Marcus Callum

This piece explores the boundary between presence and absence. I applied oils to aluminum, building layers that culminate in thick gloss varnish to create an illusion of depth. The face emerges from darkness as if caught between two worlds. My palette consists of phthalo greens and blues mixed with alizarin and purple lake to achieve rich blacks. These dark tones envelop the subject, while cool, ethereal lighting on the profile creates tension between visibility and concealment. The reflective quality of the varnish invites viewers to see themselves in relation to this emerging consciousness – a moment suspended between formation and dissolution, between thought and being.

Marcus is a British Australian painter who fuses traditional oil techniques with a contemporary aesthetic. Trained in Sydney and New York, Marcus received the Dame Joan Sutherland Award in 2014 and a scholarship to the New York Academy of Art in 2015. He was a finalist in Australia’s Archibald Prize three years in a row (2011-2013) and won Australia’s Black Swan Portrait Prize (now the Lester Prize) in 2015 and the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Prize in 2018.