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Garry Shead 1942 - Present Day

Style
Contemporary / figurative and narrative

Career Status
Blue Chip

Biography
Garry Shead is one of Australia's most popular and distinctive artists and print makers. Winner of the 1993 Archibald Prize, and the 2004 Dobell Prize for Drawing, Shead was born in Sydney in 1942. Following studies at the National Art School he became a scenic artist with ABC TV before staging his first solo exhibition with Watters Gallery in 1966.

In 1967 he won the Young Contemporaries Prize and then travelled to Japan before embarking on an expedition to the Sepik Highlands in Papua New Guinea. In 1972 Shead became Artist-in-Residence at the Power Studio, Cite Des Arts, Paris. In 1981-82 he was Artist-in-Residence at the Michael Karolyi Foundation in Vence, France where he met his late wife, the Hungarian sculptor Judit Englert.

After living in Budapest for a year and travelling widely in Europe, Shead and his wife returned to Australia and in 1987 settled in the small coastal community of Bundeena, south of Sydney. Shead's biographer, Dr Sasha Griffin notes that Shead's paintings "highlight a distinctive love of the Australian landscape". This is evident in his Stockman series of the late 1980's, his "gently satirical" Monarchy suite of paintings, and most significantly in his famous D.H. Lawrence series.

Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Visual Arts and Crafts Board, Sydney
Phillip Morris Collection, Canberra
Sydney Morning Herald Collection, Sydney
State Bank, Sydney
Brisbane City Art Collection
Artbank, Sydney
National Film Library
University of Western Australia
University of New South Wales
Australian National University
Queensland University of Technology
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery
Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
Wollongong City Art Gallery
National Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Shepparton Art Gallery

Auction Record
Queen of Suburbia $432,000
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 97 lower left; inscribed with title on the reverse, 166 x 212 cm, Est: $200,000-300,000 Sotheby's Melbourne 27/08/2007, Lot No. 17

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