It’s clear that Hartigan is interested in revitalization and entropy in nature and painting, stating: ‘with these works, it felt like I
was planting, digging, clearing, and unburying; it was a bit like hunting for fossils or working in the garden. I kept thinking
about the word “Garden”.’ Each work can be viewed on this level: materiality on the one hand, nomadism, strata, and
renewal on the other.
—Andrew Hunt, Professor of Fine Art and Curating, Manchester Metropolitan University
Patrick Hartigan (b. 1977, l. Gadigal Country/Sydney) is a painter whose studio practice foregrounds material experimentation often emphasising the sculptural potentials of painting. His work expresses the world rather than responds to it, with both abstract and figurative outcomes. Hartigan’s open and sensitive engagement with each element and his process of ‘cooking’ paintings, permitting slow layering and development, can achieve the impression that paintings or parts of paintings have taken shape through events outside the artist’s control and that marks are the remnants or memories of events rather than events born of the artist’s intention.
Recent works have included architecturally-scaled works that were painted unstretched on the ground under the open sky on the rooftop of his Sydney studio. Through collaged elements they extend their interest in shape, colour, texture and sculpture and an economy of production. Value is attributed to every mark, cut, selvedge, and both the fronts and backs of things.
Patrick Hartigan was awarded a Doctor of Creative Arts by the University of Wollongong in 2016 and currently teaches at the National Art School, Sydney. In 2020, he was artist-in-residence at Newington College (Sydn
Hartigan has published two books of writing: The Village is Quiet (2021) and Offcuts (2019) both published by Gazebo Books, Sydney. From 2014 —2018 he was the art critic for The Saturday Paper.
Key exhibitions
- Patrick Hartigan — Archetypes, The Commercial, Sydney, 2022
- 5 x 5 – the Artist and the Patron, curated by Michael Do, Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney, 2018
- Patrick Hartigan — Stage and Anvil, Minerva, Sydney, 2016
Key readings
- Eloise Hastings, 'Patrick Hartigan — The Ground', TheReviewBoard, 7 July 2020
- Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest Autumn Exhibition Suite 2018, exh. cat., Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Penrith, 2018
- Claudia Arozqueta, 'Harvest', review, Art Agenda, March 2, 2017
Collections
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Monash University Museum of Art|
Murray Art Museum Albury
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
National Gallery of Australia
Wollongong University Art Collection