BIOGRAPHY

GAVIN WILSON

Since 1993, Gavin Wilson has forged a successful career as an independent curator, landscape architect, artist and author. In that time, he has conceived, researched and curated a number of significant exhibitions for public galleries in metropolitan and regional areas. His wide-ranging exhibitions and publications focus on the inter-connected themes of landscape and culture in the Australian experience.

Prior to this, Gavin studied Architecture at the University of New South Wales in 1970 – 71 evolving into an independent filmmaker and artist. From 1973 to 1974 he travelled extensively through south east Asia, Japan, North America, Europe, Egypt and India. During this time, in collaboration with fellow artist Peter Kingston he completed the screwball comedy ‘On The Ball’. Upon his return to Australia he exhibited works in group exhibitions at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Brisbane 1976 and Watters Gallery Sydney 1977. In 1979 he was invited to exhibit his experimental film Exile at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris alongside films by Stan Brackage and Andy Warhol.

In 1981 following his deepening interest in sustainable forms of land use, he embarked on an extended project to operate and regenerate a 700 acre property at Pappinbarra in the ranges west of Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

Returning to the University of New South Wales in 1989 he was awarded an honours degree in Landscape Architecture in 1993. After receiving the National Award for Research and Communication from the Institute of Landscape Architects in1996 for The Artists of Hill End project, he embarked on a successful career as a freelance curator delivering exhibitions in regional and metropolitan Australia. These exhibitions met with both critical and public acclaim.

EDUCATION

1992 Graduated (Honours) School of Landscape Architecture UNSW

1976 Studied Julian Ashton School of Art, Sydney

1970-71 Studied Architecture UNSW

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2019 River on the Brink: inside the Murray-Darling Basin
S.H.Ervin Gallery. Observatory Hill, Sydney. September – November 2019

2018 Interiors
Orange Regional Gallery April – June 2018

2016 Self Portraits on Paper
Yellow House Potts Point March 2016

2015 Country & Western: landscape reimagined
Touring, July 2015 – April 2017

2014 Natura Morta: recent perceptions of an age-old genre
Orange Regional Gallery November – December 2014

2013 Refiguring Dystopia: the art of Richard Goodwin, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 13 December (Visions development funding)

2013 Travel Notes: Peter Kingston & Euan Macleod works on paper Cairns regional Gallery 14 June – 4 August

2013 Everyone Is Here: Jason Benjamin paintings and works on paper Wagga Wagga Art Gallery 20 September – regional tour to follow

2012 Picturing the Great Divide: Visions from Australia’s Blue Mountains inaugural exhibition, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW

2011 Elemental Reckoning: the art of Tim Storrier SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2009/10 Surface Tension: the art of Euan Macleod Tweed River Art Gallery touring Vic, NSW, Qld (Visions development & tour funding)

2009/10 Love on Mount Pleasant: Garry Shead toasts Maurice O’Shea Touring NSW Orange Regional Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery

2007 Cuisine & Country: a gastronomic venture in Australian art, Orange Regional Gallery touring NSW, S.A., Vic ,Qld (Visions development & tour funding)

2006 Harbourlife: Sydney Harbour, 1940s to recent times Manly Museum & Art Gallery: Macquarie University Art Gallery

2004 Encounters with country: landscapes of Ray Crooke, Cairns Regional Gallery touring NSW, Vic, Qld (Visions development & tour funding)

2003 Fireworks: tracing the incendiary in Australian art, Artspace Mackay touring Qld, NSW, Vic (Visions development & tour funding)

2002 Beneath the Monsoon: visions north of Capricorn, Artspace Mackay touring north Qld

2001 Rivers + Rocks: Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley, Bundanon Trust touring NSW, Vic, Qld (Visions development & tour funding)

1999 Sydney Harbour, David Moore: 50 years of photography, Sydney Opera House Trust touring NSW, Vic, Qld (Visions development & tour funding)

1998 Escape Artists: modernists in the tropics, Cairns Regional Gallery touring Qld, NSW, Vic (Visions development & tour funding)

1995 The Artists of Hill End: art, life & landscape, AGNSW touring NSW, Vic. (Visions tour funding)

MONOGRAPHS

Picturing the Great Divide: Visions from Australia’s Blue Mountains, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, 2012

Elemental Reckoning: the art of Tim Storrier, Jam Press, 2011

Richard Goodwin, Performance to porosity, (co-writer) Craftsman House, 2006

Harbourlights: the art & times of Peter Kingston, Craftsman House, 2004

John Firth-Smith: A voyage that never ends, Craftsman House, 2000

The Artists of Hill End: art, life & landscape. AGNSW & Beagle Press, 1995

AWARDS

2005 Australia Council Grant: research and write New Work for the Richard Goodwin publication ‘Performance to Porosity’

1995 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects: Research and Communication National Award: The Artists of Hill End

1976 Australian Film Commission Awarded grant Experimental Film Fund Project: ‘Exile’