Born 1953, Adelaide, South Australia

Stewart MacFarlane is an Australian artist. Born in Adelaide in 1953, he was encouraged at school by South Australian artist, David Dridan. At 16 he entered the South Australian School of Art, intent on following a career as a painter. There MacFarlane was influenced by Adelaide artist, David Dallwiltz.

MacFarlane travelled to New York in 1975, aged 21, to study at the School of Visual Arts for 2 years. He remained living and working in New York for several years. New York based artist and teacher, John Button, became MacFarlane’s mentor, post art school. During this time, MacFarlane received residencies and fellowships to the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire. He exhibited in group shows as well as having three solo exhibitions in New York. Firstly at Razor Gallery, SoHo in 1979, then Belanthi Gallery in 1979 and the Australian Consulate New York in 1983.

He returned to Australia in 1983, moving to Melbourne the following year for post-graduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts. In 1985, he taught at The Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education and in 1986 moved to Darlinghurst, Sydney to paint. Later that year, he was artist-in-residence in the Besozzo Studio, Italy.

In 1987, MacFarlane lived and painted in Mornington, Victoria for several months before receiving an initial residency with the Roswell Artist-in-residence program, New Mexico, for a year.

Over the next 8 years he moved between Melbourne, Sydney and Roswell, producing one or more solo exhibitions each year. In 1994 he received a residency at The Bemis Center, Omaha, Nebraska, then travelled to Mexico to paint for 3 months.

Queensland became home on returning in 1995, where he remained to work for the next seven years, basing himself in Maryborough firstly, then New Farm and the Sunshine Coast. MacFarlane moved to Hobart in 2002, where he lived with his wife Jane and daughter Lily until their move to South Australia in 2011.

In 1996 the monograph, Stewart MacFarlane Riddles of Life by Veronique Helmridge-Marsillian, was published by Craftsman House. MacFarlane is in the majority of State Gallery collections as well as the Australian National Gallery. He has held over 50 solo exhibitions of his work in Australia, Asia, USA and Germany.

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Bibliography

Adam, Rosemary; “Stewart MacFarlane: ‘Roswell’”, Art Monthly, March 1992
Adam, Rosemary; “Stewart MacFarlane”, Tension, 22 September 1990
Artlink, Cover Image, Vol 12, No. 2, 2003
”Compulsion: Survey exhibition”, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane, 2001
Drury, Nevill; “Images 3, Contemporary Australian Painting”, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998
Drury, Nevill; “Images 2, Contemporary Australian Painting”, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1994
Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Touring Exhibition, Australia, 1998
Fenner, Felicity & Loxley, Anne; “Breath”, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, 1993
Heathcote, Christopher; “Summer Famine”, Art Monthly, March 1989
Heinemann; “Australian Artlook”, Melbourne, 1998     
Helmridge-Marsillian, Dr Veronique (essay); ”Stewart MacFarlane: Small Observations, Survey Exhibition”, Carnegie Gallery, Hobart City Council, TAS, 2006
Helmridge-Marsillian, Dr Veronique (essay); “Stewart MacFarlane Riddles of Life”, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996
Helmridge-Marsillian, Dr Veronique; “Work and Sex. Three Paintings by Stewart MacFarlane”, Art Monthly, July 1994
Katz, Vincent (essay); “Compulsion: Stewart MacFarlane”, Brisbane City Gallery, 2001
Kubler, Alison; “Stewart MacFarlane”, State of the Arts, April 2004
Leong, Roger; “The Painted Self”, Australian Artist, No 242, August 2004
Lindsay, Frances; Moét and Chandon Touring Exhibition, 1989
Lindsay, Robert; “Shell Collection of Contemporary Art”, 1995
Lindsay, Robert; “Young Australians. Budget Collection”, Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne, 1987
Lindsay, Robert; “I.C.I. Contemporary Art Collection”, Australia, 1989
Lindsay, Robert; “Artists under Saturn”, Ian Potter Gallery, The University of Melbourne, VIC, 1987
McCulloch, Alan & McCulloch, Susan; “The Encyclopaedia of Australian Art”, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984
Merkus, Elaine; “Here and There”, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1987Osborne, Margot; “The Naked City”, Contemporary Arts Society of South Australia, Adelaide, 1988
Morrell, Tim; “Review of Compulsion”, Art Link, December, 2001
Morrell, Tim; “The Function”, Artlines, Queensland Art Gallery Society, August-September 1997
Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico, USA 2003
Nedelkopoulos, Nicholas (producer and director); “Private View with Stewart MacFarlane”, 2004
Phipps, Jennifer; “Drawing”, Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, VIC, 1989
Pickett, Charles; “Cars and Culture. Our Driving Passions”, Harper Collins & Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 1999
“Private Life”, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2006
“Self Portraits”, Sunday, Nine Network, 29 August 2004
“Stewart MacFarlane. Door of Memories”, Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico, USA, 1987
”Stewart MacFarlane Profile”, ABC TV Stateline, 18 July, 2003
Williams, Donald & Simpson, Colin; “Art Now. Contemporary Art Post-1970”, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1994

Awards

Collections

Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS
Alice Springs Art Foundation Collection, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
Artbank, Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane
Curtin University, Perth
Griffith University, Brisbane
Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, VIC
Lawrence Wilson Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth
Monash University, Melbourne
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, QLD
Print Council of Australia, Melbourne
Provincetown Museum and Art Center, Massachusetts, USA      
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Wagga Wagga City Gallery, NSW