Juan Ford’s practice has consistently been engaged with opening up 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 it’s 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 relationship to its environment.
Ford’s many portrait 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.