Colin lanceley artist biography
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Colin Lanceley 1938 – 2015
By Elizabeth Fortescue
| March 9, 2015
In December 2014 and January 2015, the great Australian artist Colin Lanceley granted two extraordinary interviews to writer Elizabeth Fortescue for ARTIST PROFILE. Lanceley was gravely ill, but he spoke openly and eloquently. He talked about his childhood, his art education, the things he loved and the people who encouraged him on the “bloody hard” road that is an artist’s life. Lanceley hoped to see these interviews in print, but it was not to be. He passed away on January 30 in Sydney, aged 77. The following is an edited transcript of the two interviews.
Through what was more an extended conversation than a formal interview, Colin Lanceley spoke freely of his life, his work and major influences. Here, we summarise the many topics and recollections which our conversations touched on many times.
Colin on his ill health:
The sad thing is that at the moment I can’t work in the studio at all
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COLIN LANCELEY: EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Three generations of queer artists man and break language across the intersections of art, activism, poetry and performance in ‘Queer Contemporary: Chaosophy’, as part of Mardi Gras 2025.
Through their individual aesthetics and distinct voices, together the artists störa histories, languages, conventional silences and institutional spaces, using and queering language to propose alternate perspectives on and interpretations of identity and ways of being.
Opening night Thursday 13 February, with special guests träsk Daisies.
RSVP at link in the bio.
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Sam Chan, ‘Transfiguration’, 2024, Chillagoe vit Pearl marble, mild steel, incense, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Jennifer Leahy (Silversalt)
Ali Tahayori, ’The four elements: fire, earth, water, air (detail)’, 2022, hand cut mirrors plaster on wood, image artighet and © the artist, photograph: Daniel Kukec Photography
nikita lelu, ’I droppande into a bath and drift’, 2024, glaze
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Colin Lanceley
Australian artist
Colin LanceleyAO (1938–2015) was an Australian artist known for his large three-dimensional paintings and for his drawing and printmaking. His works are held in public collections worldwide including the Tate,[1] the National Gallery of Australia[2] and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[3] He was the inaugural chair of the advisory board of the National Art School and a board member of the National Gallery of Australia.[4] He died on 30 January 2015 in Sydney.
Early life
[edit]Colin Lanceley was born on 6 January 1938 in Dunedin, New Zealand. His parents were John Lassegue Lanceley, an Australian engineer of French and English descent, and Mary Anne Agnes Lanceley, née Ayers, of Scottish parentage. In 1939 the family moved to Sydney, Australia, where his father joined the Royal Australian Air Force for the duration of World War II.[5]
Lanceley left school at the age of 16, and was appren