CURRENT - Nicholas Thompson Gallery

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

BEAUTY HAS A POWER OF ITS OWN

Suzanne Archer and Guy Warren in Guy Warren's studio, Leichardt, Sydney 2018

The opportunity to visit another artist’s studio is a special privilege. Once in the 1980’s I visited Guy Warren’s studio in Balmain where he showed me some of his wonderful sketchbooks. I have never forgotten that experience.

This time, many years later, I was invited to visit his studio in Leichardt to select some works for this current exhibition. What a wonderful experience to delve into drawer after drawer of works on paper. I realised quite quickly that what I was focussing on were works of Guy’s that explored the more unusual and less typical, but still retained the beauty and sensitivity of his mark making and the tender poetry of his vision.

Suzanne Archer 2019

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Guy Warren (b. 1921) has exhibited regularly since 1955. Following war service with the AIF from 1941-46, Warren studied at the National Art School from 1947 to 1949 under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme and undertook further training in London at the Chelsea School of Art; London School of Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1950 to 1966. Warren was the Principal lecturer and Head of Painting at the Sydney College of Arts from 1976 to 1985 and a Director of the Wollongong Art Collection from 1992 to 2002.

Guy Warren is a recipient of the Archibald Prize (1985), the Medal of the Order of Australia OAM (1999) and the Australia Medal AM (2013). He was awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts (honoris causa) from the University of Wollongong (1998) and a Doctorate of Visual Arts (honoris causa) from the University of Sydney (2007). Survey exhibitions of Warren’s work have been held at Newcastle Region Gallery (1977), Cairns Regional Art Gallery (2001), University of Wollongong (2002), Mosman Art Gallery (2003-4), S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney (2016) and Shoalhaven Regional Art Gallery (2018-19).

Guy Warren is represented in Australian public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Parliament House Collection; Canberra; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; the Art Gallery of Tasmania, Hobart; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Artbank as well significant regional, tertiary and corporate collections. Internationally his work is represented in the collections of The British Museum, London; the Contemporary Art Society Collection, London; the National Library, China and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei and prominent corporate collections in the United States and Asia.