Ian Greig

Born 1952, Sydney, Australia

Lives & Works – Corndale (Bundjalung)

Seeking meaning in form and rhythm, Ian Greig approaches painting as a poetic gesture; a means of siphoning the aesthetic and philosophical currency of the world around us. These plays of light suggest a sense of the auditory, where synaesthetic gestures of visual rhythms, timbres and tonalities resemble fleeting musical reverberations. For Greig, the only sound that matters exists in the fractal border between simplicity and complexity. ‘Negotiating this border’, he says, ‘is the hardest thing.’

After graduating in 2002 from the South Australian School of Art with a PhD in aesthetics, Greig exhibited with galleries in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne before joining Arthouse in 2007. He has participated in over fifty group shows and has been the finalist in various awards including the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2024, 2021), Liverpool City Art Prize at the Casula Powerhouse (2007), ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award, Sydney and Melbourne (2005) and the Fleurieu Art Prize (2000, 1998) where he won the Nexus Fleurieu International Scholarship and undertook a residency at the Barcelona Institute of Art (2001). As an artist and academic, Greig was Head of Postgraduate Studies at the National Art School until his retirement from teaching in 2022. He is an accomplished writer and speaker and has given many public talks on the philosophy of art. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia, UK, Spain and Canada, including Artbank, Government House SA, and the University of South Australia.