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Simon Richardson-Milla-with-cat.jpg

Simon Richardson

Life and Still Life

9 March - 4 May 2025​​

Dunedin-based artist Simon Richardson’s exhibition Life and Still Life will feature a selection of his portraits (including nationally significant writers and artists) and still lifes.

 

Simon Richardson was born in Gore in 1974. He studied at the Otago School of Art and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1996. Since then he has been a full-time artist. Richardson has been awarded the Canadian Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant three times, which has enabled him to visit European museums, helping to inform his approach to portraiture. In 2016 his portrait of daughter ‘Mila’ was selected for the BP Portrait Award at the National Gallery, London, making Richardson the first New Zealander to be selected. In 2024 he was a finalist in Australasia’s prestigious portraiture awards, the Archibald Prize, with a painting of renowned New Zealand photographer Fiona Pardington. He has had three sell-out solo exhibitions in Dunedin (Marshall Seifert Gallery) and Auckland (Jonathan Grant Gallery). 

 

His work is included in many national and international collections including the Eastern Southland Gallery which purchased his portrait of Hone Tuwhare in 2004. Richardson has had many important commissions including Christs College Headmaster Simon Leese, the Official Civic portrait of Mayor of Dunedin, Peter Chin and, recently, the Auckland Universities official portrait of Vice Chancellor Stuart McCutheon.

 

He lives and works at his home studio in Broad Bay, Dunedin with his wife Gepke and children Mila and Eben.

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