Joel Arthur is an artist living and working on unceded Gadigal land. His practice currently explores ways place can be newly pictured by responding to the constructed nature of parks, gardens, and suburban environments. Reconfigured depictions of shaped and domesticated terrain offer alternative perspectives, baring how landscape conventions visually dissect, select, and arrange landforms for an aesthetic experience. Observing parks and gardens as an aestheticisation of land-as-property, he amplifies how landscape traditions naturalise artifice while folding the cultural construction of landscape back on itself.
Arthur works with hybrid modes of image-making to create heterogeneous visual spaces. This visual language invites contradiction by interchanging distinct genres and styles, exposing a scene’s staging, and opening painting as an unsettling, critical practice that can resist, remodel, and renew ways of representing the world.
Born 1990, Kamberri (Canberra).
Lives and works on Gadigal land (Sydney).
EDUCATION
2026 Master of Fine Arts (By Research), University of New South Wales, Art and Design.
2014 Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours), Australian National University, School of Art and Design.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 Gardening, Velvet Lobster. Sydney, NSW.
2024 Plots and Grounds, THIS IS NO FANTASY. Melbourne, VIC.
2022 A Landscape to Build On, Gallery 9. Sydney, NSW.
2019 Ocular Demand, ANCA. Canberra, ACT.
Quotation Marks, Tributary Projects. Canberra, ACT.
2018 Moving Image, The Front Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
2016 All Lined Up, Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Canberra, ACT.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Distance Between Two Orchids, Velvet Lobster. Sydney, NSW.
2025 Canberra/ Kamberri: Place and People, Canberra Museum and Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
NoFantasy25, THIS IS NO FANTASY. Melbourne, VIC.
Tapestry, Tiles Lewisham. Sydney, NSW.
In the Morning There Were Birds Birds Birds, Upspace. Sydney, NSW.
Melbourne Art Print Fair, Linden New Art. Melbourne, VIC.
2023 Between Things, Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Canberra, ACT.
After the Past, ANU School of Art and Design Gallery. Canberra, ACT
2022 Recent Acquisitions, Artbank, Sydney, NSW.
The Edge of Light, curated by Julian Laffan, Measured Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
Megalo Editions, Megalo Print Studio. Canberra, ACT.
2021 Homebound, curated by David Broker, Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Canberra, ACT.
One or Two Paintings, ANCA. Canberra, ACT.
2020 Highlights from the ANU Art Collection, Drill Hall Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
2018 The Point, curated by Dr Kirsten Farrel, Nishi Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
2017 Superman 3, Tributary Projects. Canberra, ACT.
10 Years of Collecting Art for the ANU, curated by Terence Maloon, Drill Hall Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
M8, M16 Art Space. Canberra, ACT.
2016 Op Art, Brenda May Gallery. Sydney, NSW.
You Are Invited, Watters Gallery. Sydney, NSW.
Blaze 10, curated by Sara D’Alessandro, Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Canberra, ACT.
2015 CAPO Art Prize, M16 Artspace. Canberra, ACT.
Sometimes There Isn’t Anything to Get, curated by Rosie Goldfeder, Nancy Sever Gallery. Canberra, ACT.
Play Nice, curated by Oscar Capezio, You Are Here. Canberra, ACT.
AWARDS, GRANTS, AND PRIZES
2026 Finalist - Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize, Manly Art Gallery and Museum. Sydney, NSW
2024-2026 Research Training Program (scholarship), University of New South Wales.
2025 Finalist - Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Campbelltown, NSW.
Finalist - The Churchie, Metro Arts. Brisbane, QLD.
2024 Finalist - Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Campbelltown, NSW.
Finalist - Len Fox Painting Award, Castlemaine Art Museum. Castlemaine, VIC.
Finalist - Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery. Mosman, NSW. Waverley Art Prize, Bondi Pavilion Gallery. NSW.
Finalist - Bayside Painting Prize, Bayside Gallery. Brighton, VIC.
2023 Finalist - Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery. Bendigo, VIC.
Finalist - Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre. Perth, WA.
Finalist - Waverley Art Prize, Bondi Pavilion Gallery. Sydney, NSW.
Finalist - Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre. Muswellbrook, NSW.
2023 Recipient of ArtsACT out-of-round activity funding.
2022 Finalist - Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Bayside Gallery. Brighton, VIC.
Highly Commended - Waverley Art Prize, Bondi Pavilion Gallery. Sydney, NSW.
Recipient of ArtsACT in-round activity funding.
2021 Recipient of ArtsACT in-round activity funding.
2020 Recipient of ArtsACT Homefront activity funding.
2017 Finalist - Guirguis New Art Prize, Art Gallery of Ballarat. Ballarat, VIC.
2015 Finalist - Hatched, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Perth, WA.
2014 Peter and Lena Karmel Award
ACT Legislative Assembly Award
Canberra Contemporary Art Space Residency Award
RESIDENCIES AND PROJECTS
2026 Mt Wilson Artist in Residence. NSW.
2022 Megalo Editions, Megalo Print Studio. Canberra, ACT.
2015 Canberra Contemporary Art Space studio residency. Canberra, ACT.
COLLECTIONS
ACT Legislative Assembly
Artbank
Australian National University
Bradley Alan Love
Canberra Museum and Art Gallery
Deloitte
James and Jacqui Erskine
KPMG
TEXTS AND PUBLICATIONS
2024 Maunder, Tess. 2024. “Borrowed Space”, Art Collector, April 2024.
2023 Edwards, Rebecca. 2024. “Joel Arthur and Dionisia Salas: Between Things”, Memo, No. 1, 2023-24.
Emerson, Ellisa. 2023. Muswellbrook Art Prize. Muswellbrook: Hunter Valley Publishing.
Beer, Emma. 2023. Between Things: Paintings by Joel Arthur and Dionisia Salas.
Wilson, Emma-Kate. 2023. “50 Things Collectors Should Know: 22 Joel Arthur”.Art Collector, January 2023.
2022 Hall, Viva. 2022. “Found in Translation”, Imprint, January 2022.
2021 Haynes, Peter. 2021. “In Homebound, seven local artists assess their practice in light of COVID-19”. The Canberra Times. April 24.
2017 Hinton, Shelley. 2017. Guirguis New Art Prize. Sovereign Press: Ballarat.
2016 Canberra Contemporary Art Space. 2016. “Blaze Ten @ Ccas (2016).” issuu. https://issuu.com/ccas_canberra/docs/2016_-_blaze___ccas?e=14755631%2F33555148.