The IMA is saddened to learn of the passing of influential conceptual artist and our former Director John Nixon. Nixon was a seminal figure in Australian contemporary art and exhibited many times at the IMA, including in the landmark 1985 exhibition Recession Art and Other Strategies. During his 1980–1 Directorship, he presented a program of groundbreaking solo exhibitions. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to his partner Sue Cramer, daughter Emma, family, friends, and colleagues.

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John Nixon
Born Gadigal/Sydney, 1949
Died Naarm/Melbourne, 2020

John Nixon was a seminal figure in Australian art. Since 1968, his work has been dedicated to the ongoing experimentation, analysis, and development of modernism. Constructivism, minimalism, the monochrome, and the readymade are key reference points. Nixon’s Experimental Painting Workshop (EPW), which began in 1978, forms the basis of his investigation of art making, which expanded to encompass painting, collage, photography, video, dance, and experimental music.

Nixon exhibited regularly and widely, holding more than seventy solo exhibitions since 2001, including the Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst Otterndorf and Auckland Art Gallery. He represented Australia at Documenta 7, in Kassel,  in 1982. His works are in major Australian state museums and international museums, including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;  Museum Sztuki, Lodz; Foire National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Stiftung fur Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen; The Artists Museum, Lodz; Herning Kunstmuseumm; Daimler Chrysler Collection, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Esberg; Espace d’Art Contemporain, Demigny; and National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Seoul.