is a series of self-portrait paintings depicting the artist with his head concealed. Rather than the immediate connotation of self-harm, the artist invites viewers to consider the history of portraiture and the embodiment of humanity therein, rich with nuance, contractions and multiplicities.

Between You and Me (2017) is the 2017 winner of the prestigious Kilgour Prize, held annually at Newcastle Regional Gallery, with Self Portrait with Plastic Bag (2023) was a finalist in the Gosford Art Prize in 2023. The artist statement for the former is below.

Between You and Me (2017)

The saying goes: write what you know. I think the same can be said for making art, and although there is much of myself I’m yet to understand, often perplexed by my own desires, thoughts and actions, I have chosen to paint a self-portrait with the intent of interrogation and self-discovery.

Painting for me offers an opportunity to investigate, expose and and make sense of the paradoxes and dualisms played out every day, and more specifically, in the art-making process itself. Of particular concern is the relationships between form and subject and the tangible and elusory.

The act of auto asphyxiation – suffocating, enwrapped in a plastic bag – represents a moment of distress, but also gratification, in anticipation of the painting to follow. My choice to work on natural latex was an intuitive one, a need to examine the formal qualities of the painted surface and the painting as an object. While I normally work to archival standards, the very support for this painting, the latex, will discolour and even deteriorate over time. In many ways, this self-portrait is a metaphor for the felt ironies of art-making; its peaks and troughs; fetishisation and abhorrence; introspection and exhibition.