Garry Shead (Australian 1942-)

Gary James Shead (Australian 1942-) Bio

Gary is an Australian painter, print maker, cartoonist, photographer, and filmmaker, early in his youth whilst at secondary school in the 1950s Gary won numerous art prize and in 1961 he attended the National Art School (NAS) Sydney where he also directed his first film “Ding a Ding Day 1966”, it was also in that year, his painting of his sister Lynne was accepted and hung in the Archibald Prize exhibition, making him one of the youngest on record Archibald exhibitors

In 1966 Gary held his first solo exhibition at the Watters Gallery in Sydney. He won the Young Contemporaries Prize in 1967. In the late 1960s Gary travelled New Guinea on a film expedition, where he discovered the letters of DH Lawrence (20th century Writer), in 1972 Gary was Artist in residence, Power Studio, Cite des Arts, Paris in 1973 Brett Whiteley who also shared Gary’s interest in DH Lawrence travelled with Gary to Thirroul, south of Sydney, where Lawrence and his wife had lived in the early 1920’s, Gary often visited Thirroul it was HD Lawrence that heavily influenced Gary’s later work. Gary travelled to Europe in the early 1980s, living in Vence, France (the place where DH Lawrence had died) in 1981. He moved back to Australia in 1983, and settled in Bundeena, NSW in 1986 he was the Winner of Mahalb Art Prize (New South Wales Law Society), in 1987, where his style (figurative, allegoric, lyric, moody) crystallized with the Bundeena paintings, the Queen series and the D. H. Lawrence series. This last one is based mainly on Lawrence’s novel Kangaroo, which was inspired by the Lawrence’s stay at Thirroul. In that year Gary embarked on the first of the ‘Outback’ series of paintings, those paintings, along with the ‘Bundeena’ series in 1990, paved the way for Gary’s distinctive style to emerge in the breakthrough ‘DH Lawrence’ series. Living in the Australian bush with his European wife inspired Gary to include not only DH Lawrence in his work, but also Lawrence’s wife Frieda. Placing a European woman against the Australian bush began with the ‘DH Lawrence’ series of paintings and became a recurring theme in Gary’s work… Read More On Gary Shead