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 and has a contemporary figurative style in drawing, painting and sculpture. Todd 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]
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," which later garnered recognition in Australia and the United Kingdom. In 1984, he presented an exhibition of "Dictionary Paintings" at Christine Abrahams Gallery, incorporating silkscreen, etching, woodblock prints, and collage to reproduce well-known magazines, children's storybooks, and an illustrated dictionary.[3]
In his career, Todd has executed public commissions, including the facades of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and the Northern Territory Parliament House in 1994.[4][5] His artistic contributions have extended to Indonesia, where his work is held in various museums' permanent collections[citation needed] Some of his pieces have been acquired by the Northern Territory Museums and Art Galleries' permanent collection.[6][7]
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 current Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta. This exhibition garnered positive responses, establishing Todd as a respected artist both in Indonesia and Australia.[8]
His figurative work reveals intimate, personal, and sometimes erotic connections with his subjects while pursuing broader themes. Todd's practice has explored themes of social justice and activism, with responses to wider political issues, from the so-called 'Bali Nine' arrests in 2005 to the September 11 attacks.[9] Figurative art led Todd to translate three-dimensional form into two-dimensional drawing and painting. About 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."[10][11] In 2017, the Darwin gallery, Framed, featured Todd's work for their closing exhibition after thirty years. 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 recognised 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
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
- ^ "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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