 cm
Louise Hearman Untitled #1132, 2005; oil on masonite; 20 x 39 cm
Louise Hearman Untitled #727, 1999; Oil on masonite; 69 x 91 cm
Group Show, The First 40 Years
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Louise Hearman
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2018
Divided Worlds
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, 2018
Louise Hearman
TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, VIC, 2017
Louise Hearman
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2016
Louise Hearman Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Moran Arts Foundation, Sydney, 2014-15
Louise Hearman
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2011
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2009-10
Louise Hearman Clemenger Prize
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2009-10
Group Show, Summer '07 '08
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2007
Louise Hearman
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2005
LOUISE HEARMAN
6 September, Born Melbourne, Australia
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Tutor, Painting Department, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Teacher, Drawing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Louise Hearman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, QUT Art Museum, Queensland
Louise Hearman, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Louise Hearman, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
Louise Hearman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Hello Darkness, The Art of Louise Hearman, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Victoria
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Louise Hearman, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Louise Hearman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, Mori Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, Mori Gallery, Sydney
Louise Hearman, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
Louise Hearman, Mori Gallery, Sydney
Drawings, Realities Gallery, Melbourne
Recent Paintings, City Gallery, Melbourne
The Elephant Room, the dome project, The Mission Seamen Building, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Archie 100, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Vis-ability: Artworks from the QUT Art Collection, QUT Art Museum, Queensland, Australia
Art Cologne, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Cologne, Germany
Spring 1883, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Melbourne
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided Worlds, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Weird Melancholy: The Australian Gothic, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
Best in Show, Orange Regional Gallery, New South Wales
Solitaire, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville
2014 Doug Moran Portrait Prize, Juniper Hall, Sydney
Blue Chip XVI: The Collectors' Exhibition 2014, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Bonhams presents The Laverty Collection, fortyfivedownstairs, Mlebourne
Far-famed City of Melbourne, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
Sellers Art Prize, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
National Artists' Self-Portrait Prize 2011: Life is risk / Art is risk, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Queensland
Adaptation, Dubbo Regional Gallery - The Armati Bequest, Western Plains Cultural Centre, New South Wales
Lake, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, New South Wales
Moran Portrait Prize, State Library New South Wales
Wilderness, The inaugural Balnaves exhibition of contemporary painting, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Horror come Darkness, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney
Look! New Perspectives on the Contemporary Collection, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne
Neo Goth: Back in Black, The Art Museum, University of Queensland, curated by Alison Kubler
Who Let the Dogs Out, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, NSW
Redlands Westpac Art Prize, SCECGS Redlands, Sydney
Reverie, Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Monash University, Churchill, Victoria
Uncanny (the unnaturally strange), curator Rhana Devenport, ARTSPACE, Auckland
Before Night - After Nature: Selected works from the Monash University Collection, curator Geraldine Barlow, Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University, Victoria
2004 National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, Victoria
Freaks Fiends and Folly, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne
Instinct, Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University, Victoria
Depth of Field, Shepparton Art Gallery, Shepparton, Victoria
Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 - 2002, National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Melbourne (November 2002 to February 2003)
Dirty Dozen, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Nocturne, curated by John Buckley, Mornington Peninsula Gallery, Victoria
Darkness and Light, MacClelland Gallery, Victoria (travelling exhibition)
Painting: An Arcane Technology? Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
1901 - 2001: A Century of Collecting, Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney
Uncommon World - Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Contempora 5, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
Telling Tales, Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney
Metamorphosis, Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery, Melbourne
Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Black Attack, curated by John McPhee, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Works on Paper, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
Hidden Treasures II, S, H, Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Visy Board Prize Exhibition, Adelaide
Through A Glass Darkly, the inaugural Guiness Contemporary Art Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Drawing on Inspiration, Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney
Tell Me A Story, Plimsol Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart
Love & Ruin, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne
Faciality, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
Australian Perspecta 1993, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Frankfurt Contemporary Art Fair, Frankfurt, Germany
Margaret Stewart Endowment 1993, Selected Works, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Seven, Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney
Artists Play, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne
Ten Square, Linden Art Gallery, Melbourne
Works on Paper, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Gallery, Melbourne
Faber Castell Tenth Anniversary Drawing Award, Sydney
The Corporeal Body, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Melbourne Savage Club Drawing Prize, Melbourne
Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibtion, Australian Tour
A New Generation 1983 - 88, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
3 Artists, Mori Gallery, Sydney
COLLECTIONS
Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Box Hill, Victoria
Artbank
Vizard Foundation Art Collection, Melbourne
Austcorp
UBS Sydney
AWARDS
Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (finalist)
Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (finalist)
2014 Doug Moran Portrait Prize
Sellers Art Prize, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
The Ninth R M Ansett Award, Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria
Swan Hill Print and Drawing Show Purchase Award, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery
Special Projects Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council
BIBLIOGRAPHY
John Neylon, 'Adelaide Biennial - On the Edge of a Divided World', The Adelaide Review, March 27 2018
Andrew Gayor, 'Louise Hearman, The Worlds Within', Vault Magazine, Issue 17 February 2017, pp.44-47
Michaela Boland, Archibald Prize 2016 winner: Barry by Louise Hearman, The Australian, 15 July 2016
John Mcdonald, 'Floating in darkness', Spectrum Sydney Morning Herald, October 15-16, 2016 pp.16-17
Steph Harmon, Louise Hearman wins Archibald prize for Barry Humphries portrait , Art and design ,The Guardian, 15 July
Andrew Gayor, 'Louise Hearman, The Worlds Within', Vault Magazine, Issue 17 February 2017, pp.44-47
Louise Hearman, MCA Australia Publishing
Andrew Taylor, Archibald Prize 2016: Louise Hearman wins with portrait of Barry Humphries, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July, 2016
Andrew Taylor, “Louise Hearman wins Moran Prize for portrait of Bill Henson”, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 2014
Michaela Boland, “Louise Hearman wins Moran Prize for her portrait of Bill Henson”, The Australian, October 28 2014
Helen Brack, Blue Chip XVI: The Collectors' Exhibition, Exh. Catalogue, Niagara Galleries Melbourne, 2014
Kate Evans, 2014 Moran Art Prize Winners announced, Books and Arts Daily, Radio National, ABC Australia, Sydney, 29 October, 2014
Nicholas Forrest, Louise Hearman wins $150,000 Doug Moran Portrait Prize for 2014, Blouin Artinfo Australia, 28 October 2014
Nancy Groves, Louise Hearman wins 2014 Moran Prize, Australias richest award, The Guardian Australia, 28 October 2014
Adrian Raschella, Moran Art Prize: Melbourne artist Louise Hearman wins for portrait of Bill Henson, ABC Australia, 28 October 2014
Jillian Grant, 'Louise Hearman on Influence', Artist Profile, Issue 25, 2013-14
Steven Miller, Dogs in Australian Art, (South Australia: Wakefield Press, 2012) pp.38-39
Justin Burke, 'Painting by Australian rules', The Australian, October 23, 2012, pp16
Simon Gregg, New Romantics . … darkness and light in Australian Art, Australian Scholarly Publishing
“50 of Australia's most collectable Artists 2010” Australian Art Collector, issue 51 Jan-Mar, 2010
Who's who of Australian Women, 2010, Crown Content, Melbourne 2010
Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, 2009 National Gallery of Victoria (exh cat.)
Wilderness: Balnaves Contemporary: Painting (exh cat.)
Rhonda Davis, Horror come Darkness (exh. cat.), Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney
Hello Darkness, The Art of Louise Hearman, ex. cat., Glen Eira City Council, Victoria
Edward Colless, 'Unentitled: On Louise Hearman, untitled', Art & Australia, Vol. 46, No. 1 Spring, 2008, pp.26-131
Paul Flynn, Louise Hearman: My Imagined World', Artist Profile, Issue 3, 2008, pp.28-34
Steven Miller, Dogs in Australian Art
John McDonald and Ian Lloyd, Studio: Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity, Singapore: Ian Lloyd Productions, 2007
Michael Reid, 'Louise Hearman', The art oracle, The Good Weekender, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 24, 2006, p. 19
John McDonald, 'Daydreamers who bite back', Spectrum, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 3-4, 2005, p. 32-33
Margaret Marsh, Michele Watts and Craig Malyon A.R.T. 2 practice, Oxford University Press, Melbourne 2005 p. 68-69
Nellie Castan, “New York - The Armory Show 2004,” ART EXPO, pg. 30
Liza Vasiliou, Instinct, exh. cat., Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University, Victoria
Claire Armstrong, “Collector Profile: Dick Quan,” Art & Australia, Vol. 41 No. 4, Winter 2004, p. 615 - 617
Ashley Crawford, “Louise Hearman,” 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. 60 - 63
Michael Hutak, 'Louise Hearman: 50 Most Collectable Artists,' Australian Art Collector, Issue 23, January - March, p. 59
Karen Hall, “Louise Hearman,” Depth of Field exh. cat., Shepparton Art Gallery, Shepparton, Victoria, p. 18, 19
Robert Nelson, “Photography and painting in cahoots,” The Age, Saturday, 25 January 2003, p. 26 (Arts)
Elena Taylor, “Louise Hearman,” Australian Art in the National Gallery of Australia, ed. Anne Gray, Thames & Hudson, London, UK, p. 415
Charles Green, “Into the 1990s: the decay of postmodernism,” Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 - 2002, exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Melbourne (November 2002 to February 2003), p. 100 - 111
Glenis Israel, Artwise 2: Visual Arts 7 - 10, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd., Milton, Queensland, pp. 97 - 99
Benjamin Genocchio, Weekend Australian, 4 -5 August
1901 - 2001: A Century of Collecting (exh. cat.), Ivan Doherty Gallery, Sydney
Coutney Kidd, 'Louise Hearman,' Australian Painting Now (editor S. Cree), Craftsman House
Jennifer Spinks, 'Secrets and Skies - the Paintings of Louise Hearman,' Australian Art Collector Magazine, issue 8, June, pp. 68 -72
Maria Prendergast, 'Louise Hearman,' Contempora 5 (exh. cat.) Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, pp. 14 - 15
Elena Taylor, 'Louise Hearman,' Uncommon World (exh. cat.), National Gallery of Australia, p. 21
Gareth Sansom, 'Up the Road - Contemporary Artists out of the VCA (exh. cat.),' Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
Bruce James, 'Hearman aims for a place in the sun, and nails it,' Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July
John McDonald, 'Painting Dead? The picture's not so bleak,' Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum), July 18
Suzannah Biernoff, 'Louise Hearman and the atmosphere of vision,' Mori Gallery
Judith White, 'Australia's Most Wanted,' Australian Art Collector Magazine, issue 1, July, pp. 30 - 33
Jennifer Spinks, “Mirror, Mirror: Cruelty and Innocence,” Art & Australia, vol. 35, no, 2, pp. 234 - 241
John MacDonald, 'Left in the Dark,' Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum), June 8, p. 13
Bruce James, 'Hearman out of darkness,' The Age, Melbourne, 31 May
John Forbes, 'Go Ask Alice,' Through a Glass Darkly, Art Gallery of New South Walesexh. cat., pp. 19-27
Zara Stanhope, Faciality exh. cat., p.11
Nick Waterlow, Drawing on Inspiration exh. cat.
Donald Williams and Colin Simpson, 'Contemporary Art post 1970', Art Now, p. 189-90
Jonathan Holmes, 'Tell Me A Story' exh. cat., pp. 22-26
Nick Waterlow, 'Louise Hearman,' Australian Perspecta 1993, Art Gallery of New South Wales exh. cat.
Victoria Lynn, Australian Perspecta 1993, Art Gallery of New South Wales exh. cat.
Melbourne Theatre Company catalogue, p. 12
Nick Waterlow, 'Seven,' Ivan Doherty Gallery exh. cat.
Chris Chapman, 'The Corporeal Body,' Australian National Gallery exh. cat.
Anna Johnson, 'Between Heaven and Hell,' Interior Design, no. 18, pp. 134 - 7
Anna Weiss, 'Louise Hearman,' Moet & Chandon Tourning Exhibition exh. cat.
The Australian, May 10, p. 3
'Partisans,' Vogue Living, November, pp. 134 - 5
The Herald Sun, Melbourne, July 14, p. 3
- About
- Subscribe
