In Louise Hearman's paintings and drawings things are not always as they seem. It is up to us to imagine what is glimmering in the half-light or lurking deep in the shadows, as the artist offers no written clues to the evocative content of her works.
Exhibition Dates: 16 August – 6 September 2018
View Exhibition Text
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
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
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
2016 Archibald Portrait Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
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
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Louise Hearman, MCA Australia Publishing
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Andrew Taylor, “Louise Hearman wins Moran Prize for portrait of Bill Henson”, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 2014
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