Euan Heng, born in 1945 in Oban, Argyllshire, Scotland, is an artist now living and working in Melbourne, Australia. Between 1960 and 1970 he was employed in various occupations, including four years as a merchant seaman travelling the world. He received a Diploma in Art and a Post Diploma from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Scotland and Masters in Research from RMIT, in Melbourne. Other activities of the artist have included teaching at Clackmannan College of Further Education in Scotland, Monash University, Prato Centre in Italy and he is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in Fine Art at Monash University, Melbourne. When describing his work, Heng explains his process of emptying out his paintings, "no vulgar brush strokes and no detail to distract – just gently modulated pigment to activate flat shapes of colour. I want the visual response to my new paintings to be rapid, if possible, after which the viewer, should he or she wish, can invest further time in unpacking the content, or in discovering the paintings' secrets. By seeking this pictorial suddenness, formally speaking my aim is to avoid the 'expressionistic', and to privilege instead the flatness of the painting's surface." While Heng's work is contemporary in practice his imagery is not always contemporary in origin. He has long been influenced by Italian iconography, medieval paintings and frescoes, and 16th centuryMogul art. Heng has been able to spend considerable time in Italy, thanks to his teaching post at the Prato Centre, and aspects of the country's art and landscape have crept into his work.
Exhibitions
Since 1973, Heng has held thirty-five solo exhibitions in Australia, Italy and Scotland and has participated in over seventy curated and juried group exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including the UK, North America, Europe and Asia. His most recent shows were Reading the Space: Contemporary Australian Drawing #3 at New York Studio School in the US and Interlude Suspended at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne. Additionally, he has participated in the Auckland Art Fair and Melbourne Art Fair representing Niagara Galleries and Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney and the Drawing Biennale at Drill Gallery in Canberra.
Heng has participated in visiting artist/lectureships and residences in Australia and overseas including, in 1999, the Australia Council Residency at the British School at Rome. In 2004 he received the Australian Council for University Art and Design Schools Distinguished Research Award. In 2010 he was the recipient of a Residencies for Scotland Programme, awarded by the Royal Scottish Academy.
