Constructing Caelum Painting

With numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as being selected as a finalist in numerous high-profile awards, Rehgan De Mather has quickly established himself as a young artist to watch. Since completing his BVA at Monash University Gippsland in 2001 De Mather has held 23 solo exhibitions and been involved in over 30 group exhibitions throughout Australia. He has been selected three times as a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Agendo Art Award, and Arc Yinnar Drawing Prize; twice in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, Mount Eyre Art Prize, Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Lethbridge 10,000 Small Scale Art Award, and John Leslie Art Prize, as well as being a finalist in the Araluen Art Prize, City of Whyalla Art Prize, Stanthorpe Arts Festival, Clayton Utz Art Award & the 6th P.A.F International Drawing Biennale. He was a semi-finalist in the arts category of the Young Australian of the Year Awards, and a recipient of a Regional Arts Development Grant through Arts Victoria. He was recently awarded a yearlong residency at Appleton Street Studios courtesy of the Sandra Bardas Studio Grant, and was selected as the 2013 RAW Melbourne Visual Artist of the Year. De Mather was born in Adelaide, grew up in Sale and currently lives and works in Melbourne. “Rehgan De Mather’s paintings replicate the traces of industry, and the cryptograms of graffiti, on walls of contemporary spaces. They flash with comic book exclamations, bleed with paint scrawled behind alleyways, and are seared by an essence of New York grit. Rehgan’s prolific output of work, for such a young artist, seems to be riding on a distinctly serious but fun attitude. His work is exciting because it is raw and has a genuine interest in the noises and signs that clutter urban spaces.” David O’Halloran, Curator, Glen Eira City Gallery