About The Artist

BERND HEINRICH BIOGRAPHY Born in Weimar in Germany. Studied at the Kunst Academy Augsburg and graduated with Honours and a Degree. He held numerous Solo and group Exhibitions since 1974. He was excepted in the Archibald Prize with Garry McDonald in 1978 and Thomas Kenneally in 1990. Represented in the National Portrait Gallery Canberra with the Portrait of Thomas Kenneally and in numerous private Collections in Australia, America, England and Germany. Excepted many times in the Wynne Prize and in the Dobell Prize 2003 with a drawing of Prof. Peter Pinson. In Germany he exhibited in the Grosse Kunst Ausstellung in Munich. Member of the AWI. Bibliography: Neville Drury, New Art Four, Craftsman House 1990.Julian Fagan, Uncommon Australian, Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery. Lives and works in Sydney. ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS 1977 Sydney: Robin Gibson Gallery, Paddington 1978,79,80,82 Sydney: Wagner Art Gallery, Paddington 1983 Gosford: 460 Gallery, Gosford 1987 Sydney: Coventry Gallery, Paddington 1991,1998 Germany: Himmlisch Wohnen Galerie 1992 Sydney: Espace Alliance, 1993 Germany: Frey Galerie Nuernberg 1994 Canberra: Beaver Gallery Deakin ACT 1997, 98 Sydney: North Shore Fine Art Gallery 1998 Germany MBS Galerie 2000 Sydney Norton Gallery 2001 Sydney Wagner Gallery 2001 Sydney Artarmon Gallery 2003 Sydney S Gallery 2006 Sydney Artarmon Gallery 2009 Sydney Wilson Street Gallery SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1973,74 Germany: Schwaebische Kunstaustellung 1975,76,77,80,81,83 Sydney: Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW 1978 Sydney: Archibald Prize - Garry McDonald- 1990 Sydney: Archibald Prize - Thomas Keneally- 1983 Germany: Grosse Kunstausstellung Munich 1984 Germany: Grosse Kunstausstellung Munich 1986,87,88,89,90,91, Sydney: S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney 1993,94,95,96,97, 98, 99 1988 Sydney: Coventry Gallery, Paddington 1989 Adelaide: BMG Fine Arts 1989 Sydney: BMG Fine Arts 1989,90,91,92,93,94 Sydney: Mosman Art Prize 1995,96,97,98 1991 Sydney: Bridge Street Gallery 1991 Melbourne: Fine Art Gallery 1992 Uncommon Australians - Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney Adelaide, Canberra 1996 Sydney Archibald - Salon de Refuses David Asden - S.H. Ervin Gallery 1997 Sydney: SCECGS Redlands 1997 Sydney: Wagner Gallery 1998 Shanghai: Wagner Gallery 2000 London: Portrait Gallery 2000 New York New Century Gallery 2003 Sydney NSW GALLERY Dobell Art Prize 2003 Sydney Mosman Art Gallery 2004 Gosford Gosford Art Gallery 2005 Gosford Gosford Art Gallery 2005 Sydney Artarmon Gallery 2006 Sydney Mosman Art Gallery 2010 Sydney Mosman Art Gallery NATIONAL PORTRAIT COLLECTION :Thomas Keneally PUBLICATION: New Art Four, Uncommon Australians MEMBERSHIPS: Australian Watercolour Institute Statement: My paintings are contemporary “playgrounds – landscapes” an inner experience of freedom not restricted by convention or boundaries. My love in painting is to create from the inside out and to express my passion. “Playground in time and space” are my re-occurring themes. Divided and separated by lines, images, symbols, forms and shapes – composed like a sheet of music in the harmony of a visual symphony – to reveal my inner world. My canvases are often heavily textured, deeply scarred and have the feeling of being sculptured. Often I use found objects, architectural symbols or silkscreen images or find it necessary to include written statements or pieces of poetry to underline our human presence. Bernd Bernd Heinrich Author Imogen Corlette Curator One of the most striking and intriguing elements of the new landscape work being produced in Australia at the moment in the shift towards treating the canvas as the landscape rather than using it simply to represent or depict. In this way, the artist is re-cast as ' toiler the earth' as opposed to its renderer. In these works, the Australian landscape is reborn, not as a colonial outpost, surveyor's plot, picturesque sign of leisure/work, ownership, but as a conceptual and aesthetic "playground" for the artist's imagination. Bernd is one such artist, whose work are, quintessentially, contemporary Australian landscape, with a look that is simultaneously haunted, scarred, entrancing, lucid and resonating. The conceptual base of Bernd's work is highly esoteric. The sense of secrecy in the images is strong, with the landscape abstracted to the point where depth, focus and form are almost, obscured - and where the earth appears to harbour secrets and symbols which point outwards to realms beyond the canvas. Bernd's works are both highly physical (in the complex and rigorous nature of their construction) and highly esoteric. The result is a body of work which makes a well grounded and stimulating contribution to an art historical genre and to "Contemporary Landscape" as a vital element of current international artistic practice.