Award winninng artist Nigel Killalea is a landscape painter whose facility with paint reveals a moody, urgent atmosphere that provokes a mystery. His intuitive eye brings something startlingly fresh to the landscapes that he paints and draws.
Killalea grew up on the land, in rural Burnandana located in the south eastern Riverina. He studied at the Canberra School of Art for 3 years, moved to Melbourne, attending the Prahran College of Art, Phillip Institute of Technology, and completed a post-graduate degree at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University in 1984.
Killalea's work often interrogates the 'frontier' and in doing so describes his geographic identity. Each work reveals a narrative and often retrace and investigate personal journies that explore the perimeters of habitation and abandonment and the stories told or imagined within landscape. Reflecting this, Killalea's landscapes are unpeopled yet a human presence remains eerily embedded.
Killalea has been a multiple finalist in many major painting and drawing prizes such as the NSW Parliament Plein Air painting prize 2013, Jacaranda Aquisitive Drawing awards 2012 (acquired), the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery national still life painting award (EMSLA) and Artist in Residence at Hill End and Laughing Waters.
Nigel was the first Artist in Residence at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery in May/June 2007. He also held an exhibition and workshop during this time.
