Nicholas Harding
Nicholas Harding (1956-2022) was a distinguished, award-winning Australian artist known for his vivid landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. With a career spanning over three decades, Harding's thickly layered impasto oil paintings, watercolours, and large-scale ink drawings demonstrate his technical skills as a draughtsman and painter and reflect a deep connection to nature and the human experience. Born in London, Harding immigrated to Australia with his family in 1965. In 1977, he started training as an animator with the Australian arm of the American cartoon company Hanna Barbera, drawing thousands of hours of cartoons a year that were broadcast in the USA and locally. During his time working as an animator, Harding taught himself to paint.
Exhibiting extensively both nationally and internationally, Harding has held regular solo exhibitions since 1992 and has been a regular finalist in many major Australian art prizes, including being shortlisted as a finalist in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for twelve consecutive years, from 1994 to 2006 and awarded the Archibald and Dobell Drawing prizes in 2001. The prolific artist has been a regular exhibitor in the Wynne and Sulman Prizes and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. In 2013, Harding was awarded the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Moya Dyring Studio Residency to spend six months at the Cité des Arts Internationales in Paris. He won the 2022 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for his monumental bush landscape, Eora.
Harding has been honoured with major solo exhibitions, including Nicholas Harding: Drawn to Paint, a survey of twenty-five years of his artistic practice at the National Trust's S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney (2010), and Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2017).
Harding's passionate approach to art continues to inspire audiences. Through his masterful work, he invites us to pause and appreciate the profound beauty of the world around us. His work is held in numerous major Australian public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and in private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas.
Nicholas Harding, 2016 Mark Mohell
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1992,93,95,97,99,2001,02,04,05,06,07,09,10,11 Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney
1997 Theo Waddington, London
2004,06,09,12,14,16,19,22 Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
2005,07 Crossley Scott, Melbourne
2008,10,13,16,18,21 Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Drawn to Paint, 25 Year Survey Exhibition, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2010 Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
2012 Osbourne Samuel, London
2013,14,15 Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2015 Carving Light and Landscape, Tweed River Art Gallery
2017,20 Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2017 Nicholas Harding: 28 Portraits, National Portrait Gallery
2019 Be Brutal, Nicholas Harding Portraits, Trinity College
2020 From the Wings, Book Launch with an Exhibition of Theatre Drawings, Olsen Gallery
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1980,2003,07 Sulman Prize, AGNSW
1985 Faber-Castell Drawing Prize, Rex Irwin Art Dealer
1986,88 Sydney Morning Herald Art Heritage Award
1993,94,96,98,99,2001 Kedumba Drawing Award
1993,94,98,99,2000,01 Mosman Art Prize
1993,94,96,98,99,2000,01 Dobell Prize, AGNSW
1994,96,98,2003,12,13,16,17 Wynne Prize, AGNSW
1994-2006,09,11,16,17,18 Archibald Prize, AGNSW
2004 Contemporary Australian Prints, AGNSW
Dobell Drawing Prize: The First Ten Years, AGNSW
2005 Thai-Australian Contemporary Prints, Chiangmai University Art Museum, Thailand
2007 The View From Here: Margaret Olley, William Robinson & Nicholas Harding
Lismore Regional Art Gallery
2009 Idle Hours, National Portrait Gallery
2010 Beleura National Works on Paper Award, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
2012 Kedumba Collection, Orange Regional Gallery
2013 Drawing Margaret, Tweed River Art Gallery
Sydney Art Fair, Olsen Irwin and Sophie Gannon Gallery
2014 Arcadia, National Portrait Gallery, Geelong Regional Art Gallery
Fully Figurative, Newcastle Region Art Gallery
Across the Water: China- Australia, Modern Masters of Watercolour, Quanhua Watercolour
Art Gallery, Shanghai, China and Shenzhen Australian Watercolour Institute
Moran Portrait Prize, Sydney and Regional Galleries Tour
2015 National Artists’ Self Portrait Award, UQART Museum
Moran Portrait Prize, Sydney and Regional Galleries Tour
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sophie Gannon Gallery & Olsen Irwin Gallery
2016 Arcadia, Tweed River Art Gallery
Fleurieu Art Prize, Samstag Museum of Artbv
Flora Australis, Bega Regional Art Gallery
Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize, Bega Regional Art Gallery
John Leslie Landscape Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery
The Popular Pet Show, National Portrait Gallery
2017 Margaret Olley: Painter, Peer, Mentor, Muse, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Art Month Collector’ Space, Roslyn Oxley Gallery
Portraits: Margaret Olley, Tweed River Art Gallery
Bare, Glasshouse, Port Macquarie Regional Gallery
Artist Profile - Australasian Painters 2007-2017, Orange Regional Gallery
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sophie Gannon Gallery
The Still Life, Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane
Tattersall’s Landscape Prize, Riverside Centre, Brisbane
20x20, Olsen Gallery
2018 Destination Sydney, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
95th Annual Exhibition, Australian Watercolour Institute
Three Decades, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre
2020 Margaret’s House, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre
SELECT AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
1993 Mosman Art Prize, Winner
1994 Kedumba Award, Joint Winner
1998 Archibald Prize, Commended
1998 Bundanon Trust Residency
2001 Archibald Prize, Winner
2001 Dobell Drawing Prize, Winner
2001 Australian Centenary Medal
2005 Archibald Prize, Highly Commended & People’s Choice
2006 Kilgour Prize, Winner
2013 AGNSW Moya Dyring Studio Residency, Cité des Arts Internationales, Paris
2015 Nancy Fairfax Studio Residency, Tweed River Art Gallery
2016 National Artists’ Self Portrait Award, People’s Choice
2016 Wynne Prize, Highly Commended
2022 Wynne Prize, Winner
SELECT COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Tweed River Art Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Orange Regional Gallery, Opera Australia, UNSW, University of Sydney Union, University of Wollongong.