John Neylon (born 1944) is a

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n arts writer and arts educator as well as being an

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, curator, painter, and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

. He is an art critic for

The Adelaide Review ''The Adelaide Review'' (AR) was a monthly print arts magazine and dynamic website in Adelaide, South Australia. It was first published in 1984, but gained standing after one of its writers, Christopher Pearson, took it over in 1985. In March ...

, an author for Wakefield Press, and a lecturer in art history at

Adelaide Central School of Art Adelaide Central School of Art is an independent, not-for-profit, accredited higher education provider of tertiary courses in the visual arts, located in Adelaide, Australia. Adelaide Central School of Art uses the atelier model of visual arts ...

Biography

John Neylon was born in 1944 in South Australia. He is an independent arts writer,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

, curator, painter,

and arts educator in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. He has a Diploma of Teaching (Visual Art) from the South Australian School of Art (1966), where he studied with

Franz Kempf Franz Moishe Kempf (20 June 1926 – 8 February 2020) was an Australian artist who worked in Australia and Europe. He was a lecturer in printmaking at the University of Adelaide. Early life and education Kempf was born in Melbourne on 20 June ...

. He also has a Bachelor of Education from the South Australian College of Advanced Education (now University of South Australia) (1982). From 1988 to 2005, he was Head of Education at the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

and, since 2012, has lectured in art history at

. He became the inaugural art critic of The

Adelaide Review ''The Adelaide Review'' (AR) was a monthly print arts magazine and dynamic website in Adelaide, South Australia. It was first published in 1984, but gained standing after one of its writers, Christopher Pearson, took it over in 1985. In March ...

in 1985 and continues to write for it. He has curated exhibitions for the

Flinders University Art Museum Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA), sometimes referred to as Flinders Art Museum, is an art museum in Adelaide, South Australia, that preserves and develops Flinders University's historical and contemporary art collections. History The ar ...

, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, and

Carrick Hill Carrick Hill is a publicly accessible historic property at the foot of the Adelaide Hills, in the suburb of Springfield, in South Australia. It was the Adelaide home of Sir Edward "Bill" Hayward and his wife Ursula (née Barr-Smith), and con ...

. Neylon is an author who has written several books on Australian and

n artists including

Robert Hannaford Robert Lyall "Alfie" Hannaford , (born 9 November 1944) is an Australian realist artist notable for his drawings, paintings, portraits and sculptures. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Susannah Hannaford. Family Hannaford was born a ...

Hans Heysen Sir Hans Heysen (8 October 18772 July 1968) was a German-born Australian artist. He became a household name for his watercolours of monumental Australian gum trees. He is one of Australia's best known landscape painters. Heysen also produced ...

(co-authored with

Jane Hylton Jane Hylton (16 July 1926 – 28 February 1979, born as Audrey Gwendolene Clark) was an English actress who accumulated 30 film credits, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, before moving into television work in the latter half of her career in the ...

), Greg Johns,

, Stephen Bowers (co-authored with Damon Moon) and Aldo Iacobelli, as well as contributing catalogue essays for many exhibitions. Neylon has also been on the judging panel for the Whyalla Art Prize (2011), and the

Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, formerly the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, is a biennial competition for artists, with a science theme, organised by the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, South Australia. History The prize w ...

(2006). Neylon has been described as one of Adelaide's longest-established art critics and as "penning well-considered, witty, vastly knowledgeable judgments on hundreds of exhibitions a year with sustained panache".

Awards

In 2005, Neylon was awarded the Minister's Award for Excellence in Arts Education by the

n Department of Education. In 2014, he was the inaugural winner of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale Scarlett Award for critical writing.

Bibliography

Books

*''Annette Bezor: Hocus Pocus''. Prahran, VIC: The Art Gallery, 1989 (about Adelaide artist

Annette Bezor Annette Bezor (5 April 1950 – 9 January 2020), born Annette Bateman, was an Australian painter and feminist, who lived and worked in Adelaide, South Australia. She was known for appropriating classical and pop culture images of women and usin ...

) *''Gerry King: Shadows and auras, works from the Cicatrix Series''. Wollongong, NSW: Wollongong City Gallery, ollongong, N.S.W. 1992 *''Ed Douglas: The lure of unrealised desire''. Underdale, SA: University of South Australia Art Museum, 1994 *''Aldo Iacobelli: Two essays on the works to date of the artist''. Kent Town, SA: Greenaway Art Gallery, 1994, with Richard Grayson *''Geoffrey Brown: Survey 1952–2000''. Adelaide, SA: Greenhill Galleries, 2000 *''Breakaway 01 : Year 12 visual arts showcase''. Adelaide, SA: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2001 *''Horizon: Greg Johns: sculptures, 1977–2002''. South Yarra, VIC: Macmillan Art Publishing, South Yarra, 2002 *''Open borders''. McLaren Vale, SA: Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale Inc, 2004 *''Hans Heysen: Into the light''. Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2004, with Jane Hylton (about

) *''Ian Chandler''. Kent Town, SA: Greenaway Art Gallery, 2004, with Stephanie Britton *''Deborah Paauwe: Magic window''. Paddington, NSW: Sherman Galleries, 2005 *''Mark Kimber: By the dawn's early light''. Adelaide, SA: Greenaway Art Gallery, 2005 *''Aldo Iacobelli: I love painting''. Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press, 2006 *''Robert Hannaford: Natural eye''. Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press, 2007 *''Gavin Blake: Introspection''. Norwood, SA: Adelaide Central Gallery , 2008 *''Dystopia: Portraits of the urban landscape''. Norwood, SA: Adelaide Central School of Art, 2009 *''Greg Johns: Landings''. Armadale, VIC: Axia Modern Art, 2010 *''Franz Kempf AM: Reflections''. Murray Bridge, SA: Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, 2012 *''Stephen Bowers: Beyond bravura''. Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press, 2013, with Damon Moon *''Tough(er) love: Art from Eyre Peninsula''. Adelaide, SA: Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 2013 *''Franz Kempf: Thinking on paper''. Adelaide, SA: State Library of South Australia Foundation, 2014 *''Edge of time: Greg Johns sculptures 1977–2015''. Mile End, SA: Wakefield Press, 2015 *''Franz Kempf: Aspects of a journey 1947 – 2016''. Mile End, SA: Wakefield Press, 2016 *''Anything at all''. Adelaide, SA: Adelaide Central School of Art, 2016 *''Robert Hannaford''. Adelaide, SA; Art Gallery of South Australia, 2016, with Sally Foster and

Robert Dessaix Robert Dessaix (born 17 February 1944) is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist. Biography Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney and adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after which he was known as Robert Jones. Tom Jones, a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neylon, John Living people 1944 births Artists from South Australia Australian art critics Australian contemporary artists Artists from Adelaide Writers from Adelaide 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century Australian artists Australian art teachers