born in Warrnambool, Victoria. He is based in Melbourne. David Ralph is a contemporary artist whose subjects reflect on how built environments, cities and dwellings shape human experiences and forge identities. His paintings address the psychology of architectural spaces and what they can inform about the people responsible for them, and those who inhabit them. Recent bodies of work have specifically exampled a reconnection with the natural world, what the artist describes as the ‘architecture of escape,’ that is escaping the urban environment by way of mobile homes, caravans, cabins and ‘green’ dwellings. Ralph identifies as a contemporary painter whose use of enduring mediums such as oil paint and pencil drawing acknowledges newer forms of media and digital technology as a source of inspiration and its potential to create hybrid abstract/representational imagery.
Education
2001 MA Fine Art, Painting, Digital Print Media, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
1997-9 Master of Fine Art (Research), Painting, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Dissolve, Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne
2010 Threshold. Block Projects, Melbourne
Salvage, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2009 Extensions, ARC one Gallery, Melbourne
Survey- recent work 03-09, 17th Floor Artspace, Victoria University, Melbourne
2008 In Captivity, ARC one Gallery, Melbourne
2007 City Limits, Warrnambool Regional Gallery, Victoria
2006 Mobile Home, ARC one Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Escapeland, ARC one Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Night Vision, ARC one Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Virtually Real, Attendi Gallery London
2000–1999 Interior Telescope–Transitional Space, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
Group Exhibitions
2013 The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2011 The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
The Albany Art Prize, Albany Art Gallery Western Australia
2010 Fletcher Jones Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Victoria
RBS Artists Award, Renzo Piano RBS Tower, Sydney, NSW
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2009 Frieze Projects, Open Call ,Arte Contempo, Lisbon, Portugal, Frieze Art Fair, London.
The Shilo Project, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne.
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria.
The Gulag, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
2008 MacArthur Cook Contemporary Art Prize
2007 The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery,Victoria
2006 Celeste Contemporary Art Prize, The Well, Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
The Conrad Jupiter’s Contemporary Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
Alice Prize, Alice Springs Art Gallery, Northern Territory
2005. This Urban World, National Touring Exhibition, Devonport Regional Gallery, Tasmania
Arte Fiera Bologna, Italy, James Colman Gallery London. UK
Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales.Sydney
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2004 East End Academy, Whitechapel Gallery, London. UK
The Fletcher Jones Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
2003 1,000 Drawings Artists Space, New York. USA
Amplifying Silence /Magnifying Stillness, Fondation D’Art Contemporain Daniel & Florence Guerlain, Paris, France
Art Frankfurt, Germany, James Colman Gallery, London. UK
The Commonwealth Exhibition for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, London House, London, UK
Grants, Awards & Prizes
2013 Australia Council,Visual Arts Board – Skills and Arts Development Grant –
Forthcoming Residency – LIA Leipzig International Art Programme, Leipzig, Germany
2009-10 Commonwealth Government, Australia Council, Visual Arts and Crafts Board, New Work
Grant
2003 London Arts, Visual Artists Fund Grant
2002 Commonwealth Government, Australia Council, Visual Arts and Crafts Board, New Work
Grant
2000 The Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship
1999 The Conrad Jupiter’s Contemporary Art Prize
Collections
RACV, Melbourne
BHP Billiton, Australia
Fondation D’Art Contemporain Daniel & Florence Guerlain Paris, France
British Airways Collection, UK
National Gallery of Victoria, Melboune
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
Warrnambool Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Artbank, Australia
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
Port Philip City Council, City of Yarra Council.
Bibliography
2010 May 1-2, Lissa Christopher, Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, Salvage, Boutwell Draper
Gallery
2008 Sebastian Smee, Australian, Review, In Captivity, Arc one, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Sebastian Smee, Australian, Review, Mobile Home, Arc one, Melbourne, Austraiia ABC Radio
National, Deep End program, Art Guru segment guest with Juliana Engberg
2005 Peter Hill, Portrait of a winner (re Adam Elliot, Archibald Portrait), The Age Review,
Melbourne
2003 Mary Nicholson, Night Vision Interview, ABC Radio National, Sunday Arts Program, Makers segment
2002 Roy Exley, Amplifying Silence, Magnifying Stillness Catalogue, Fondation D’Art Contemporain
Daniel & Florence Guerlain, Les Mesnuls, France.Photo feature, ‘Fantasy Island’ exhibition, Time
Out, London, Art
Robert Nelson, Photofit of painting, ‘Sebastian’, Bendigo Gallery, The Age, Melbourne
Teaching
2005-13 Contemporary Painting, Drawing, Digital Photography, Multimedia, Critical and Theoretical
Studies
2010-13 V.C.A. – Critical and Theoretical Studies
2009-10 RMIT – Tafe, Painting and Drawing
2006-12 Victoria University. Tafe – Painting and Drawing
2005-13 LaTrobe College – Painting, Drawing, Digital Photography, Professional Practice, Critical
and Theoretical Studies
MFA Chelsea College of Art and Design in London – Painting and Digital Media
MFA in Painting from the V.C.A
Certificate lV in assessment and work place training
Contact
djr@alphalink.com.au
