Downward To Darkness On Extended Wings, 2024

Painting for me seems to consist mostly of transient and ephemeral qualities and forms which resist immortally opting instead for an everydayness which slips between then and now. Figurative paintings on forgotten surfaces which have embedded themselves into a readable history. Paintings which frame history in a way that bleeds from past to present into everyday life, from father to son, from one generation to the next, from experience and towards memory. This can be seen more broadly across my practice in dismembered hands that carry tokens from the past into the present, it can be seen in the miscellaneous feet that crawl forward across tables and onto floating rafts bound for the future. And finally it can be seen in the recurring depictions of the cosmos as silent, watchful, timeless planet-like eyes hang staring out into the present.

Martin C Claydon Artist Curriculum Vitae

Education

2010-2013 BA/BFA National Art School, Sydney

Awards & Collections

2024 Forty-five Downstairs, Emerging Art Prize, Honourable Mention
Lane Cove Art Prize, Finalist
2018     Redland Art Awards, Third Prize
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Finalist
Black Swan Portrait Prize, Finalist
2015     Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Award, Winner
M16 Drawing Prize Highly Commended
Hawkesbury Art Prize Commended Award
Sydney Town Hall Archive Collection
Lane Cove Council Archive Collection

Group Exhibitions

2024 Forty-five Downstairs, Emerging Art Prize, Melbourne
2023 Maldon Landscape Prize, Finalist, Online Gallery
2022     Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Finalist, Brighton
Studio Gallery Group, annual gallery group show, Melbourne & Sydney
2021 Metro Gallery, annual gallery group show, Melbourne
2019 Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize, Finalist, Sydney
2018     Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Finalist, Sydney
Mosman Art Prize, Finalist, Sydney
Black Swan Portrait Prize, Finalist, Perth
Redland Art Awards, Finalist, Cleveland
Albury Art Prize, Finalist, Albany
Wyndham Art Prize, Finalist, Wyndham
2017     Georges River Art Prize, Finalist, Hurstville
2015     M16 Drawing Prize, Finalist, M16 Gallery, Canberra
Hornsby Art Prize, Finalist, Hornsby Art Sociaty
Hawkesbury Art Prize, Finalist, Purple Noon Gallery
Lloyd Rees Memorial Art Award,Finalist, Lane Cove Gallery
BANG, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay, Sydney
2014    Waverley Art Prize, Finalist

Solo Exhibitions

2017     Borne from my Youth, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney
Masticate Towards the Audience, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2016     And I Will Grow From This, Lane Cove Gallery, Sydney
What Becomes of Little Boys, M16 Gallery, Canberra
Paragons of Virtue, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney