John Firth-Smith Australian, b. 1943-
John Firth-Smith is a Sydney abstract painter. In the early 1960's he was highly awarded for producing many artworks of yachts on Sydney Harbour. However, by 1968 his style changed considerably, becoming more abstract and featuring large blocks of opaque colour.
Through the sixties, seventies and eighties, as a day job, he worked at a variety of different schools and institutions while managing to exhibit his work simultaneously. He endured a big break in 1974, when he was the subject of a twenty minute documentary on the ABC's Target programme. Because of this his works were soon acquired by a range of corporate collections.
Another significant work was made in 1981, when he completed an enormous commissioned project of 32 panels for the reception area of the ANZ bank in Collins Place, Melbourne.
He still remains a working artist and his works are represented in most major Australian public galleries.
1943 Born Melbourne, Australia
1945-52 Lived in New Zealand
1961 Studied National Art School, Sydney
1971 Visited Northern Europe and worked in New York, USA
1982 Visited USA, worked in New York
1983 Artist in Residence, Melbourne University
1985 Samoa
1989 Visited Europe lived and worked in New York. Travelling from New York to Maine,
return via Malaysia
1991 Tutor, International Art Workshop, Omaru, New Zealand
1992-93 Travels to West Africa, Paris and New York
2000 Travels to Easter Island, Mexico & Egypt
2003 Travels Fiji Islands
2006 Travels Northern Europe, London, Washington DC and New York
2007 Visited Paris – worked in Kerry, Ireland
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Full Circle, Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Rural Rust, King Street Gallery, Sydney
2009 Paintings and Ceramics, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Selected Works, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2006 The New York Works, A Survey, Embassy of Australia, Washington DC
2005 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
2003 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
2002 Lister Calder Gallery, Western Australia
2002 Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1999 John Firth-Smith: A Voyage that Never Ends (book launch and exhibition), Roslyn
OxIey9 Gallery, Sydney
1998 Roslyn OxIey9 Gallery, Sydney
1996 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1994 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1994 Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
1994 Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
1993 Roslyn OxIey9 Gallery, Sydney
1992 Work on Paper: 1982-1992, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1990 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1990 New Lithographs, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1988 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
1987 Gallery 52, Perth
1987 In and On (lithographs), Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1986 Powell St Gallery, Melbourne
1984 Inspiration and Reality, University of Melbourne
1983 Gallery 52, Perth, Western Australia
1983 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
1983 Bottle and Boat (lithographs), Roslyn OxIey9 Gallery, Sydney
1982 Works from New York, Axion Gallery, Melbourne
1982 Works from New York, Gallery A, Sydney
1981 Gallery A, Sydney
1981 Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide
1979 Gallery A, Sydney
1979 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1978 Bonython Art Gallery, Adelaide
1977 Gallery A, Sydney
1977 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
1976 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane
1976 Realities Gallery, Melbourne
1975 Gallery A, Sydney
1973 Gallery A, Sydney
1972 Gallery A, Sydney
1970 Gallery A, Sydney
1969 Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne
1966 Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Opening Exhibition, Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Harbourlife, Manly Art Gallery & Museum
2006 Stolen Ritual, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
2005 Fireworks, Mackay Artspace touring exhibition, New South Wales, Queensland and
Victorian galleries
2005 Landscape Now, Solander Gallery, Canberra
2005 Hill End Scenes, People or Objects, Inaugural Exhibition, NPWS Gallery, Hill End
2004 Spectrum 2004, FONAS, National Art School, Sydney
2003 The Year in Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2003 Australian Masters, Solander Gallery, Canberra
2003 Beneath the Monsoon, Touring Regional Galleries, Queensland
2002 Fifty Years of Abstraction, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Points of View, University of Technology Sydney Art Collection, UTS, Sydney
2002 The First 20 Years, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
2001 MCA Unpacked, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1999 Silver, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1999 Fabric of Labour, BulIe Gallery, Melbourne
1999 Three Generations, Solander Gallery, Canberra
1998 Escape Artists: Modernists in the Tropics, Cairns Regional Gallery & travelling, QLD,
NSW and VIC
1998 Axia Modern Art Opening Exhibition, Melbourne
1998 Australian Printmaking in the 1990’s: Artist printmakers 1990-95, Sherman
Galleries, Sydney
1997 Swingtime Eastcoast – Westcoast: Works from the I 960s-70s in the University of
WA Art Collection, Perth
1995 The Artists of Hill End, Art Gallery of New South Wales & travelling New South
Wales
1995 Asia and Oceania Influence, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney Contemporary
Australian Art, Kuala Lumpur
1995 Selection of Australian Works, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
1994 Modern Australian Paintings, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
1992 Australian Masters, Solander Gallery, Canberra Works on Paper, R.M.I.T.,
Melbourne
1992 Synthesis 6: Art & Architecture (with Lawrence Neild), Sydney 1988
1992 Australian Masters, Solander Gallery, Canberra
1987 Surface for Reflection, Art Gallery of New South Wales & travelling NSW
1987 Australian Painters & Sculptors, Saitama, Japan Museum of Contemporary Art,
Brisbane
1986 A Resistant Spirit, Roslyn OxIey9 Gallery, Sydney & Realities Gallery, Melbourne
1984 New Work, Powell Street Gallery
1983 Abstract Art in Australia, R.M.I.T. Gallery, Melbourne
1983 Five Sydney Painters, The Wrong Place, University of Tasmania Art Gallery, Hobart
1983 Twelve Australian Painters, Art Gallery of Western Australia
1983 Perspecta `83, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1983 Commonwealth Bank Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Sydney
1983 Prix de Monaco Exhibition, Monte Carlo
1982 Sydney Harbour Bridge 1932-1982, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1982 Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York – with Lesley Dumbrell Invited
1982 Structures, Newcastle Region Art Gallery
1982 Invited Inaugural Singleton Art Prize, Anzas 82, Macquarie University, NSW
1982 Darwin Art Gallery, works executed at Artists Camp, Kakadu National Park
Northern Territory
1982 Landscape Now’, Solander Gallery, Canberra ACT
1981 LIS `81, International Exhibition of Drawings, Lisbon Portugal, Survey 16 National
Gallery of Victoria
1981 Survey of the Seventies, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
1980 Summer Exhibition, Gallery A, Sydney
1979 LIS `79, International Exhibition of Drawings, Lisbon & Opporto, Portugal
1978 Contemporary Australian Art to Indonesia – Landscape and Image
1978 Water Works, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Alexander Mackie College of Advanced
Education, Sydney
1977 Group Show, Gallery A, Sydney
1977 Australian Colourists `77′, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth
1976 Included Artists Films, touring Europe and USA
1975 Joint exhibition with Tony Tuckson, Monash University, Melbourne
1975 Ten Australians, Gallery A, Sydney
1975 The Ocean, Expo `75, Okinawa, Japan
1974 Included, Artists Films, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1974 Return to Sender Exhibition, Florence, Italy
1974 Ten Australians, Paris Stuttgart, Venice, Milan, Florence Invited William Angliss Prize,
Melbourne
1973 Invited Biennale de Paris, France
1973 Contemporary Australian Painting and Sculpture, New Zealand The Biennale of
Sydney’ Opera House
1972 Included in Twenty Years of Australian Painting, London, UK Group,
1970 Invited First Leasing Prize, Melbourne
1970 Invited Georges Prize, Melbourne
1969 Japanese Forum Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
1968 Group 2, Gallery A, Sydney and Melbourne
1967 New Generation Sydney, Gallery A, Melbourne
1966 Invited Helena Rubenstein Travelling Scholarship, Survey 6, Blaxland Gallery,
Sydney
1966 Australian Young Contemporaries’ exhibition, Perth
1965 Survey 5, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1964 Survey 4, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1963 Joint Exhibition with Ian Van Wieringen, Hungry Horse Gallery, Sydney
1962 Joint exhibition with Ian Van Wieringen, Clune Galleries, Sydney
AWARDS
1978 Sydney Morning Herald Art Prize Civic Permanent Art Award, Canberra, Broken Hill
Art Prize
1977 Bathurst Art Prize Dalby Art Prize Capital Permanent Award, Geelong Art Gallery
1975 McCaughey Memorial Prize, Melbourne
1974 Townsville Art Prize (Purchase)
1972 Grafton Art Prize (Purchase) Georges Art Prize (Purchase)
1968 Young Contemporaries Royal Easter Show – Modern
1964 Young Contemporaries `B’ Section Mirror-Waratah Under 22 Years Contemporary
1963 Young Contemporaries `B’ Section
1962 Mirror-Waratah Under 22 Years Contemporary
COLLECTIONS
ALCOA Pty Ltd, USA
ANZ Bank, Commission, Melbourne
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of South Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Artbank
BHP Collection, Melbourne
Bathurst Art Gallery, New South Wales
Broken Hill City Art Gallery, New South Wales
C.B.A. Bank, Sydney
Commonwealth Loan Collection
Curtin University Collection, Perth
Dalby Art Gallery, Queensland
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Georges Limited, Melbourne
Grafton City Council, New South Wales
McGregor Collection, Toowoomba, Queensland
Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria
Monash University Collection, Melbourne
National Bank of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Newcastle Region Art Gallery
Philip Morris Collection, Melbourne
Power Gallery, University of Sydney
Qantas Airways Collection, Sydney
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria
Sydney Morning Herald Collection
Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Victoria
TownsvilIe City Gallery, Queensland
University of Melbourne Collection
University of Western Australia
Visual Arts Board, Australia Council
Windsor Council, New South Wales
Artbank Collection
Private Collections in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Europe and Asia
COMMISSIONS
2000 Macquarie Apartments, Sydney, designed by Renzo Piano, painting
1998 Deutsche Bank, Australia Square, Sydney, painting
1997 Landmark Hotel, Kings Cross, Sydney, painting
1993 Governor Phillip Tower, Sydney, designed by Denton Corker Marshall,
commissioned by DCM
1992 ANA Hotel foyer, Sydney
1988 State Bank, Sydney, painting
1987 New Parliament House Tapestry design, Canberra
1987 Convention Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney, painting
1987 Hyatt Hotel Adelaide, painting
1987 Monash Hospital Art Foundation, painting
1981 Mural, 6 x 6 m, commissioned by l.M. Pei for ANZ Bank Head Office, Collins
1981 Gallery A, executed by Victorian Tapestry Workshop.
1980 National Capital Permanent Development Commission for Family Law Courts,
Canberra
FILM BY ARTIST
1973 “From Here to There” 16mm, Black & White
FILMS ON ARTIST
1980 “The Big Painter”, Film about ANZ Bank Commission, Melbourne, 30 mins
1980 “Ten Australians” (John Firth-Smith), Film by ABC Produced by Dale McRae, 30
mins.
1975 Target, A.B.C., John Firth-Smith, 20 mi