McKenna’s works “depict the noble poetry of the everyday.” Glenn Barkley

“Noel McKenna has an eye for the seemingly banal yet incredibly loaded and poetic moment.” Dan Rule

Noel McKenna works in a variety of media, including oil, enamel and watercolour, lithography and etching, ceramic and metal. He produces offbeat depictions of everyday scenes, often including displaced objects, people and animals. His spare canvases hint at narratives beyond the picture plane, often movingly depicting the relationship between humans and animals.

In 2019 Noel McKenna was a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School, Sydney and his work was shown at Art Basel, Switzerland; Sydney Contemporary; Bayside Gallery, Brighton; and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, and he released the publication End Street through Perimeter Editions, Melbourne. He was a finalist in the 2019, 2016, 2015 & 2014 Sir John Sulman Prizes, as well as a finalist in the 2018, 2017 & 2014 Wynne Prize (both Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney).

In addition to being a finalist in a host of prizes, he has been the recipient of a number of prizes including the 2015 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize; NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, NSW Parliament House, Sydney (2011); The Fleurieu Peninsula Vistas Prize, Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale, South Australia (2006); Trustees Wynne Watercolour Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2005, 2002, 2001, 1999 & 1997); Mosman Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney (2003) and The Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1994).

Born in Brisbane, Queensland in 1956, Noel studied architecture at Queensland University in 1974 and 1975. He continued his education at Brisbane College of Art from 1976 to 1978 and then at Alexander Mackie College, Sydney in 1981. Since then he has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas, holding solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart, as well as Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Ireland and New Zealand. Recent exhibitions include Noel McKenna: Landscape - Mapped at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2017) and Cats that I Have Known at The Watermill Center, New York (2016).

His work is held in all major state and regional galleries, and important public and corporate collections throughout Australia and overseas. McKenna currently lives and works in Sydney.

[ To view Noel McKenna's CV click here ]