Julian Meagher’s (b. 1978, Australia) works evoke a sense of the sublime, capturing ephemeral and ever-changing moments that sit between reality and comprehension. Pared down and minimal, his oil paintings act as a mirror into the artist’s introspections and ruminations on the world and its condition. Paintings that appear to be landscapes at first glance unravel as self-portraits, capturing Meagher’s feelings towards them, portraits of his family melt into fields of colour and abstract landscapes; both encapsulating his larger hopes for nature, his family and the future. Neither one nor the other, Meagher’s paintings collapse the divide between genres and result as ‘dreamscapes’, blurring the line between what is real and what is imagined.
Meagher has been a finalist in the Glover Prize 2019, Archibald Portrait Prize 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2021, the Wynne Prize 2015 and the Gold Award at Rockhampton Art Gallery 2016. He has also been a finalist multiple times in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, Salon des Refuses, Metro Art Prize, Blake Prize for Religious Art and the RBS Emerging Artist Prize. He has exhibited extensively across Australia, Asia and America, and his work is included in numerous public collections including Artbank, Sydney; Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery; Bega Valley Regional Gallery; The Australian Catholic University Association; and The Australian War Memorial, Canberra.