Biography

Juan Ford's practice has consistently been engaged with opening up new possibilities for realism in painting. He has employed many strategies, which argue around the theoretical 'problems' of realism in painting. He enjoys exploiting the limited shortcomings of the dull, officially sanctioned dialogue between painting and it's would-be executioner, photography, in order to develop new potentials for realism. Consequently his work evolves and varies with every exhibition. Awarded a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) with 1st class honours at RMIT in 1998, Juan Ford then completed a Master of Arts (Fine Art) by Research, again at RMIT and graduated in 2001. In 2006 Ford was awarded the $25, 000 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award at Campletown Regional Art Gallery. He has also been the recipient of a number of grants and prizes including a 2005 Australia Council Studio Residency in Rome, the prestigious $25, 000 Fletcher Jones Art Award, and the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize. He won the People’s Choice prizes in 2004 for both the ABN Amro Emerging Artists Art Prize and the Salon des Refuses. Ford has also been included in a number of important group and survey exhibition including Glacier: Contemporary Painting, which toured Australia from 2001 to 2003; the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize at Bendigo Art Gallery in 2003 and 2005; and the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize in 2004. Ford was one of the invited participants in the University of Queensland’s 2007 Artist’s Self-Portrait Prize.