BIO

George Byrne creates large-scale photos that depict everyday surfaces and landscapes as painterly abstractions. Borrowing from the clean, vivid clarity of modernist painting, he also references the New Topographics photography movement via a subject matter firmly entrenched in the urban everyday.

“I’d always been interested in anti-landcsape photography, but it wasn’t until I moved to LA and started shooting in color and experimenting with manipulation and assemblage that I felt I was able to do anything very expressive or original with it. The images I’m making now are quite removed from reality, but I tend to bury the lead and not let the seams distract. Hence the effect is hopefully one of pleasure and disconcertion. They are dreamscapes."

Born in Sydney in 1976, Byrne graduated from Sydney College Of The Arts in 2001, travelled extensively, and then settled in Los Angeles in 2011 - where he now lives and works.

CV

Born 1976, Sydney

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts, Sydney University 1996 - 1998
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts 1998 - 2001

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

INNERVISIONS – Olsen Gallery, Sydney October 2021

EXIT VISION – Olsen Gruin Gallery, NYC September 2019

POST TRUTH – Olsen Gallery, Sydney February 2019
NEW ORDER – Olsen Gruin Gallery, NYC October 2018
COLOR FIELD – Olsen Gallery, Sydney June 2017
BUSH STUDIES – Halcyon House residency, Sydney May 2017
SOHO HOUSE – Artist In Residence, Los Angeles December 2016
LOCAL DIVISION – Olsen Gallery Sydney February 2016
URBAN STUDIES -- Contact Photo Lab, Los Angeles August 2015
INSTANT (Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane) June 2014

COLLECTIONS

C.A.A. Permanent Collection
N.S.W. State Parliament Permanent collection
SOHO House Permanent Collection

GRANTS / AWARDS

Winner, International Minimalist Photography Awards 2020

Winner, HEAD ON NSW landscape prize May 2017
Finalist, FOCUS Photo LA 2016
Finalist, Head On Photo awards 2015
Finalist, Head On Photo awards 2014
Finalist, Head On Photo awards 2012
Finalist, Head On Photo awards 2010
Winner, Lavazza traveling scholarship Sydney 2002
Winner, The Australian Young Photographer of the Year Award 2001