ARTIST BIO
Anthony White’s practice is committed to reclaiming the act of dissent through the production of cultural objects. His research is situated at the intersection of several fields, including politics, human rights, and post-colonialism. Concepts of design and its history as a form of social and political expression inform his approach to painting, drawing, collage, and printmaking. The references and materials he uses mark his predisposition for modernist aesthetics without this ever becoming the subject of his work. Through this practice, he tackles relevant questions to our time, to encourage emancipation and new ways of thinking.
White draws on new research into the 1854 Eureka Rebellion (Australia’s only ever armed civil uprising), the personal papers of Sidney Nolan and recent protest events in France, highlighting the increasing importance of his engagement with material, concept and history. White’s most recent series, Manifestation continues his wider thinking around the painterly gesture as a form of dissent, as well as the act of civil disobedience. A selection of works from Manifestation will be presented at The Eureka Centre on site in regional Victoria (Ballarat) from September 2024 -March 2025 to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade.
White’s work has been widely exhibited in Australia, Europe, United Kingdom and Asia. Recent solo exhibitions include: Manifestation at Lennox St Gallery (2023) Mobilising Material at The Mark Rothko Museum in Latvia in 2023, the largest exhibition of his work in Europe; The Curious Eye Never Runs Dry, Informality Gallery, Henley on Thames, U.K. (2019); Signs of Civilisation (2018) and Crossing the Rubicon (2016) both at Nanda Hobbs Contemporary, Sydney.
His work has been included in over 60 group exhibitions internationally as well as major Australian art prizes including The Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, The Elioth Gruner Prize, The John Glover Art Prize, and The Churchie Emerging Art Award. He has been the recipient of numerous art prizes including The Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship (2007); The Creative Arts Fellowship at The National Library of Australia (2020); and his work has been reviewed in The Australia Financial Review, Art Collector Magazine, and Elle Décor.
He has also been awarded numerous prestigious residencies, including The Vermont Studio Centre Residency USA (2008); The National Art School Paris Studio Award at La Cite Internationale Des Arts (2009); The Leipzig International Art Programme Residency, Germany (2010;) and the International Painting Symposium at The Mark Rothko Centre in Latvia during (2017). And he has received support through cultural agencies such as The National Association for the Visual Arts; The Copyright Agency Limited; and The Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP). and the copyright agency ADAGP France
Anthony White’s work is held in public and private collections internationally, including the Mark Rothko Museum in Latvia,The Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre,Tweed Heads, and the South Coast Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Bega NSW Australia.