Shaun Glad­well

Born Syd­ney, Aus­tralia 1972

Lives and works in Melbourne

Shaun Gladwell’s prac­tice engages per­son­al expe­ri­ence and a wider spec­u­la­tion of art his­to­ry to exam­ine the dynam­ics of con­tem­po­rary cul­ture. Glad­well trans­pos­es forms of urban expres­sion such as skate­board­ing, graf­fi­ti, BMX bicy­cle rid­ing, break-danc­ing and extreme sports into the mul­ti­ple medi­ums of his prac­tice. These per­for­mances, videos, paint­ings, pho­tographs, sculp­tures and vir­tu­al real­i­ty works make dis­cur­sive inves­ti­ga­tions into forms of cre­ativ­i­ty and notions of freedom.

In his video works, Glad­well draws links between his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary mod­els of the body in space, propos­ing a lin­eage between the flâneur and con­tem­po­rary cul­tur­al fig­ures such as skate­board­ers, free-run­ners and oth­er phys­i­cal and street performers.

As this ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion of spa­tial artic­u­la­tion has deep­ened and gath­ered momen­tum it has begun to more close­ly inform and be reflect­ed in the instal­la­tion struc­tures of the work itself, with an increased exper­i­men­ta­tion with mul­ti-chan­nel for­mats, archi­tec­tur­al fea­tures and pro­jec­tion surfaces.

Pub­lic col­lec­tions include the Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra; The Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, New York; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Tokyo; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Syd­ney; Art Gallery of South Aus­tralia, Ade­laide; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Aus­tralia, Syd­ney; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art, San Diego; Muse­um of Fine Arts, Hous­ton; Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra; Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne; Orange Coun­ty Muse­um of Art, Cal­i­for­nia; and Wadsworth Atheneum, Hart­ford. Gladwell’s works can also be found in cor­po­rate and pri­vate col­lec­tions in Aus­tralia, Asia, the Unit­ed King­dom, Europe and the Unit­ed States.

CV