Simon Ogden

B. 1956

Simon Ogden is a multi-disciplinary artist, born in 1956, in Bradford, England. He was a student during the late 1970s and early 1980s, graduating from Birmingham Polytechnic in Sculpture with a First-Class Honours degree and, later, from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in Painting. Simon lives and works in Christchurch.

Simon’s work draws from his long-held interest in European, English, and American Modernism and Surrealism. His practice interweaves his allegiance to the Arts and Crafts tradition, and the long-standing debate about the definition and role of the decorative in the fine arts. Combined, these forces open the door to a dialogue which contains figuration of, and symbolic references to, the landscape and the body, as well as the transformation of materials and the extension of functions. Simon moves across painting, object-making, design, printmaking, photography, and drawing. Each of these areas of creative activity reinforces and extends the possibilities of his continuing artistic practice. He is an avid collector of materials and an obsessive viewer of environments, surfaces, histories, and forms. Travel has always been a significant trigger to the expansion of his visual world.

Simon has exhibited internationally, in Australia, United Kingdom, and Italy, as well as extensively throughout New Zealand, in both solo and group shows. His work is held in numerous significant public and private collections, including Christchurch City Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. For many years Simon was passionately involved in the teaching of the Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has initiated major fundraising projects, and has established and curated many exhibitions with peers, students, and ex-students. Simon was Artist in Residence at the Dunmoochin Foundation, Melbourne in 1994. This residency was pivotal to the development of his career – before 1994 he had worked exclusively as an abstract painter. The residency at Dunmoochin was a deliberate attempt to bring subject matter to the forefront of his painting.

Selected essays:
Graham Crowley, On Simon Ogden , Linoleum and Proust (2012)
www.grahamcrowley.co.uk/simon-ogden

Damien Wilkins, Quite Reflections (2007)

www.simonogdenworks.com

• Like castles made of sand, 2022
• The moment before silence, 2020
• Into the forest, 2018
• Improbable landscapes, 2016
• Sicilia, love, lust and life hands, hearts & minds, 2015
• Owaka series, 2013
• Crossing the border, 2011
• Wall floor floor wall, 2009
• Every story tells a picture – a new series of narratives, 2008
• Polling booth, 2007
• Impressions/Expressions, 2006

• Wrapped, 2023
• About time, 2021