ANDREW SEWARD

Seward’s practice is concerned primarily with rendering delicate graphite drawings, usually at 1:1 scale, of native specimens of foliage and seaweed. His exquisitely detailed drawings encourage an intimacy with the works that is often absent from contemporary art. They are more like analogies about life, and the way we spend time rather than being simply accurate observational drawings. They suggest something beyond the sublime.

Seward has been well recognised for his work over the years, being awarded residencies at the Australia Council’s London studio, the Asialink Sri Lanka studio and Queens College at the University of Melbourne. He has been a finalist for numerous work on paper awards including the Dobell Drawing Prize, the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Works on Paper Award, the Kedumba Drawing Prize, the Robert Jacks Drawing Prize and most recently, the Paul Guest Drawing Prize in 2012. His work is represented internationally in collections such as the Natural History Museum, London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London), the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh and in Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria, Monash University, Monash Gallery of Art, Art Gallery Ballarat and Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.