James McGrath (artist)

Son of art critic Sandra McGrath and banker Michael Anthony (Tony) McGrath, after graduating high school, James travelled to Paris to study the techniques and principles of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century masters under the guidance of artist Patrick Betaudier. Upon returning to Australia, McGrath began work as a studio assistant to Arthur Boyd.{{Cite news |last=Turner |first=Brook |date=22 September 2011 |title=Unpacking the painted library |work=Australian Financial Review |pages=47}} He went on to earn a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of New South Wales. During this period as an architect, McGrath discovered that Baroque techniques enabled him to connect architecture and art by filling the void space within the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) modelling with narrative. "It occurred to me too, that while you’re on a computer, you are looking through the same perspective window into a 3-D world that Renaissance perspective artists tried to do."Official website http://www.james-mcgrath.com/essays/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021224151/http://james-mcgrath.com/essays/ |date=21 October 2014 }}

In 2010, he was granted special access to the Strahov Baroque Monastic Library in Prague.The Cat Street Gallery http://www.thecatstreetgallery.com/artist/JamesMcGrath/biography/ Set within this notable historic building, the monastery's libraries hold over 125,000 volumes of philosophical and theological texts which McGrath used as inspiration for his body of work Ex Libris. He was quoted in an article by The Australian Financial Review that his twin daughters motivated him to create the work; "I realised my children were not going to have a library like mine, so I painted them one."Turner, Brooke, The Australian Financial Review, 22 September 2011Tim Olsen Gallery http://www.timolsengallery.com/pages/articles_details.php?pressroom_id=175

While a lecturer in design and communications at New South Wales University, McGrath was awarded several prizes for architecture and art, including the 1998 National Digital Art Award, the Sculpture By the Sea Directors Award (video installation), the 1990 Bioloa International Design Award, the Australian Postgraduate Award and Moya Goring Paris Studio residency.Tim Olsen Gallery http://www.timolsengallery.com/pages/artists_details2.php?artist_id=291 He has produced acclaimed digital installations and videos commissioned by several Australian museums and subsequently presented at the [https://www.getty.edu/museum/ J. Paul Getty Museum] in 2000.Official website http://www.james-mcgrath.com/pages/bio/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022025128/http://james-mcgrath.com/pages/bio/ |date=22 October 2014 }} In 1999 and 2000 his work was included in the Sydney and New York film festivals.

Reviews of his exhibitions have appeared in The Australian, Spectrum, The Australian Financial Review, ABC Radio National, Art Review Magazine, London. His work has also been published in Sydney: Metropolis Suburb HarbourEmmett, Peter, Sydney: Metropolis Suburb Harbour http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33246765 by Peter Emmett. In 2012 McGrath released his artistic biography The Folded GazeMcGrath, James, The Folded Gaze, 2012 http://au.blurb.com/b/3105187-the-folded-gaze and Lacuna in 2013.McGrath, James, Lacuna, 2013 http://au.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/e16ba4ebe43b5242dfee2d2331e38d4751aeb8ef

• Olsen Irwin Gallery
• [http://mrag.org.au/ Maitland Regional Art Gallery]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140315054845/http://artereal.com.au/home/ Artereal Gallery]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140927061917/http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/Home.aspx Sculpture by the Sea]
• [http://www.carriageworks.com.au/ Carriageworks]
• [http://www.michaelcarr.net/ Michael Carr Art Gallery]
• [http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/ Queensland Museum of Modern Art]
• Queen Street Fine Art Gallery
• Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto
• [http://www.thecatstreetgallery.com/splash/ The Cat Street Gallery], Hong Kong
• Nevill Keating Gallery, London
• MCG Galleries, New York
• [https://www.getty.edu/museum/ J.Paul Getty Museum], Los Angeles
• [http://lagunaartmuseum.org/ Laguna Art Museum] in Los Angeles.

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• [http://www.james-mcgrath.com/ Official website]

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Category:21st-century Australian artists

Category:1969 births

Category:Architects from Sydney

Category:Australian painters

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Sydney