ERIC BRIDGEMAN

Growing up in Brisbane but having spent more time with his maternal family line in PNG (Chimbu Province) in recent years, Bridgeman’s work explores his own cultural and sexual identity in a broader context of belonging. In doing so, it also seeks to address some harsh social realities of his homeland culture.

Bridgeman has quickly received recognition and collector interest since he graduated from Queensland College of Art toward the end of last decade. In 2010, he was curated into Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival and was shortlisted for the prestigious Basil Sellers Art Prize at the Ian Potter Museum of Art. In 2011, he was selected for Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and named as one of Australian Art Collector’s artists ON THE RADAR by Dr Chris McAuliffe. In 2012 he undertook a number of international residencies (Liverpool, UK and Lethbridge, Canada) before returning to Australia to participate in TABOO, an exhibition curated by Brook Andrew, at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.