Jeff Rigby
Jeff Rigby
Abandoned, East MacDonell Ranges
40×54cm charcoal on paper
Finalist 2023 Dobell Drawing Prize
Jeff Rigby
Blue Door, Braidwood
39×27cm charcoal, gouache & pastel on paper
In 1975 Jeff had his first exhibition at Bonython Gallery in Sydney and in 1976 he exhibited at the Macquarie Gallery, beginning a long association which lasted until The Macquarie Galleries closed in 1993. During this time he had ten one man shows and participated in many group shows.
Following the closure of The Macquarie Galleries in 1993, Jeff was represented by The Australian Galleries Sydney, then for a period by Stella Downer and since 1997, by Robin Gibson Galleries Sydney.
Jeff is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, The State Library of NSW, Parliament House, Canberra, Manly Art Gallery, Art Bank, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Launceston Art Gallery, The Australiana Fund, Parliament House Canberra, The Kedumba Drawing Collection, and many private collections.
An interest in cityscape, Industrial architecture is offset by a long standing love of landscape, working in the mediums of gouache, acrylic, coloured pencil and charcoal.
He has inherited his love of the environment, built and otherwise and his devotion to objective painting and drawing from his parents Alan and Enid Rigby who were early conservationists and commercial artists from the 1920s and 30s.
Since 1976 Jeff has taught drawing and painting at various NSW colleges of TAFE, but principally at Meadowbank where he served continuously for twenty nine years. He has been a member of the Drawing Department at The National Art School since 2003. Jeff is also a member of the Australian Society of Marine Artists
I can best be described as realist, but while the actual truth is of some importance, I strive for the “look” of reality, rather than truth for its own sake. I feel quite free to add or subtract elements from the subject or perhaps change the light source for the sake of the picture. Sometimes, however, the subject is complete in itself and no additions or subtractions are necessary
Living in the Blue Mountains now, after having lived in Sydney, I tend to find my interest equally divided between the City and Central West, with occasional sojourns to places further a field. I have always painted Sydney, but my images are starting to relate to more of an idealised place, more to do with memories, than the city we know today.
Landscape has always appealed to me as a foil to the rigour of architectural form, but occasionally architecture creeps into that as well, usually in the form of functional working buildings, whose dynamics are always interesting.
While my interest lies in landscape and architecture, form, light and space are at the core of what I am trying to deal with. At a basic level, I am interested in a sense of timelessness in the fall of sunlight and shadow and the interrelatedness of all the myriad details of the world around us.
In this way there is recognition of times past and the possibility of things to come. The insignificant becomes remarkable and provides us with subjects for observation and reflection, a welcome relief from the absurdities of everyday life.
Jeff Rigby
Window, Old Lawson Shops
38×27cm charcoal & gouache on paper
Jeff Rigby
Evening, St Pauls, Hill End
38×55.5cm acrylic on canvas
Jeff Rigby
Roof Tops Millers Point 35×67cm acrylic on canvas
Jeff Rigby
Big Willandra
24.5×51.5cm gouache
Jeff Rigby
Evening over Dyarubbin, Hawkesbury Lookout
76.5×126cm acrylic on canvas
Jeff Rigby
View to North Head
45.5 ×54.5cm acrylic on canvas
Jeff Rigby CV
Born Sydney, 1948. Exhibited since 1975, Part time teacher of painting and drawing in NSW colleges of TAFE since 1975, and National Art School, Sydney
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Recent Paintings 2020-2021 Robin Gibson Gallery
2019 A constant vision 1979-2019 Robin Gibson Gallery
2017 Inside Out Robin Gibson Gallery
2016 Sunlight and Shadow Robin Gibson Gallery
2013 Spaces & Structures Robin Gibson Gallery
2010 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2007 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2007 Bakehouse Gallery Patonga
2006-2007 Gallery Bodalla
2006 Newman_White Gallery Lithgow
2006 “Places of Industry; Where workers Unite” The Geo Centre , Broken Hill
2005 No 47 Rylstone “ Small Works from the Central West
2004 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2002 Hardware Fine Art. “ Sydney”
2001 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2000 Hardware Fine Art, Sydney
1999 UTS Gallery, Sydney Men At Work “ On Site
1999 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
1996 Marie Jo Voigt Fine Art, Lilianfels, Katoomba
1995 Beaver Galleries, Canberra
1994 Australian Galleries, Sydney
1993 Macquarie Galleries Sydney Panoramas
1993 Curtin University “ Perth, Bunbury, Geraldton, WA
1993 Metro Plaza, Men at Work tour of WA
1992 Solander Gallery, Canberra
1991 Macquarie Galleries Metroplaza, Men at Work
1989 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1988 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1987 Macquarie Galleries Sydney The Harbour City
1986 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1985 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1983 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1981 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1978 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1976 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1976 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
1975 Bonython Gallery, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions
since 1999 – numerous group shows at Robin Gibson Gallery
2012 Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Picturing the Great Divide
2012 Kedumba Gallery Kedumba Drawing Award.
2012 National Maritime Museum ASMA
2010 National Maritime Museum ASMA
2010 Parliament House Sydney Australian Marine Artists Association
2009 Gosford Regional Gallery Australian Watercolour Institute
2008 Gallery Bodalla Return to the Postmasters Rigby/O’Donnell/Ivanyi
2008 Manning River Regional Gallery AWI Exhibition
2007 Defiance Gallery, Same Place, Different View2007
2007 Same Place, Different View, Defiance Gallery
2006 ASMA Exhibition, The National Maritime Museum
2006 AWI Exhibition, Artarmon Gallery
2006 Drawing Exhibition, Defiance Gallery
2006 ASMA annual Exhibition, Brisbane Maritme Museum
2006 AWI annual Exhibition, Mosman Regional Gallery
2005 Drawcard, National Art School, Sydney
2005 Drawing Exhibition, Defiance Gallery
2005 Landscape Exhibition, Defiance Gallery
2005 AWI Annual Exhibition, Gosford Regional Gallery,
2005 ASMA Annual exhibition, Mosman Regional Gallery
2004 Landscape, Penrith Regional Gallery
2004 When workers Unite, Braemar Galler y Springwood
2004 Drawcard, National Art School, Sydney
2003 Railway Images, Jeff Rigby and Cliff Simcox, Gallery Lane, Leura
2002 Year Of the Outback, Broken Hill Regional Gallery
2002 Australian Watercolour annuall exhibition, Mosman Regional Gallery
2001 Australian Watercolour Institute, Wagner Gallery, Sydney
2001 Works on paper, Hazlehurst Gallery
2000 Kedumba Drawing Prize , Kedumba Gallery, Wentworth Falls
1998 Michael Kempson, etchings; Jeff Rigby, drawings, Gallery Lane, Leura
1998 Australian Watercolour Institute annual exhibition, S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1997 Salon des Refusés, S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1997 Australian Watercolour Institute annual exhibition, S H Irvin Galley, Sydney
1996 Site and Sensibility, S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1994 Paint on the Tracks , S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1993 Jocelyn Maughan, Robin Norling, Jeff Rigby, The Manning Regional Gallery
1993 Observing Sydney, S H Irvin Gallery, Sydney
1991 Green Art, S H Irvin Gallery. Sydney
1991 From the City to the Fringes, Holdsworth Gallery
1990 Lake Mungo Michael Winters, Jeff Rigby, Macquarie Galleries
1989 9 × 5 Art Met Gallery, Sydney
1988 9 × 5 by mail, Centre Gallery, Surfers Paradise
1985 Artists Salute Lloyd Rees, Macquarie Galleries
1983 On Sight AGNSW Metropolian travelling art show
1983 Recent Australian Painting A survey: 1970-1981 Art Gallery of South Australia
1982 Barossa Valley Touring exhibition to NSW Regional Galleries
1981 McCaughy Invitation Prize, National Gallery, Melbourne, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1978 Landscape and image Australian Art of the 70’s Directors’ Council and Dept. of Foreign Affairs. Travelling exhibition organised by Australian Galleries Directors and the Department of Foreign Affairs
1975-1976 Australian Realist Painters Art Gallery of South Australia
1975 Young Contemporaries, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney
Awards
1988 Currabubula Red Cross Art Prize
1974 Rowney Student Prize
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Manly Art Gallery
State Library of NSW
Parliament House, Canberra
National Capital Development Commission
The High Court of Australia
Australiana Fund Collection
Rockhampton Art Gallery
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania
IBM Australia
NRMA
Art Bank
Cruthers Collection
Lend Lease
Lowenstein Collection.
Sydney University Club
Sydney City Council
Bibliography
Sydney the Harbour City, Rigby J and Kingsmill, J. Pierson, Sydney, 1988
Borlase, Nancy: Sydney Scene, Art and Australia, Vol 12, No. 4 April June 1975
Borlase Nancy: Art, The Young Hopefuls, The Bulletin. August 16th. 1975
Bonython, Kym: Modern Australian Painting: Survey, 1970 80 Rigby Ltd.
Drury Neville: New Art Two: Craftsman House, 1988
Chanin, Eileen: Contemporary Australian Painting. Craftsman House, 1990.
Skinner Land Out of Time
Australian Watercolour Institute; 75th Anniversary Beagle Press
Australian Watercolour Institute Peter Pinson, Jean Campbell & Peter Laverty Pub Phillip Mathews
