John Bartlett has been a practicing artist for 35 years, and has held 16 solo exhibitions and shown with 37 Group exhibitions. He is a self-taught painter, except for a short period with Leslie Sinclair at Montsalvat (tonalism), and most importantly, a period in the late 80s with Erica McGilchrist of Caulfield was crucial to his development.

John spent his early formative years in Melbourne and the Riverina and has travelled extensively through the Mediterranean, Aegean, Middle East and Europe.

John painted mainly figurative works until 1981 then worked on construction paintings utilizing Rank Zerox technology; i.e. extra large Photocopies of computer circuit boards hand fitted into Masonite support. Then came geometrical figurative abstraction with figures re-enacting real-life games as in The Games People Play based on Video Games then followed Hip Hop and the Peoples Ballet of Rap and Break Dancing. Next came The Still Point a series of Impressions of Heaven meeting Earth in reflections of the sky and clouds on water. Following water came the earth in a series of Impressions of the Never Never incorporating the 1931 Lasseter expedition in search of Lasseter's Gold Reef. Following all that came a series of computer generated images derived from the Spiral that led into the Korean Spiral and Hexagrams of the I-Ching. from which came the Ceremonial and Portal series.
The I-Ching Hexagram, Ceremonial, also the Portal series are painted Encaustic on 1.2mm sheet Aluminium using raw pigments, virgin beeswax with dammar. The central H form in the Ceremonial image was used to develop the on-going series of the Variations on a Theme, again Encaustic. February 2010.





Solo Exhibitions:

2009 Kazari Collector Gallery

2007 Kazari Collector Gallery Melbourne

2006 Scott Livesey Galleries Melbourne

2005 Sauce Gallery Sydney

2003 Steps Gallery Melbourne. Lasseter's Last Ride

2002 Lyttleton Gallery Melbourne

2000 ART Gallery Eden Melbourne Meeting Place

1998 Artichoke Contemporary Art Sydney

1995 Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne. The Still Point
Cowwar Art Space, Cowwar Victoria

1991 Ray Hughes Gallery Sydney
Studio 12 200 Gertrude Street Melbourne. Installation featuring paintings of Trish Johns.
Pinacotheca Melbourne.

1990 200 Gertrude Street Melbourne. Varieties of Games

1989 Pinacotheca Melbourne

1987 Pinacotheca Melbourne

1986 Pinacotheca Melbourne
CAS Melbourne.



Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 Annandale Galleries Sydney

2008 57th Blake Prize for Religious Art Sydney
Kazari Collector Gallery Melbourne. Making Marks. Inspired by the brush

2004 Collingwood Gallery Melbourne. Views times Four

2003 Brim Brim Gallery Geelong. Two Views: Tony Woods John Bartlett

2000 ART Gallery Eden Melbourne, New Visions of Land

1999 Noel Stott Fine Art Melbourne. Xmas exhibition
Heron's Gallery Castlemaine Victoria. Castlemaine Festival
DAAGHOUSE Melbourne: Survey-ART X 4. Trish Johns, Tony Woods, Irene Proebsting, John Bartlett
Heron's Gallery Castlemaine Victoria. Mamunya: Artists Honour the forests of Central Victoria

1998 Noel Stott Fine Art Melbourne. Stockroom sale June
NGV Melbourne, Vichealth Access Gallery. Faith Works
Charles Nodrum Gallery Melbourne. Form within Form

1997 Noel Stott Fine Art Melbourne. Stockroom sale June
Centre of Creative Ministries Melbourne. Way of the Sinner Way of the Saint
Artichoke Contemporary Art Sydney. Eggnog: Selected gallery artists

1996 Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne. Abstraction Reaction

1995 Nillumbick Art Award Melbourne
James Farrell Self Portrait Award Castlemaine Victoria
200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne. Decadence, 10 Years of Exhibitions

1994 Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne at Exhibition Buildings, ACAF#4
Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne. Summer Show

1993 An Installation Publication RMIT Melbourne. VITAE AIP #7
An Installation Publication #3 Mellbourne. Invited Potlatch Essay

1991 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne. Frustrated Cargo
200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne. Associated City
Shire of Eltham Victoria. Art Award

1990 Monash University Gallery Melbourne. Art with Text
200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne. Fortuna, Collaboration with Richard Todd

1989 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne. In House
Wangaratta Regional Gallery Victoria. In House
200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne, Annotations



Awards:

2008 Shortlisted 57th Blake Prize

1990 Studio Artist 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne




Collections:

Museum of Contemporary Art, James Baker (Dispersed)

Australian Taxation Office

Myer Foundation

Charles Nodrum

Bruce Pollard

Dianne Tanzer

Australian Workers Union

Private collections Australia, U.S.A




Selected Bibliography:
2009 Dr. Garry Hickey. Making Marks Group exhibition , Kazari Collector Essay:
Australian Artists & the Painting Tradition of the East

2007 Penny Webb, The Melbourne Age
Ashley Crawford: Catalogue essay: Life is a Flow

2006 McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Profile
Jeff Makin, Herald Sun Melbourne

2005 a short ride in a fast machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985-2005

2003 http://www.net.au/national/speeches/Bill Shorten's opening speech
Geelong Advertiser, Victoria

2001 NAVA Artists contact listing

1996 Max Germain's Artists and Galleries of Australia as CD ROM

1995 Art Segment: WIN TV Tearalgon Victoria

1991 Jo Saurin. Sydney Morning Herald
Rose Lang: Essay, Association City Catalogue

1990 Rose Lang. Exhibition Catalogue essay: Varieties of Games
Ray Hughes Gallery Newsletter
Louise Bellamy. The Melbourne Age. November
Art with Text Catalogue, Monash University Gallery
Arts with Peter Ross, Channel 2, Melbourne

1989 New Art Three. Edited Neville Drury, published, Craftsman House

1988 Charles Nodrum Gallery: Form within Form Catalogue essay




Interviews:
1990 Roger Taylor, Gotham City Gossip, 3RRR Melbourne

1995 Gordon Duncan, Gippsland FM Radio, Morwell, Victoria
Still Point Exhibition, Dianne Tanzer Gallery: interviewed on Video by Tony Woods

2006 Art.tddc.org
Ezines/Net Galleries.
www.papertigermedia.com/anythingilike
www.artsconnect.com.au
www.art.tddc.org
absolutearts.com
The program: www.theprogram.com.au