Noel McKenna was born in Brisbane in 1956 and has lived in Sydney for the past 29 years. He works across the media of painting, watercolour, and ceramics. The place of the human figure within an urban environment has long been an interest of McKenna’s. His works quietly express his thoughts on the human condition through a spare linear style and clever manipulation of scale.
Read MoreMcKenna has exhibited regularly since the early 1980s and recent solo exhibitions include Noel McKenna, Michael Reid at Murrurundi, NSW (2010), Noel McKenna - 29 centimetres closer, Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand (2010), Northland, mother’s tankstation, Dublin, Ireland (2008), and The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKenna, National Art School Gallery, Sydney (2008). McKenna’s work is frequently included in group exhibitions including, Basil Sellers Art Prize 2010, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Fully Booked, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne (2010), avoiding myth & message: Australian artists and the literary world, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2009) and Look out Wembley Arena, MOP, Sydney (2008).
Noel McKenna has been awarded the Wynne Prize for Watercolour from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, five times and is regularly shortlisted for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes.
His work is held in many significant public and private collections throughout Australia and New Zealand including Art Bank, Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australia, Macquarie Bank, Sydney, Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Australia, and Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand.
