Juan Ford

Juan Ford’s practice has consistently been engaged with opening new possibilities for realism in painting. He has employed many strategies that argue around the theoretical ‘problems’ of realism in painting. Ford enjoys exploiting the limited shortcomings of the dull, officially sanctioned dialogue between painting and its would-be executioner, photography, in order to develop new potential for realism. While his work evolves and varies across time, it characteristically involves an examination of the human figure and its fraught relationship to the natural environment.

Juan Ford received a Master of Art from RMIT University in 2001. His many commissions include the Australian War Memorial, 2018, the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now 2013/2014, Manifesta 9 European Biennale 2012, Premier John Brumby for Parliament of Victoria Parliament House, Sir Isaac Isaacs, first Governor General of Australia for the Melbourne Jewish Museum, Monash University, The University of Sydney, and Trinity College Melbourne, among others.

Ford has exhibited extensively within Australia and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Palazzo Bembo, Venice 2017, Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong 2019, Nakanojo Biennale Gunma Prefecture 2015, and a solo exhibition at Art Basel Hong Kong 2013 with THIS IS NO FANTASY. Major group exhibitions include Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, The Daejeon Museum of Art Korea 2015, Bendigo Art Gallery’s Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2020, Art Stage Singapore, National Portrait Gallery Canberra 2014, Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery/GOMA. Ford has received prestigious international awards and residencies across Australia, Italy, and the United States.