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Biography
Miles Howard-Wilks (born Melbourne 1979) is an Australian artist. While working primarily as a painter, Howard-Wilks is also a ceramicist and animator and has worked in the Arts Project Australia studio since 2000. His diverse subject matter explores themes such as the Australian landscape, seascapes, and Australian Rules Football. With a fine attention to detail and a special interest in oceanic and environmental imagery, Howard-Wilks' works have been widely exhibited both Australia-wide and internationally. His works are held within many collections, most notably at the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art. He is viewed as an important figure in outsider art in Australia.
Early life and education
Howard-Wilks was encouraged in artistic pursuits by his mother, also an artist, from a young age. However, it wasn’t until he attended Churinga at the age of 20 where he began working with the artist-in-residence there that he started to make art seriously. Following this time Howard-Wilks studied art at TAFE and, at the age of 22, began attending Arts Project Australia. While Howard-Wilks has received no formal fine art training, the artist's participation at Arts Project Australia's studio program has seen Howard-Wilks develop his very singular style.
Career, themes and style
Howard-Wilks works independently, often painting from memory. His subject matter reflects his personal interests and often depicts the Australian landscape, Australian Rules Football, marine life and trains. Howard-Wilks’ paintings are often characterised by the construction of unique perspectives and compositions, which emphasizes the spatial vastness of the sky and clouds. Rather than producing realist depictions, Howard-Wilks’ imagery combines his acute observations with his use of reference material. As the environmental arts organisation CLIMARTE has noted, Howard-Wilks "is dedicated to exploring themes such as Australian landscapes, seascapes, the environment, football and more specifically, sharks, magpies and trains." This echoes the sentiments of journalist Julia Irwin, who states that "The inspiration for his [Howard-Wilks'] detailed gouache painting stems from his diverse interests including Australian animals and plants, trains and his favourite football team — Collingwood." Howard-Wilks' practice is also meticulously detailed in its unity of seemingly disparate references. This ability, as art critic Dan Rule writes, "creates wild hyper-natural scenes awash with giant crocodiles, sharks and an ever-present magpie, each of which shift in scale, prominence and perspective."
Continuing Howard-Wilks ongoing interest in environmental issues and climate change, in 2016 the painter collaborated with esteemed artist Jon Campbell for the CLIMARTE 2016 Poster Project. The pair produced a work based upon the environmental degradation of the Great Barrier Reef which was praised for its ability to "encourage people to think about the damage we are doing to the reef’s fragile ecosystems." Environmental and oceanic themes pervade Howard-Wilks' work, "illustrating his concerns for marine environments."
As Howard-Wilks' career has developed, so has the commitment Howard-Wilks shows to his work, which is evident in the development of his animated films produced since 2004. Howard-Wilks' video works have been screened at events such as the 2004 Disability FIlm Festival (as part of the British Film Institute) and the Annual Westgarth Film Festival in Melbourne. With inclusion in numerous group exhibitions, Howard-Wilks has held two solo exhibitions at Arts Project Australia and Melbourne's West Space. In a testament to Howard-Wilks' ever-expanding career and practice, the artist's work is now held in several collections with two works notably within the collection of the National Gallery of Australia
Solo exhibitions
2015
My solo with a magpie in it, West Space, Melbourne
2004
Sharks and Everything, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
Group exhibitions
2016
Clay: it’s a matter of substance, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne
A History of the Future; Imagining Melbourne, City Galley, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne
Climarte Poster Project, LAB-14 Gallery, Carlton Connect Initiative,
University of Melbourne
2015
Somewhere in the city, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
Altered Vistas, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
2014
CCP Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy
Sit Down, Shut Up and Watch, Film & New Media Festival, South Australia
Connected, Yarra Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne
Small Universe, No Vacancy, QV Melbourne
2012
Walsh Bay Arts Table, The Wharf – Pier 2, Sydney NSW
Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2011
Exhibition #4, Museum of Everything, London
2010
Pacifica, Gallery Impaire, Paris, France
We Call Them Pirates Out Here: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Myscape, Trongate & Collins Gallery, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland
2009
Pearls of Arts Project Australia: The Stuart Purves Collection, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
2008
Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2007
Otherworlds, King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney
2005
Leo Cussen with Selected Artists, Australian Galleries, Collingwood
2003
Home Sweet Home: works from the Peter Fay collection, National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra (travelling exhibition)
Publications
Anne Stonehouse and James McDonald, Paul Hodges in So Far… Eight Artists/Eight Stories, Arts Project Australia Inc., 2014, pp. 24–39.
Collections
Miles Howard-Wilks is represented in the public collections of City of Melbourne, the Stuart Purves Collection, the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney); the later as gifted by Henry Ergas. His work is also held in private collections.