John A. Douglas is an artist and musician who was born in Sydney in 1960. He holds B.A. Fine Arts [2002] and a Masters of Fine Arts by Research [2008] from the University of NSW College of Fine Arts, Sydney.
Douglas first became known in the late 70's while in the post punk band Seems Twice who recorded a 7inch album (perhaps the worlds shortest) on the infamous M squared label with tracks as short as 16 seconds. Douglas gained early notoriety in Sydney in the 1980s as the drummer for a number of post punk bands including the pioneering jazz punk trio Kill the King. He began his career as an exhibiting artist in 2003. Douglas’s work in video, performance, photography and installation has examined the depiction of masculinity and nationality within cinematic genres such horror, fantasy and science fiction. The video works comprising the Screen Test series [2000-08] found Douglas re-enacting key scenes from films such as Dr. Strangelove [1964], Wake in Fright and Walkabout, inserting himself into the roles of the key protagonists, such as Dr. Strangelove’s General Turgidson or Walkabout’s suicidal father. Recent work such as Strange Land Vol. 1 [2010] – made in collaboration with the artists Liam Benson and Sari TM Kivinen - continued Douglas’s interest in these themes but, instead of direct quotation of cinematic scenes, the work arose from collaborative performances in specific locations such as the abandoned mining town Glen Haven in rural NSW.
Douglas has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows since 2003. Group shows include Neo Gothic: Back In Black at the Queensland University Art Museum in 2008, Reality Check at Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery, 2009, and Nothing is true, everything is permitted at Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2011. Solo shows include Strange Land Vol. I (De-fragmentation) at, Chalk Horse, Sydney and Strange Land Vol. I at Penrith Regional & Lewer's Bequest, Emu Plains, NSW, both 2010.
John A. Douglas is represented by Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney.
2012 Strange Land Vol I, The Substation, Newport, VIC.
2011 Body Fluid II, Performance Space, CarriageWorks, Eveleigh, NSW.
2010 Strange Land Vol. I, Penrith Regional & Lewer’s Bequest, Emu Plains, NSW.
Strange Land Vol. I (De-fragmentation)- Featuring Sari TM Kivinen, & Liam Benson, Chalk Horse, Sydney, NSW.
2008 Screen Test (Australiana/Americana) – Fragments & Stills Chalk Horse, Sydney, NSW.
Screen Test (Americana/Australiana), MFA Assessment Exhibition Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington, NSW.
2007 James Dean Jesus, Chalk Horse, Sydney, NSW.
Screen Test (Australiana), Westspace, Melbourne, VIC
2011 The Rest is Silence, Death Be Kind, Brunswick, VIC. (November) Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted, Chalk Horse, Surry Hills, NSW.
Body Fluid (after NJP), Free Fall, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW.
Short Sharp Shocks, Australian Video Art Now, Barbican, London, UK.
2010 New Ideas, Government House, Joint project with Historic Houses Trust,COFA and Dlux Media Arts.
Nighttime Statewide: Everyday Hero, P Space @ Carriage Works & NSW Regional Gallery Tour, (curatorial Lara
Thoms & Jess Olivieri )
2009 Reality Check, Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW, (Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham)
Australia? Mildura Arts Centre, Regional Art Gallery, Mildura, VIC (Curated by Brendan Lee & Kristian Haggblom)
2012 Miller, Carrie, Cool Hunter Predictions, The Australian Art Collector, issue 59 Jan- March 2012, pp 124 -125
2011 Mudie, Ella, Performance Art:Going Beyond, Realtime 106, December 2011/Jan 2012, p44.
Miller, Carrie, Stocking Stuffers Part 3, The Art Life, December 2011, http://theartlife.com.au/?p=5940 Muldoon, Eliza, Arts Interview:John A Douglas, http://artsinterview.com/
2010 Cunningham, Daniel Mudie, Ghosts Undermine: Strange Land Vol 1. By John A Douglas, Runway Issue 17:Return, November 2010, pp 16-21.
Frost, Andrew, Ten Rising Visonaries, Metro Art Cover Story, Sydney Morning Herald, October 8 -14, 2010, p4. Frost, Andrew, The Ghost of the Town, Metro Art, Sydney Morning Herald, September 17 -23, 2010, p14.
Watts, Oliver, Strange Land Vol I, exhibition catalogue essay, 2010
Stanton,Elizabeth, Back to Reality, Art Monthly Australia, #228, April 2010. 2009 Artscape: Sylvania Waters Project, ABC Television, Dir. Daniel Marsden,Broadcast October 2009 ABC 1, November 2009 ABC2,Archived abc.net/iview.
Cunningham,Daniel Mudie, Reality Check Watching Sylvania Waters, Hazelhurst Regional catalogue, 2009, pp. 14, 22-29.
Dean, Bec, The Edge of Reality, Realtime 93, October 2009, http://www.realtimearts.net/article/93/9620
Eltham, Ben, A Cultural Policy Blog, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery’s Sylvania Waters Project, October 27 2009. http://culturalpolicyreform.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/hazlehurst-regional- gallerys-sylvania-waters-project/
Maddox, Gary, Reality Takes a Beating as Nolene Rides Again, Sydney Morning Herald, 0ctober 14 2009, p 17. Archived: http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2009/10/13/1255195784202.html
Haggbolm, Kristian & Lee,Brendan, Australia?, Mildura Regional Gallery exhbition Catalogue,2010.
2008 Frost, Andrew, ‘Westworld’ (Interview), The Art Life, 13 May 2008 http://artlife.blogspot.com/2008/05/westworld.html
Farkas, Solange Oliveira, ‘Panoramas of the Imagination’, Videobrasil 16 Limite Festival and Exhibition Catalogue, p149.
2007 Lee, Brendan, ‘More Video Art Please’, Artlink Vol.27 N.3, September 2007, pp 28–29
2006 Watts, Oliver, ‘Approaching Intimacy – contemporary miniatures’, 1/2 Dozen 2006 Catalogue, pp 9–14
Frost, Andrew et al, ‘Beard Club For Men’, The Art Life, 21 September 2006, http://artlife.blogspot.com/2006/09/beard-club-for-men.html
2005 Clinton Walker, Inner City Sounds, 2005, Turnaround, London, UK, Verse Chorus Publishing, US
Frost, Andrew et al, ‘No Fighting In The War Room’, The Art Life, 8 September 2005, http://artlife.blogspot.com/2005/09/no-fighting-in-war-room.html Angeloro, Dominique, 'The Weeks Best', Metro, Sydney Morning Herald, 02 September 2005
2004 Mestisi, Angelica, D>Art 2004 Catalogue, Dlux Media, Sydney Film Festival, 2004
