Contemporary realist painter Christopher McVinish is a master of light. It is essentially this element of his work, which invites us to see the commonplace as special and suffused with potential.
While McVinish’s urban landscapes tell intriguingly oblique narratives revealing contemporary life as a kind of half-remembered dream, his still life paintings convey a reverence for the Dutch Masters and draw attention to how memory and a sense of the divine can be evoked by ‘ordinary’ objects.
In recent years McVinish has garnered a significant profile for portraiture with sitters from industry, the legal and medical professions, and the Arts. His portrait of actor Robyn Nevin, OA, was selected for the 2011 prestigious Archibald Prize, and another of actor Colin Friels, took out the 2013 Salon des Refusés Holding Redlich People’s Choice Award. McVinish has been a finalist in many other awards including the Wynne Prize, Mosman Art Prize, Paddington Art Prize, Tattersalls Landscape Prize and the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award.
McVinish’s art is represented in Australian public and university collections including the Tweed Regional Gallery, Toowoomba City Council, Gold Coast Council, Redcliffe City Council, Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Queensland Press, the University of the Sunshine Coast, the County Court of Victoria and the Australasian Royal College of Surgeons. His work is also held in numerous private collections in Australia and internationally.
Solo Exhibitions
28+ in Gold Coast, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne.
Group Exhibitions
36+ in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Toowoomba, Coff’s Harbour, Singapore, California, Florida.
Select Awards
2013 Holding Redlich People’s Choice Award, Salon des Refuses, E H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1999 Sunday Mail Art Prize, Brisbane 1998 Caloundra Art Prize (Painting)
1996 Still Life Award, Redcliffe Art Show Caloundra Art Prize
1994 Noosa Art Prize Sunshine Coast Art Group Prize
1993 Maroochy Art Prize
1986 Printmaking Prize, Redcliffe Art Show, Brisbane
1980 Gold Coast City Council Acquisition Prize, Concurry Art Prize, Toowoomba City Council Acquisition Prize.
Select Collections
Gold Coast City Council Toowoomba City Council Griffith University Redcliffe City Council Maroochy Shire Council County Court of Victoria (portrait commission of Chief Judge Desmond Whelan) Australasian College of Surgeons (portrait commission of ʻ08 –ʻ09 President) University of the Sunshine Coast (portrait commission of the University Chancellor, John M. Dobson OAM; University Vice Chancellor, Greg Hill) Tweed River Regional Gallery (portrait of Robyn Nevin AO, portrait of Colin Friels) Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Cathedral of St. Stephen (portrait of Mary MacKillop) University of Queensland Press Tamar Collection, Tasmania United Services Club, Brisbane News Corp Collection of Philip Bacon (portrait of Philip Bacon) Private and Corporate Collections in Australia, UK, Europe, USA