Nick Glade-Wright

Nick Glade-Wright was born in 1950 in the UK. Emigrated to Australia in 1965. His studies include Design at RMIT, Fine Art degree at Hobart School of Art, and B. Ed at University of Tasmania. Painter, musician, published novelist, and educator in Tasmanian colleges. His work has been collected nationally and internationally since his first solo exhibition in 1974 by public institutions and private collections. Glade-Wright has been a finalist in various art awards – The Glover Prize, the Calleen Awards, Pro Hart outback Awards, Bay of Fires art prize.

Progressing from an era of abstraction and Modernist influences in the early 70s Glade-Wright’s work, over the subsequent fifty years, has embraced pure abstraction, metaphysical imagery and stylized reality, all with a powerfully imbued use of colour, expressing ideas about Nature, climate change, immigration and asylum, world conflicts, and narratives about his home state of Tasmania and experiences in the desert in the Northern Territory with Pitjantjara aboriginals.

About the paintings in this exhibition.  ‘Beyond stone.’

The imagery I have used in this exhibition comes from the East Coast of Tasmania, specifically the Bay of Fires, on the scree slopes of the ‘Lost World’ on Mt Wellington, kunanyi, Tasmania, and the red rocks in the Northern Territory.

For me nature provides opportunities to see metaphors for our own lives, metaphysical narratives and a chance to strip away the ‘noise’ and return to something fundamental, even primordial, where we can value our natural surroundings before they are processed. (Mineral wealth usually refers to the processing of ubiquitous rock into something more ‘valued’) The titles of the paintings give a clue to personal thoughts and leave room for viewers to relate from their own lives’ experiences. Expressive colour is an essential element in my work.