John Lennox - Biography

John Lennox was an enigmatic, alluring and charismatic painter that sought to show beauty as well as delve deep into the psyche of a world more akin to a surreal dream. While Lennox was formally trained when one focusses attention away from the meticulously and exceptionally well painted idyllic sections of his works a more complex existential side reflecting his in-depth understanding of the human condition comes to the fore. Renewed interest in Lennox’ career comes at a time when many academics and critics across the world have once again focused their attention on the place of outsiders in art history – those that are under-discovered or part of alternate histories – those artists that on occasion are some of the best contributers to grand narratives in art.

Lennox is represented in the Queensland Art Gallery, Benalla Art Gallery, St Vincent’s Hospital and in numerous private and corporate collections in Australia, UK and Europe. Since 2014 Lennox has had three significant solo exhibitions – Manifold (2018), Key works (2016) and Enigma (2014) – participated in numerous group exhibitions, as well as having been shown at Spring 1883 (2018) and shown in the viewing room of Fort Delta, Melbourne. During his lifetime Lennox exhibited consistently from 1972 for 24 years until his premature death in 1996. Lennox studied under George Bell, was a finalist in the Wynne Prize (1974) and won the Camberwell Rotary Prize (1974) in that same year. In 2008 Lennox had a touring retrospective at Benalla Art Gallery (2008) and Castlemaine Art Museum (2008).