I brought this dishwater from Deagon
Andrew Neilan
- Sitter: Andrew Neilan
- Medium: Water mixable oil paint and acrylic
- Dimensions: 22 x 22 cm
- Representation: The artist represents themselves
About the artist
Andrew Neilan is a self-taught artist painting since 2017, working in acrylic and now oil. He has been exploring portraiture through a series of self-portraits that are almost caricatures and he says may even be considered demeaning. He tries to represent artworks that go beyond a static likenesses but explore emotions and situations that aren’t normally represented. Highlights of his career to date include being selected as a finalist in the Doug Moran Prize and the Brisbane Portrait Prize and being an Art from the Margins award winner. His painting painting incorporates elements that are familiar to Brisbane living such as our distinctive local architecture.
He says of making this work: “Personal elements have been included to give an insight into my personality, that I can’t swim or don’t want to play the ukulele but am good at bonsai, that I am cheap and a keen recycler. The overall composition was setup because it is funny but also leads to the ludicrous story of the spare part dishwasher fiasco where any rational person wouldn’t have wasted their time on a number of failed repairs on a dishwasher but would have just got a new one.”
About the sitter
Andrew Neilan writes of this self portrait: “My dishwasher broke so got this second one for parts to fix mine. I went off the error code and read all this stuff online, none off it worked. I basically swapped every part over and it still didn’t fix it, the internet was no good. I can afford a new one, I just choose not to buy one. I did fix it before it broke down again and again. The shell is going to the recyclers. I can’t swim or play the ukulele, I do good bonsai. Self portrait.”