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Andrew McIlroy
Born 1966. Lives and works in Melbourne.
"I hope to make people pause for just a moment. My inspiration is simple. To create a beautiful contemporary painting which is familiar, tangible, and enduring. My struggle then is to capture ‘Australianness’".
Andrew McIlroy completed studies with Melbourne, Monash and
Swinburne Universities and the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney.
Since 2004, he has exhibited extensively in solo and group
exhibitions in Australia and the USA.
In 2006 McIlroy was a finalist in the ANL Maritime Art Prize, the
North Sydney Art Prize and was selected for the Landcom
International Artists Project. In 2008 he was a finalist in the
Kings School Art Prize, Sydney. Andrew McIlroy's work is part of
several public, corporate and private collections including Cisco
Systems, Benson Partners, Howarth Australia, Landcom, and the
Prince of Wales Hospital, New South Wales.
With a fresh approach, yet a reverence for the western painting
tradition, McIlroy is in a unique position to extend formal
classicism into the 21st century. Producing sophisticated
paintings that challenge traditional and modernist methodologies,
McIlroy references Australian Colonialism and the forefathers of
the landscape tradition. His concern with atmosphere, golden light
and voluminous skies pays homage to the great Joseph Mallord
William Turner and forms a bridge with contemporary figuration.
Primarily investigating the diffusion of sky, sea and light, he
utilises strong saturated colour and a reduced monotone palette,
imparting a dreamlike quality to the works.
In his own words, "I hope to make people pause for just a moment.
My inspiration is simple. To create a beautiful contemporary
painting which is familiar, tangible, and enduring. My struggle
then is to capture 'Australianness' without reacting against
European influences or composition."
