Giles Alexander

Australian, b. 1975

Artist Statement

As the son of an architect, Alexander developed an inherent ability to translate the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. Nurtured within the illustrious walls of London's National Gallery, he cultivated a deep appreciation for the transformative power of art in capturing and transcending physical space and human time. Alexander’s practice has always wondered about ‘us’ and asked how we find a sense of place in a landscape, in the world, indeed in the Universe? His work to date has explored ubiquitous themes of faith, reason, and the cosmos, making space for new work to extend an already decades long exploration into belonging and identity. While childhood visual literacy was perhaps genetic for Alexander, the artist was also busy creating a deep auditory cache – growing up in a house where walls were clad with as many musical instruments as paintings. Like many of us he subconsciously created a sort of soundtrack, or playlist to his life.

Alexander’s planetary work is well documented through major exhibitions in London, Sydney and Singapore. Alexander is a multiple art prize finalist including, the Archibald Prize (2010, 2011, 2013), Sulman Prize (2013), Moran Prize (2012, 2016) and Blake Prize (2006, 2013). In recent years international private collectors from exhibitions in Sydney, London, Singapore and New York have acquired his work. Work by Alexander is also held in public collections including; London Guildhall Art Gallery, Bond University, ANU, Gold Coast Gallery, Tweed river Gallery, Artbank and MCQ International.

While there are a great many artists with the patience and physical skills to create beautiful detailed realist paintings, there are very few I consider to be “post modern”, contemporary and history making. In fifty years I have essentially found 10 artists a decade, or one a year on average, who have, as they say “caught my eye”. Giles Alexander is the most recent one. Louis K. Meisel – April, 2018 (American author, art dealer and proponent of the photorealist art movement, having coined the term in 1969.)

View artist CV here

View exhibition catalogue here

View artist interview here

Experience the work here