\ Artists

Stuart Spence

1960
Lives and works in Sydney

“That sense that really great photos, really great art leads you out of your passive state into an active one, and that’s what I think that Stuart Spence does.” Anne O’Hehir, Curator of Photography at National Gallery of Australia

A bowerbird of human emotions, Australian artist Stuart Spence is an artist that bounds between genres and mediums. His is a career that has seen the morphing of imagery and ideas into a narrative that delves deep into the elemental nature of living. Spence’s photography is largely produced in a reportage style, his subject matter found rather than directed. His video work revolves around interpreting his own photographs as characters, often in monologue style.

Spence’s fervent mind and skilled hand bends light, words and sound to his effervescent will. And so it is with the photographic works—captured in a lens with a neo-impressionistic fervour—the grain of the image, in effect, becomes pointillist in nature. The noiresque sensibility is all encompassing. Spence makes melancholy desirable.

His works are currently held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, The National Library of Australia, the Manly Art Gallery and Museum and The Bundanon Trust.

Spence has released two books, When A Man Snaps (2017) and Yield (2021).

View Time and Tide—a video work set in the 1930’s, exhibited in Truro, 8–17 April, 2021 at Nanda\Hobbs.

\ Artworks

Airport

2016 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

And I put my trust in the current

2006 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

Come on, take my hand

2007 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

Dress Circle

2004 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition size: 5

Fallin' Back in

2005 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition of 8

Force

2008 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

Honolulu

Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Edition of 8 \ Framed size: 110.8 x 168.2cm

Hope springs

2009 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

I walk this ocean every night

2007 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

I'm glad you can make it, baby

2013 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition of 8

Landing

2008 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition size: 8

Leaving Kansas

2005 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

Lure

2014 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 168 x 111cm \ Edition size: 8

My misunderstanding

2005 \ Image size: 63 x 168cm \ Edition size: 8

No one dances with a cop

2004 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition size: 8

Of parties past...

2017 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

The Greatest Show on Earth

2008 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition of 8

The Verdict (in pale pink)

2007 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 80 x 240cm \ Edition size: 8

To leave this small town

2007 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Image size: 105 x 105cm \ Edition size: 8

sleepwalker

2007 \ Cotton rag archival pigment print \ Framed size: 111 x 168cm \ Edition size: 8

\ News

NH Event

Stuart Spence wins Best Actor at the Paris International Short [Film] Festival

11 October 2021

Stuart Spence has just won Best Actor at the Paris International Short [Film] Festival and a finalist at three additional international short film festivals (Toronto Independent Film Festival, Dubai Independent Film Festival and Hollywood International Golden Age Festival (Best Actor)) for his video work Time and Tide.

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