Maryanne Wick is a visual artist, born in Sydney, Australia. Graduating from the National Art School in 2001, she left Sydney in the same year to live and work as an artist in South Korea and China. The five years immersed in North Asian art and culture, and her travels since, have proved invaluable to her practice and continue to influence her work today.
Reflecting the cultural, historical and natural riches of her experience, Wick will intuitively make a connection to her surroundings, then quietly respond. Primarily a tonal painter, she draws attention to the exquisite and the unusual, through her painting, drawing, printmaking and collage. Her compositions are formed and flavoured by handmade ceramics, finds from nature, historical artefacts, ubiquitous household objects and various collectibles acquired over time.
Wick accepts that her compositions will always be evolving as she follows the different paths along which her subject can take her. According to the artist, ‘throughout the years, I have been exploring the diversity of the still life subject. Through no fault of their own, my compositions are always determined by my sense of place and surroundings’.
In 2008, Wick was described by Australian art critic John McDonald as 'an emerging painter with a subtle, distinctive touch'. In 2016, Canberra-based art critic Peter Haynes said of Wick's painting 'her palette is always appropriate and helps to imbue the stasis of meditation'. In his 2022 essay about the artist, Hendrik Kolenberg writes, 'Her approach to subject and to materials reveals a search for the poetic, for mystery and surprise'.
In recent years, Wick’s still life paintings have included the endearing antics and the plight of native Australian lizards and birds. Her work from Spain (2017-19), based on ancient Iberian artefacts, reveal the beauty of imperfection, created by the impacts of time.
Wick has lived and worked in Sydney, London, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong and Spain, where she was appointed resident artist at the Museo Municipal de Valdepeñas in Castilla La Mancha. An awarded artist, including The Macarthur Award for painting at the 2023 Fisher's Ghost Art Awards, she has held solo exhibitions in Australia, South Korea and in Spain. Her work has been exhibited in over one hundred group exhibitions and is held in private and public collections, both in Australia and overseas.
Lecturer, Public Programs Department, National Art School, Sydney (2008 - 2024)