Gareth Sansom is one of Australia's most respected painters who, over the past 60 years, has merged his admired pop culture perspectives with the lurid, the erotic and the philosophical. Across his paintings, collages and watercolours, Sansom displays a strong sense of self-investigation, frequently including disguised self-portraits and blurring the lines between the abstract and the actual. On display at NGV Australia starting in mid-September, Gareth Sansom: Transformer explores the entirety of Sansom's celebrated career, presenting more than 130 of his paintings, photographs and paper works – including many that are yet to be seen by the public.
Sansom studied at RMIT University during the early 1960s before rising to popularity as an avant-garde artist drawing inspiration from the likes of Pablo Picasso and Jean Dubuffet. His works are held in numerous private and public collections, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Australia.
Image: Gareth Sansom, Figure studies triptych (1990), courtesy the artist.