Euan MacLeod

Euan Macleod (born 1956) is a New Zealand-born artist. Macleod was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Sydney, Australia in 1981, where he lives and works. He received a Certificate in Graphic Design from Christchurch Technical College in 1975 and a Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Canterbury in 1979. As well as pursuing his art he also teaches painting at the National Art School in Sydney.

Style Macleod deals mostly with landscapes and the human presence within it. The lone, anonymous figure is a common symbol in his work that embodies both the artist's self-portrait and the "Everyman" or universal experience of emptiness, worthlessness and impotence. He has been described as both an expressionist and a symbolist and his dense, textured and sculptural use of paint has become a consistent feature of his work. Macleod is not limited when it comes to the landscapes he paints, feeling equally at home in the picturesque New Zealand countryside and the harsh and flat Australian outback and often painting a hybrid of both landscapes.

Collections Macleod's work is featured in public and private collections across Australia and overseas. In Australia he is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art and Art Gallery of Western Australia as well as state, regional, university and private collections. Internationally Macleod's work is featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and collections throughout New Zealand, including the Chartwell Collection, Saatchi & Saatchi and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Christchurch. In 2021 he won the Dobell Drawing Prize with a pastel-on-paper work entitled Borderlands.