‘David Frazer is primarily a graphic artist, a printmaker, who in his work creates a little microcosm, or a convincing parallel universe, where all of the dreams, aspirations and futile endeavours of humankind are brought together.’
– Professor Sasha Grishin
David Frazer spent his childhood growing up amidst the flat wheat fields of the Wimmera region in Victoria’s west. He felt himself an outsider, torn between a love for the region and a desperation to escape it.
‘I really wanted to write songs – really beautiful, sad songs. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it.’
Instead, over the past several decades, Frazer has established himself as one of Australia’s finest print artists, working particularly in wood engraving and linocut.
All that you’ve loved brings together a collection of Frazer’s work, offering visual form to the lyrics of some of his favourite songwriters and a reflection of the human experience of life, love, disappointment and hope.
David Frazer
All that you’ve loved
Exhibition Opening
Thursday 14 March 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Professor Sir Joseph Burke Gallery The Gateway Building
Trinity College
100 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC
Meet the Artist –
We will be joined by artist David Frazer in conversation with Dr Benjamin Thomas,
Trinity’s Rusden Curator, Cultural Collections, on his art practice and influences.
Tickets are free, but booking is essential
Book tickets here
Image above: Rona Green Petal 2023 hand coloured linocut edition 57 38 x 28 cm
Photography by Tim Gresham
Printmaker Rona Green has curated a group exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat,
Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond, inviting 56 emerging and established artists from across Victoria to submit a work that responds to their relationship to place, country and home.Australian Galleries artists Sue Anderson, David Frazer, Rona Green, Kyoko Imazu, Glenn Morgan, Heather Shimmen and Deborah Williams all have works in the exhibition.
Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond
Now Open
Art Gallery of Ballarat
40 Lydiard Street, Ballarat VIC
Exhibition Launch
Saturday 16 December 2023
Free entry. All welcome!
Exhibition current until 4 February 2024
For further information on this exhibition, visit The Art Gallery of Ballarat’s website here
Glenn Morgan Cats 2023 linocut edition 57 26 x 28 cm
Photography by Tim Gresham
Prints by Danielle Creenaune, Simon Fieldhouse, David Frazer, Peter Kingston, Bruce Latimer and Garry Shead are currently on show at the newly opened CBD Gallery in the exhibition Prints4Ukraine.
The first exhibition from CBD Gallery, Prints4Ukraine exhibits 79 prints donated by over sixty artists from Australia and Ukraine to provide assistance to the children of Ukraine. All included works are available for purchase. For more information, follow the link to the exhibition page here.
Prints4Ukraine
CBD Gallery
72 Erskine Street, Sydney NSW 2000
20 May – 24 June 2023
Danielle Creenaune Transcend IV 2015 sugarlift and aquatint etching edition 17 of 30 28 x 38 cm.
Simon Fieldhouse Sydney Harbour Bridge 2022 digital print 76 x 45 cm.
David Frazer Waiting for rain (panel 2, 2nd state) 2013 linocut 68 x 57 cm
Peter Kingston Au revoir Olli and Rossi (Mackerel Beach) #2 2015 hand-coloured etching 34 x 41 cm.
Bruce Latimer tree TREE etching 50 x 44 cm.
Garry Shead The Darkening Ecliptic (Ern Malley) 2003 ceramic box containing print in nine pieces, which form a completed jigsaw with an image titled Petit Testament 29 x 21 .5 x 6 cm (ceramic box); 15 x 22 cm (etchings).
Garry Shead The Darkening Ecliptic (Ern Malley) 2003 (detail).
Image above: David Frazer, Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan More than Flesh and Bone 2022, book cover.
Congratulations to David Frazer, who is launching his new artist book in collaboration with musician Tom Waits, More than Flesh and Bone, at the Melbourne Art Book Fair.
This handmade artist book is presented as part of his current exhibition For the Love of Song at Castlemaine Art Museum. It interprets the songs The Last Rose of Summer, Take It With Me and The Briar and the Rose by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan.
David Frazer’s exhibition is a passionate and unique collaboration between the renowned Castlemaine-based artist and some of the most iconic songwriters of a generation including Paul Kelly (AUS); Don Walker (AUS); Nick Cave (AUS/UK); Nick Lowe (UK) and Tom Waits (USA). Frazer’s most recent collaboration with Tom Waits is a world premiere.
This is a unique opportunity to celebrate David Frazer’s latest artist book and hear from the artist, alongside a live musical performance in the gallery.
Book Launch – More than Flesh and Bone
Castlemaine Art Museum
14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine VIC 3450
Friday 26 May, 6-8pm
Image above: David Frazer, Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan More than Flesh and Bone 2022, book cover.
David Frazer has published a new artist book, ‘More than Flesh and Bone’ with musician Tom Waits.
This handmade artist book interprets the songs “The Last Rose of Summer”, “Take it with me”, and “The Briar and the Rose” by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan.
“Thank you to my teacher mate who took me to see Tom Waits in concert in 1981 at Dallas Brookes Hall, Melbourne when I was 15,” David Frazer declares in a recent Instagram post announcing his book, “and also a big shout out to Tom Waits for the inspiration his music has given me over my 30 years as an artist!”
This hand-bound book contains 26 wood engravings, 1 linocut and typeset, all printed by hand by the artist, and includes an original linocut cover. Strictly limited edition of 30, each signed by Tom Waits and David Frazer. Each book contains a loose engraving signed by the artist.
Tom Waits signing ‘More than Flesh and Bone’.
Image above: David Frazer Love letter (panels I & II) 2020 linocut edition 50 100 x 148 cm.
David Frazer and Dale Cox will be opening their artist studios to the public during the weekends for the Castlemaine State Festival Open Studios program.
The 2023 Castlemaine State Festival Open Studios is an event designed to promote regional visual arts on Dja Dja Wurrung country in historic Castlemaine, Newstead, Maldon, Elphinstone and district. Offering a rare opportunity to visit studios and galleries within the shire and experience a behind the scenes, personal look at artists in their natural habitat – discuss their artwork and techniques – and purchase directly from the artist. Open Studios showcases over 150 local artists in studios, galleries and exhibitions in what has become a much-loved biennial event.
David Frazer studio: Unstable Press, 28 Blakeley Road, Castlemaine.
Open 10am – 4pm, Saturday & Sunday during festival dates.
David Frazer will also take part in an upcoming exhibition at CAstlemaine Art Museum, For the Love of Song, alongside Australian and international songwriters. Read more about it here.
Dale Cox studio: 96 Farnsworth Street, Castlemaine
Opening hours: 10am – 4pm, Friday – Sunday, during festival dates.
Dale Cox works across a diverse range of visual media including painting and sculpture and film, often appropriating found objects as materials for alteration and reinvention. His paintings and sculptures can be found in significant public, corporate and private collections across Australia.
2023 Castlemaine State Festival
Castlemaine Goods Shed
21 Kennedy Street, Castlemaine VIC 3450
24 March – 9 April 2023
Dale Cox Mickey Buddha 2006 mixed media.
Image above: David Frazer Love Letter (Panels I & II) (detail) 2020 linocut 99.5 x 148.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
A new exhibition at Castlemaine Art Museum, For the Love of Song, will explore a new collaboration between renowned printmaker David Frazer and Australian and international songwriters.
Castlemaine Art Museum’s (CAM) beautiful heritage-listed Sinclair Gallery comes alive with a passionate and unique collaboration between renowned printmaker and local artist David Frazer and some of the most iconic Australian and international songwriters of a generation: Paul Kelly (Aus); Don Walker (Aus); Nick Cave (Aus/UK); Nick Lowe (UK) and Tom Waits (USA).
CAM presents Frazer’s handmade books and prints, lit up from the sky above. For the Love of Song includes handmade illustrated books, endorsed and signed by the recording artists, as well as a huge suite of linocuts, broadsheets (images from the book), and Frazer’s wood blocks.
A kind of prayer 2021 linocut edition of 50 51 x 45 cm. Courtesy the artist.
David Frazer has held over 40 solo exhibitions in Australia, London and China. He has won many art awards locally and internationally including the 1st International Print Biennial in Guanlan China, the Cossack Art Award (invited artist category), the Broken Hill Outback Art Prize, honourable mention (International Print Biennial Exhibit, Taiwan) and 6 people’s choice awards. In 2019, he was the Australian Commissioner for the Ulsan International Woodcut Biennial in Korea.
He has been selected 3 times to hang in the Royal Academy of London Summer Exhibition. In 2007 the ABC produced a documentary on Frazer as part of the “Artist at Work” series. He has taught printmaking extensively here and overseas. Frazer lives and works in Castlemaine.
For the Love of Song: David Frazer with Kelly, Walker, Cave, Lowe and Waits
Castlemaine Art Museum
14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine Vic 3450
24 March – 28 May 2023
This exhibition will take place as part of the Castlemaine State Festival.
David Frazer in his studio, courtesy Australian Galleries.
Image above: Christopher Benson, Art in the Making: Essays by Artists About What They Do, 2022, book cover.
We are pleased to share that David Frazer has been included in a publication by Christopher Benson, titled Art in the Making: Essays by Artists About What They Do.
This 452-page softcover book contains over 85 short illustrated essays by makers working in a wide range of artistic and artisanal fields, offering a glimpse into the personal motivations, methods, and reasons that people continue to make artistic things in our modern, technological age.
In discussing his artistic practice, Frazer explains: “I am a cartoonist. I’ve never been interested in drawing or painting a bowl of fruit… In a life drawing class, I’d end up drawing the students drawing the model because that involved a narrative. The story is all I’ve ever been interested in, or the mood.”
Art in the Making is available for purchase from The Fisher Press website via this link.
Visit our online Stock Rooms to view a selection of available works by David Frazer here.
David Frazer Love letter (panels 1 and 2) 2020 lino-cut 100 x 148 cm
Congratulations to David Frazer, who has been selected as a finalist in the International Biennial Print Exhibit.
The International Biennial Print Exhibit is one of the longest running global print exhibitions in the world. Launched in 1983, the event aims to promote international cultural exchange and to strengthen the mutual artistic values between Eastern and Western art traditions and practices.
Over the years, the International Biennial Print Exhibit: R.O.C. has provided a broad platform for domestic and international print-makers. The colliding of creative printmaking concepts along with developments in creative techniques, and the emergence of digitization has brought about a shift in traditional printmaking content and methods of expression. These changes in the appearance of traditional printmaking display a different artistic characteristic. Coupled with the reflections of contemporary artists on socials concerns expressed in their work, print art has entered a new era.
To find out more click here
International Biennial Print Exhibition
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
David Frazer has held over 40 solo exhibitions in Australia, London and China. Most recently, in 2019 he won the invited artist category of the Cossack Art Award in WA and was the Australian commissioner for the Ulsan International Woodcut Biennial in Korea as well as winning a special prize. In 2018 he won the People’s Choice Award at The Australian Print Triennial at the Art Vault Mildura Australia. In 2017, he won the people’s choice award at both the Banyule Works on Paper Award, and the Burnie Print Prize.
Frazer’s work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia & the National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, NSW and QLD, Monash University Rare Books Library, Baillieu Library University of Melbourne, Guanlan Culture & Art Centre, Shenzen China, Jincheon Print Museum South Korea, London Print Workshop, Chiangmai Contemporary Art Museum, Thailand.
David Frazer Love letter (panels 1 and 2) 2020 lino-cut 100 x 148 cm