Marek Herburt was born in 1954 in Lodz, Poland. Marek’s interest in painting began in the family home when he was about eight years old. His father, an architect, instructed and encouraged him. His first paintings were typical children’s art where subject was more important than form. When he was 15 years old Marek attended secondary Art School where he had a fascination with Polish and French Impressionists. Gradually Marek created fewer pictures of Baroque origin and his works started to have a pure and fresh appearance where more and more colours were adventurously compiled together.
Bored with school regime at the age of seventeen, Marek undertook a sixteen-month journey around Poland working as a labourer with rural bricklayers. His desire for further education in the arts led him to the Academy of Art in Lodz in 1975. At this time, he was totally fascinated with light and its influence over colours and forms. In 1980, after his time at the Academy, Marek migrated to West Germany where he worked first as a painter and decorator, and later as a graphic designer. Since migrating to Australia in 1982 Marek has continued to explore the world around him in pictorial form.
Through experimentation with watercolour, Marek was primarily interested in very colourful abstracted landscapes. In 1984 he started work on large non-representational images, working mainly with acrylic. Over the years this work has remained his central artistic pursuit.
In 1994 Marek returned to Poland for 12 months and started to work ‘en plein air’, continuing to abstract the landscape but working with oil on smaller canvasses, spending time thinking deeply and about each application of colour.
On his return to Australia in 1995 Marek completed a large body of representational religious narrative images using local people as models. Abstraction however was still strong and continues to be a recurring impetus to his creative life, sometimes with an emphasis on the symbolic meaning and harmony of geometry.
With the increasing formalism of his work Marek deliberately uses a limited range of colours. Permeating his artistic pursuit is the ongoing fascination with light and the effect it has on colour and form. His work increasingly reflects an awareness of the Australian light on the environment. Here, colours are interacting with each other and the interactions in the spaces between forms are as important as the forms themselves. Charming in dynamic design and with a variety of colours depending on the time of the day or season, Eucalyptus trees have become central themes in many of his paintings. Wandering throughout South Australia, Marek notices these trees are in every corner, along stretched highways, in small streets and in undisturbed hiding spots around his house.
Awards
2019 – Finalist – Adelaide Hills Landscape Arts Prize
2019 – Finalist – Tatiara Art Prize
2018 – Finalist – Hornsby Art Prize
2018 – Finalist – Kennedy Art Prize
2018 – Finalist – City of Port Lincoln Art Prize
2018 – Highly Commended – Kimba Art Prize
2017 – 1st Prize – Kimba Art Prize
2016 – 1st Prize – Cossack Art Awards, WA
2015 – 1st Prize – City of Port Lincoln Art Prize
2015 – Finalist in City of Whyalla Art Prize
2012 – 1st Prize – City of Port Lincoln Art Prize
2002 – Local Artist Award – Port Pirie Art Prize
1999 – 1st Prize – Port Pirie Art Prize
1998 – Local Artist Award – Kernewek Lowender Art Prize
Exhibitions
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Rochfort Gallery, Sydney – Boundless
2019 Hahndorf Academy – Adelaide Hills Landscape Art Prize
2019 Walkway Gallery, Bordertown – Tatiara Art Prize
2019 Atelier, Crafers, SALA Exhibition – Our Quintessential Adelaide Hills
2018 Atelier, Crafers, SALA Exhibition
2018 Rochfort Gallery, Sydney
2017 Lambert Gallery, Barossa Valley
2017 Flinders Ranges – A Brush with Art
2017 Port Augusta Cultural Centre – Image Gatherers
2016 Tortoiseshell Gallery, Sydney
2015 Auburn Gallery, Auburn, SA SALA Exhibition
2015 Blinman, SA Flinders Ranges Brush with Art
2014 Blinman, SA Flinders Ranges Brush with Art
2013 69 Smith Street Gallery, Melbourne Jumping Fences
2013 Burra Regional Art Gallery Jumping Fences
2013 Port Augusta Cultural Centre Jartla Purtly, At The Crossroads
2012 Germein Art Focus, Port Germein Storeroom Gems
2011 Germein Art Focus, Port Germein Newly Hatched
2010 Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide Heysen Trail
2009 New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide Germein Art Focus
2009 Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide Australia Day Exhibition
2008 Flinders Ranges Brush with Art Germein Art Focus
2008 Edeowie Inspirations SALA Exhibition, Germein Art Focus
2008 Roxbylink Gallery, Roxby Downs Germein Art Focus
2007 Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery Germein Art Focus
2007 Outback Exposures, Orroroo Germein Art Focus
2007 Germein Art Focus Inaugural Exhibition Port Germein Art Gallery
2005 Art Images Gallery, Adelaide
2004 Blue Bush Gallery, Riverton
2004 New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide
2002 Art Images Gallery, Adelaide
2001 Hahndorf Academy Gallery, Hahndorf, SA
2000 Art Images Gallery, Adelaide
1998 New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide
1984 Kensington Gallery, Adelaide
1983 Polish Club Art Gallery, Sydney
1983 Spot Art Gallery, Sydney
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Open Studio #SALAFestival 1-29 August, Snowtown
2021 Mildura Arts Centre, NSW
2020 Lochiel Gallery, Lochiel, South Australia
2020 Tokyo International Art Fair, Tokyo (Cancelled)
2020 Gallery M, Adelaide – Images of Bush
2020 Sir Ivor Hele Gallery, Centre for Creative Health – Adelaide Bush Works
2019 – SALA Exhibition, Adelaide Convention Centre – Bush Works
2019 Signal Point Gallery, Goolwa, South Australia – Colours of Light
2018 SALA Exhibition, Adelaide Convention Centre
2018 Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Urban Cow Studio, Adelaide
2017 Bay Discovery Centre, Adelaide – The Colour Seen
2017 Tortoiseshell Gallery Sydney – Mallee Country
2016 Roxbylink Gallery, Roxby Downs The Colour Seen
2015 The Art Gallery at Pikes, Clare, SA
2014 The Art Gallery at Pikes, Clare, SA
2012 Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide, Australia Day Exhibition
2008 Hummocks Station Gallery SALA Exhibition, Global Eyes
2008 Riddock Art Gallery, Mount Gambier, SA
2006 526 Art Gallery, Lodz, Poland
2003 Post Pirie Regional Art Gallery, SALA Exhibition
2003 New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide
2001 Art Images Gallery, Adelaide
2000 Nuest Gallery, Melbourne
1999 New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide Pantheist
1998 Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery Magic of the Human Being
1994 Kazimierz Dolny, “I” Gallery, Poland
