HAYLEY MEGAN FRENCH, Ph.D.
I work with photography, painting and writing to locate myself in places and ideas of home, suburbia and landscape. I live on Dharug land in Western Sydney and believe it is important to engage with the places we live with a renewed wonder and critical attention to better understand who we are and how we live. Since 2018 I have been developing a body of work which documents the suburbs I live and work in, moving between abstraction and representation. It is a growing archive that engages in a conversation of what suburbia means in the Australian imagination. This work is expanding as I look for patterns and new ways of documenting suburban mythologies and inheritances.
Alongside my painting practice I write, curate and work as Curator and Artist Development for Parramatta Artists’ Studios. I completed a PhD on Australian Painting in 2015 and have worked as a fieldwork researcher in Cultural Economics at Macquarie University. My writing has been published in Sydney Review of Books, ADSR Zine, Art Collector Magazine, Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Journal and Semaphore. I exhibit regularly in artist-run, regional and commercial galleries around Australia. I have held solo exhibitions in Penrith Regional Gallery + The Lewers Bequest, Broken Hill Regional Gallery and The Condensery, Somerset Regional Gallery. I am represented by Alexandra Lawson Gallery, Toowoomba.
Education
2015 Ph.D (Painting), Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Download here.
2008 Bachelor of Visual Art (Painting), First Class Honours, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Within Walking Distance, The Condensery, Somerset Regional Gallery, QLD
2021 Different paths I have taken that remind me where I am, Alexandra Lawson Gallery, QLD
2020 Three houses down, Peacock Gallery, Sydney
The Pipeline; a suburban painting project, Galerie pompom, Sydney
2018 Against the sky, Galerie pompom, Sydney
2017 Vertigo, Alexandra Lawson Gallery (ALG), Toowoomba, QLD
Horizons present and unseen, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW
2016 Hints of things we know, Galerie pompom, Sydney
The Red House, Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney
2015 Hayley Megan French, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2014 See where it drifts, MOP Projects hosted by Galerie pompom, Sydney
2012 Enchantment of Composition, 20/20, Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space, Sydney
Group Exhibitions
2023 11.10.23, Home Gallery, Sydney
2023 Legacy: Reflections on Mabo, National touring exhibition, 2019-2023
2021 Sydney Contemporary, Hayley Megan French + Nuha Saad, Galerie pompom, Sydney
Looking at Painting, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney
2020 This Time, December, The Orchard Gallery, Sydney
Et al, December, Galerie pompom, Sydney
Satellites, December, Alexandra Lawson Gallery, Toowoomba
2019 NEXT, Sydney Contemporary, Sydney
1919, June, Galerie pompom, Sydney
2017 Landing Points: Race, place and identity, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Sydney
2016 Auckland Art Fair (with Galerie pompom), New Zealand
New Contemporaries, SCA Galleries, Sydney
Interiors/ Exteriors, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney
2015 Influence, Firestation Art Centre, Dubbo, NSW
The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, Verge Gallery, Sydney
2014 Value of Nothing, RAYGUN Contemporary, Toowoomba, QLD
Landscape Too, AirSpace Projects, Sydney
Orbit (Melbourne), Blindside, Melbourne
2013 Out of Site, Articulate Project Space, Sydney
Orbit (Hobart), Constance Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
Glow, Graduate School Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Orbit, NG Gallery Pop Up Space, Sydney
2012 PhD Conference Exhibition, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Re-invention of Gravity, Verge Gallery, Sydney
2011 Articulate Christmas Show, Articulate Project Space, Sydney
Friends of 20/20, Damien Minton Gallery Annex Space, Sydney
RAGTIME, Global Gallery, Sydney
Strangers in a Gallery, MOP Projects, Sydney
Rather Be Naked, 2011, Tortuga Studios, Sydney
Prize Exhibitions
2020 Blacktown City Art Prize, Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney
Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
2019 Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Sydney
2018 Grace Cossington Smith Art Award, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney
Paddington Art Prize, Menzies Art Brands, Sydney
Extreme Prejudice, Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, National Art School
2016 Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown Art Centre
2014 The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane
FINE ART University Selection 2014-2015, Tsukuba Museum of Art, Japan
Awards and Residencies
2023 Bundanon Trust, Artist-in-residence
2021 Artist residency, Campbelltown Art Centre
2019 The Border Line visiting artist, Kununurra, WA
2018 Cumberland Council studio residency, Linnwood House, Guildford
2016 NSW Artists’ Grant
Summer Studio Residency, Penrith Regional Gallery
2015 Winner of the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Australia Student Prize
Kandos Projects Residency
Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship Recipient
Parramatta Artists’ Studios Residency
2012 University of Sydney Postgraduate Award
2005 University of Sydney Entry Scholarship
Independent Curatorial Projects
2024 When our eyes adjust, Julia Roche solo exhibition at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery as part of the Regional Artists Development Program
2017 Landing Points: Race, place and identity, co-curated with Dr Lee-Anne Hall, Penrith Regional Gallery, Dec 2017 - March 2018
2014 Landscape Too, co-curated with Carla Liesch, AirSpace Projects, Sydney
Publications
2022 The Pipeline Reading List, ADSR Zine 017, September 2022, ed. Elia Bosshard & James Hazel
2021 Notes on Suburbia, Felicity Castagna & Hayley Megan French, Sydney Review of Books, https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essay/castagna-french-notes-on-suburbia/
2019 ‘Suburbs: Hayley Megan French in correspondence with Robert Wood’, Semaphore: A weekly newsletter about art from Western Australia, semaphore.net, published November 2019.
‘1919 at Galerie pompom’, exhibition essay, 1919 Salon, Galerie pompom, Sydney, 12 June - 7 July 2019.
‘Modes of Practice and Influence’, MOP Projects 2003-2016, published by Formist, 2019, 19-22.
‘Hayley Millar-Baker’, Art Collector Magazine, issue 87, Jan-Mar 2019, 74.
2018 ‘Is nothing sacred anymore?’, essay on the work of Cigdem Aydemir, New Sacred, Mosman Art Gallery, 14 July to 8 September.
'Sally Anderson: Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship', Art Collector, Issue 83 Jan-Mar 2018.
'Landing Points', Hayley Megan French on ArtiFacts, Eastside Radio, Monday 5 February 2018.
2017 'Landing Points: Race, place and identity', exhibition catalogue, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, 2 December 2017 - 4 March 2018.
'MODES OF PRACTICE,' Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Magazine Issue #87, 2017
'Grace Robyina - Creating Conversations,' Art Collector Magazine Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Edition, August 2017.
'Fingerprints in the paint', Nonggirrnga Marawili Artist Profile, Art Collector Magazine Anniversary Issue, Issue 80 Apr-Jun 2017, 154 - 159.
2015 ‘Yiliyarri: Churchill Cann,’ by Hayley Megan French in collaboration with Alana Hunt and Anna Crane, exhibition text for Churchill Cann, Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney in collaboration with Warmun Art Centre. Read here.
‘White Out: Tamara Mendels,’ by Hayley Megan French, for the exhibition White Out: Tamara Mendels, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. Read here.
Hayley Megan French and Carla Liesch. 2014. "Introduction" In Landscape Too. Sydney: MOP Projects, 2014. ISBN 978-1-921661-42-6. 1-5. Read here.
2013 ‘Talking Shop’, Hayley Megan French and Kate Beckingham, Ten out of 10, MOP Projects, 10th Anniversary catalogue, ISBN: 978-1-921661-33-4. Read here.
2012 Challenging Dialogue: Current Relationships between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous art and artists; September, PhD Conference, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Press
2020 ‘Painting the suburbs’, Catherine Skipper, South Sydney Herald, July 2020. Read here.
2022 Hayley Megan French: Home Going, Adriana Borsey, Art/Edit Magazine, #33
2020 ‘Painting the suburbs’, Catherine Skipper, South Sydney Herald, July 2020.
2018 Art Guide Profile, Varia Karipoff, Art Guide May/June 2018, p50.
2018 Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald, 2-3 June, 2018
2018 'Landing Points', on ArtiFacts, Eastside Radio, Monday 5 February.
2016 Canvas on FBi radio, Hayley Megan French & Carla Liesch, Sunday 9th October.
2016 Carrie Miller, 'WHAT NEXT - Hayley Megan French,' Art Collector, Issue 76 Apr-Jun, pp96-97.
2016 Sharne Wolffe, 'The Shortlist', Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 8 April, 2016.
2015 Jonathan McBurnie, ‘Hints of things we know: The paintings of Hayley Megan French’, exhibition catalogue essay, James Makin Gallery.
2014 Sean Lowry, ‘Hayley Megan French: New paintings,’ exhibition catalogue essay, Galerie pompom.
2014 ‘Hayley Megan French/See where it drifts,’ interview with Jonathan McBurnie, sneakymag.com, 26 May 2014.
2014 Altair Roelants, ‘2014 Undiscovered Artists - Hayley Megan French,’ Art Collector, Issue 68 Apr-Jun, pp96-97.
2013 Carrie Miller, ‘Curriculum Culture,’ Art Collector, Issue 66, Oct-Dec, pp63-70.
Conference Papers
2016 The Influence of Aboriginal Art on an Australian Ontology of Painting; Museums Australasia 2016, Facing the Future: Local, Global and Pacific Possibilities 15-19 May, 2016, Auckland, New Zealand
2012 Challenging Dialogue: Current Relationships between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous art and artists; September, PhD Conference, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Commissions
2017 Art Strategy, Barangaroo; A private art commission featuring Ron Adams, Hayley Megan French, Daniel Hollier and Tom Polo, in collaboration with THERE and The Operative.
Collaborative Projects
2018 Makes sense together, Hayley Megan French & Carla Liesch, Peacock Gallery, Sydney
Makes sense together (Cherry Blossom Festival), with Carla Liesch, Cumberland Council commission, Sydney
Here we are | We are here, Locale Festival, with Carla Liesch, Cumberland Council commission, Sydney
2017 A Work For Clandulla State Gallery, with Carla Liesch, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville, QLD
2016 YOU ARE ONE OF THE REASONS I MAKE ART, with Carla Liesch, Parramatta Lanes Festival, Sydney
YOU ARE ONE OF THE REASONS I MAKE ART, with Carla Liesch, mailing project
2015 Painting Takes A Walk Part II, with Carla Liesch, Clandulla State Gallery, Kandos, NSW
2013 Wall Painting: The Exhibitions, Raygun Lab, Toowoomba, QLD
Distanciation (Collective), Watch This Space, Alice Springs, NT
2012 Groundwork, MOP Projects, Sydney
Distanciation (Collective), Index Space, Sydney - Residency, Sydney
2012 Abstract Narrative, with Stephanie Bridget Quirk, Factory 49, Sydney
Group Show, ‘Wall Painting (with white painting)’, with Carla Liesch, Articulate Project Space, Sydney
Abstract Narrative, with Stephanie Bridget Quirk, Trocadero Artspace, Footscray, VIC
Collections
Artbank Australia; The Stevenson Collection of New Zealand and Australian Contemporary Art; Private Collections in Australia, New Zealand and America.