Environmental Artists

“The present direction in my environmental art work which also incorporates sculpture and assemblage, is a natural evolution for me and further consolidates my return to painting, which was my main medium for many years, prior to my working for over 8 years with found objects; making sculptures and assemblages from beach found plastic litter, which were largely based upon environmental artist themes, taking society's discarded objects of the everyday and transforming them into formal compositions.

All the landscape and seascape paintings made in 2007, were painted as a continued response to our local environment. I remember saying in interviews with the media during the late 90’s, that I hoped that one day I would see less and less litter washing up on our beaches, so that quite naturally my work would find a new direction. This has now happened – on a local level at least.  The situation on a global level has worsened considerably.

After more than 10 years of collecting beach found objects and subsequently making art out of them, I’ve naturally come now to a new form of expression, which was brought on significantly as a result of the decrease in litter either washing up or being left behind on our beaches, as well as a result of my purge painting series and exploration.

Painting the Byron Bay local seascapes and landscapes, mostly images seen by me on my daily walk around the lighthouse and beaches, are painted somewhat with a sense of urgency, due to my ever growing concerns about global warming and its impact.”

Abbreviated Biography: September 2008

John Dahlsen is based in Byron Bay Australia. He studied in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts and at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education.

He won Australia’s oldest art award, the prestigious Wynne Prize, at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2000 and was again a finalist in 2003 and 2004. In 2006 he was a finalist in the Sulman Award at the Art Gallery of NSW. He has won other significant acquisitive and non-acquisitive art awards, including a mixed media/new media award at the 2003 Florence Biennial. He was also awarded the Geraldton Art Prize.

John has lectured at various universities and secondary schools from 1980 – 2007. He has been an invited speaker at architectural and environmental symposiums in Australia and internationally, including at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC, which coincided with an exhibition of his work there in 1999.

For 25 years he has had regular solo and group exhibitions in Australia, in both commercial and regional galleries and internationally, in USA and Europe, where he is also represented in major public and private collections. Galleries represent him in Australia, as well as in New York, Milan, Belgium and Amsterdam.

In August 2004, Dahlsen represented Australia at the Athens Olympics of Visual Arts and in October 2004, he became the first Australian artist, (he joins such renowned artists as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente and Damien Hirst) to be commissioned by global vodka producer Absolut, to create a major public artwork “Absolut Dahlsen”, which was unveiled at Sculpture by the Sea, 2004. (This work is now located outside the Gold Coast City Art Gallery).

John’s art has been written about in major Australian and international newspapers. His work has been featured in many magazines and in international art publications. Television includes coverage on all Australian channels and many international programmes. He currently has a major presentation and interview on ABC online.  John was also successfully commissioned to create the public artwork titled “The Guardian” situated at the gateway to Story Bridge at Kangaroo Point by The Brisbane City Council, in 2003.

He had a major solo exhibition of his work at the Tweed Regional Art Gallery in February 2005 and his sculpture “Pink Shard” made from fused toughened glass panels with a plastic interlayer bearing image won him another award, at the 2005 Thursday Plantation East Coast Sculpture Show. During June 2006, he had a solo exhibition at parliament house in Sydney.

Later in 2005, he curated as well as participated in an exhibition at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, in New York State in the USA; he also took up an artist in residence position in Jefferson City Missouri, USA in September 2005, where he made a public artwork for their sculpture walk. In December 2006, John was awarded the runner up prize in Australia’s newest, and now the richest art award, The Signature of Sydney Art Prize.

In November/December 2007 John’s work was exhibited in New York in an exhibition titled “Ecological Integrity / On The Brink”

John exhibited his work in Connecticut USA in March 2008. He was an invited guest of the North Stonington Education Foundation, to work with students and to deliver a lecture at Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration Mystic Connecticut USA.

In September 2008 he exhibited at the Jenolan Caves Trust NSW, in the "Treasures of Seeds" Exhibition. Supporting the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He also featured in the exhibition “Revivication" Plastics at the Rushcutters Bay Gallery Sydney from the 23rd Sept - Oct 3rd 2008.

In November 2008 he will be in Hong Kong in the charity exhibition: "John Dahlsen Environmental Art" at the World Trade Centre.

John’s web site can be found at http://www.johndahlsen.com

The Bios Environmental Art Gallery