Portrait of an artist: Leonard Brown

Meet renowned Queensland artist Leonard Brown in conversation with curator Julie Ewington.

Leonard Brown, born in Brisbane in 1949, has had a long and illustrious career. With a deep interest in religion and religious iconography, Brown, who was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1976, has developed two parallel practices: minimal abstraction painting and traditional icon painting. These two streams in his art can be seen as two sides of the same artistic quest. Both are created within the meditative, transcendental tradition and both dissolve the boundaries between the material and spiritual worlds.

Brown has won the Blake Prize for Religious Art, and is a three-time finalist in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His work is held by most state art galleries and National Gallery of Australia, as well as Artbank and the Parliament House Art Collection.

Julie Ewington led Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Art department for many years, and is the curator of Meet the artists featuring Leonard Brown.

Photo of Leonard Brown by Josef Ruckli.