Geoff Todd
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Geoff Todd AM | |
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 Studio Shot of Geoff Todd in front of 'FAITH' Ink drawings 2016/ 2017 | |
| Born | 1950 (age 74–75) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Style | Contemporary figurative style in drawing, painting and sculpture |
| Website | geofftodd |
Geoff Todd (born 1950 in Chelsea, Victoria) is an Australian artist and social commentator. Todd has a contemporary figurative style in drawing, painting and sculpture. He works among studios in Winnellie, Northern Territory and Ararat, Victoria.
Early life and education
[edit]Todd grew up on a small dairy farm in Gippsland, Victoria.[1]
He worked as an art teacher in several Victorian State technical schools during the 1970s and 1980s. While teaching at Monterey Secondary College in 1980, he took a half-year residency at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne before heading to Maningrida in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory in 1984, where he served as a craft adviser.[2]
Following his departure from Maningrida in 1987, Todd worked as an art lecturer at Batchelor Institute in Rum Jungle, Northern Territory, before becoming a part-time sculpture lecturer at Charles Darwin University.[citation needed]
Art style
[edit]Todd’s figurative work addresses a range of themes, sometimes incorporating elements of intimacy and eroticism. Additionally, Todd's work engages with themes of social justice and activism responding to broader political issues, from the so-called 'Bali Nine' arrests in 2005 to the September 11 attacks.[3] On his portrait of Judas Iscariot, the American author Susan Gubar wrote "Todd's image emphasizes guilt, remorse, a conviction about one's worthlessness. Less a demon, more a monk or mendicant, a hopeless Judas atoning in desolate silence clarifies how it feels to be John's son of perdition, an anathema."[4][5]
Exhibitions
[edit]Todd began his career as an artist in the mid-1970s. In 1978, Powell Street Gallery in Melbourne first exhibited his "Book Sculptures." In 1984, he presented an exhibition of "Dictionary Paintings" at Christine Abrahams Gallery, incorporating silkscreen, etching, and woodblock prints, a collage to reproduce well-known magazines, children's storybooks, and an illustrated dictionary.[6]
In his career, Todd has done public commissions, including the facades of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and the Northern Territory Parliament House in 1994.[7][8] He has work displayed in various Indonesian museums' permanent collections.[citation needed] Some of his pieces have been acquired by the Northern Territory Museums and Art Galleries' permanent collection.[9][10]
In 1999, Todd held an exhibition at Benteng Vredeberg (The Dutch Fort) in Yogyakarta, Java, which was inaugurated by Prince Prabukusomo, the younger brother of the Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta. [11]
In 2017, the Darwin gallery, Framed, featured Todd's work for their closing exhibition. The solo show, along with the book "Reflections", revealed thirty years of the artist's work and thought processes.[12][13]
In 2019, he was recognized as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours for his "significant service to the visual arts as an artist and sculptor."[14]
References
[edit]- ^ Lindsey, Tim; Hines, Toby (2004). Looking North: The Art of Geoff Todd : Outsider, Maverick & Humanist. Zebu Press. ISBN 0-9756775-0-0.
- ^ Crossing Country- The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land, Art Gallery of New South Wales Publications
- ^ Walton, Inga, "War Paint: Protest & Social Activism in the works of Geoff Todd", in Art Monthly Australia Issue 264, October 2013, p. 25-29
- ^ Todd, Geoff, Artful Drawing from the Nude, OTH Gallery Publication, 2009 ISBN 9780646507897
- ^ Gubar, Susan, Judas: A Biography, W.W. Norton & Co, New York, 2009, p. 252, 254-55. ISBN 0393064832
- ^ The Australian, 31/08/1978
- ^ Northern Territory Chronicle 1974-1998
- ^ Looking North. The Art of Geoff Todd
- ^ "It's a pop life: Leo Sayer launches Geoff Todd's pop art exhibition - ABC (none) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Walton, Inga (September 2013). "Melburnin September 2013". Trouble Mag. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ "Past Editions". Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ "Trouble November 2013 by Trouble Magazine - Issuu". issuu.com. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Maddox, Elicia Murray and Garry (13 May 2008). "Well hung painting causes a stir". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ "Geoffrey David Todd". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
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