Neil Emmerson

Neil Emmerson is an Australian artist living and working in Otepoti Dunedin since 2006.

Conceptually his practice always embodies an unapologetic and playful queerness which explores it’s multiple histories through literature, history, war, sex, politics and popular culture.

Formally his work engages with, and often blends, the studio practices of print, sculpture and installation, working with a range of materials including paper, textiles and plastics.

His engagement with traditional Western printing techniques has been extensive, a large portion of it working with stone lithography. He has worked as a custom printer at the Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne and at Basil Hall Inc. in Darwin and has been a visual arts educator, primarily in the studio area of Printmaking, for over 40 years. In 1999 he studied mokuhanga, traditional Japanese woodblock printing, at Nagasawa Art Park, Awaji Island, Hyogo, Japan completing an intensive 2 month program

A full catalogue of Neil’s work will be uploaded to the website soon.

In 2006 he won the Fremantle Print Award.

His work is represented in major public collections in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand:

  • Toi o Tamaki Auckland Art Gallery Auckland NZ

  • NGA Canberra ACT

  • NGV Melbourne VIC

  • AGNSW Sydney NSW

  • QAG Brisbane QLD

  • MUMA Monash University Melbourne VIC

  • Vizard Collection University of Melbourne Melbourne VIC

  • Deacon University Geelong VIC

  • RMIT University Melbourne VIC

  • Newcastle Art Gallery Newcastle NSW

  • Fremantle Arts Centre Fremantle WA

  • Maitland Art Galley Maitland NSW

He holds an MVA from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney 2000.

Artist-in-Residence experiences include extensive periods in Belgium 1987 and Nederland 2000.

Major National selected survey exhibitions include:

  • Cheju Pre-Biennale, Cheju South Korea 1995

  • Australian Perspecta, AGNSW, Sydney NSW 1995

  • Aspects of Australian Printmaking, 1984 - 1994, NGV, Melbourne VIC 1995

  • The Expanded Field, MUMA, Melbourne VIC 1998

  • Uncommon World: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, NGA, Canberra ACT 2000

  • Our Place: Issues of identity in Recent Australian art, MUMA at Palazzo Vaj, Prato Italy 2001

  • Interesting Times, MCA, Sydney NSW 2005

  • Uncanny Nature ACCA, Melbourne VIC 2006

In 2006 he won the Fremantle Print Award