Abstract artist Robert Hirschmann was born in Narembeen, on the Western Australian Wheatbelt in 1968. Hirschmann graduated from the National Art School Sydney in 1990 with a Diploma in Fine Arts, specialising in painting.
Hirschmann was a friend of Elisabeth Cummings and John Peart, and subsequently his connection to Wedderburn is significant. Hirschmann’s work has been selected for numerous group exhibitions across Australia, namely RAW Wedderburn (Curated by Sioux Garside) 2018, Stand up Close (remembering Ron Lambert) 2012 and the Laverty Collection at the Union Club 2008.
Hirschmann has won both the National Art Award in South Australia and the Gruner Landscape Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Hirschmann’s pieces can be found in numerous regional and corporate art collections such as Benalla Regional Art Gallery, Hawkesbury Regional Art Gallery, Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery and Campbelltown Bicentennial City Art Gallery, as well as Artbank and the National Art School Collection. Robert has an upcoming solo exhibition at King Street Gallery in April 2024, The First After the Last. His exhibition in 2022, Past Night, featured works on paper and oil paintings of the moon. “His paintings hang between abstraction and figuration…want[ing] us to see the moon as pure form, something that pulls back and forth, as an abstract painting so often does, between positive and negative.” (Quentin Sprague, 2022)
Hirschmann has had 22 solo exhibitions to date, and has been represented by King Street Gallery since 1991.
Portrait photo courtesy Silversalt Photography
Rob Hirschmann embraces spontaneous mark marking in his new series 'untitled' for 20:20, featuring works in graphite, charcoal, and even chainsaw drawings. The rawness of the work expresses the inward journey of 2020, uprooting and relocating to a new area, and embracing the therapeutic nature of mark-making.
The twenty new works in 20:20 share visions of a changing world, a more just society, critiques of environmental policy, and the fight for racial justice. 20:20 witnesses our current calamity and seeks insight, kindness and hope.
2024
The First After the Last, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, NSW
2023
Beauty & Fear, [2 person show] Wangaratta Art Gallery, VIC
2022
Past Night, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst
Past Night, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
2018
SameSame… King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
2014
Doggo King Street Gallery on William
2011
Paintings and Drawings King Street Gallery on William
2009
Paintings King Street Gallery on William
2007
Paintings Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane
Paintings King Street Gallery on William
Paintings 1996-2008 @ silvershot, Melbourne
2006
Paintings Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art @ silvershot, Melbourne
Paintings Booth’s Taminick Cellars, Taminick
2005
Paintings king street gallery on burton, sydney
Paintings Booth’s Taminick Cellars, Taminick
2004
Paintings Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, Span Galleries, Melbourne
2003
Paintings king street gallery on burton
2001
Paintings and sculpture king street gallery on burton
2000
Paintings Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, Span Galleries
1999
Paintings king street gallery on burton
1997
Paintings drawings & sculpture king street gallery on burton
1995
Drawings 1990-95’ Renwick Street Studios in association with king street gallery on burton
1994
Paintings & drawings king street gallery on burton
1992
Paintings & drawings king street gallery on burton
1991
Drawings king street gallery on burton
2020
Kenwood Road King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
20:20 Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), Albury NSW
2019
Rock, paper, scissors Delmar Gallery, Trinity Grammar School, Sydney
Abstract 19’ King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, NSW
Inside/Outside King Street Gallery on William
2018
Raw Wedderburn [curated by Sioux Garside] Delmar Gallery, Trinity Grammar School, Sydney
2014
David Floyd’s Paintbox King Street Gallery on William
2013
Last but not least King Street Gallery on William
2012
Stand Up Close [remembering Ron Lambert] Wollongong City Gallery, NSW
Lyricism [the abstract in art] King Street Gallery on William
2011
Kings School Art Prize Parramatta, NSW
2010
Ebb & Flow Wangaratta Gallery, Vic
Unframed Sheffer Gallery, Sydney
Everything and nothing King Street Gallery on William
2008
Laverty Collection Union Club, Sydney
Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize South Australia
Abstraction 7 Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Contemporaneous Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery, Wangaratta, Vic
Outskirts Benalla Regional Art Gallery, Benalla, Vic
2007
Artists for Kids Cultural Trust Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
2006
afilla landscapes king street gallery on burton
Artist’s for Kids Culture Trust Jackman Gallery, Melbourne
2005
The year in art S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2004
Last show of the year king street gallery on burton
2003
Last show of the year king street gallery on burton
2002
A silver lining & a new beginning Ivan Dougherty Gallery, UNSW, Sydney
International Works on Paper Crossley and Scott Gallery, Melbourne
2001
A Century of Collecting: 1901-2001 Ivan Dougherty Gallery
Abstraction: Spirit, Light, Pure Form [curated by Charlie Sheard] Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
Artists for Kids Culture Trust MIRA Fine Art Gallery, Melbourne
2000
Melbourne Art Fair 2000 [king street gallery] Melbourne Exhibition Building, Melbourne
On the Brink: Abstraction of the 90’s Heide Museum of Modern Art, Heidelberg, Vic
Things of wood king street gallery, Sydney
The Continental Cafe, Melbourne
Last show of the year king street gallery on burton
1999
Contemporary [a selection of work from the Allen, Allen & Hemsley Collection] UTS Gallery, UNSW, Sydney
1998
Last show of the year king street gallery on burton
1997
A fine line king street gallery on burton
1996
Horizon line [curated & exhibited with: John Adair, Jay Balbi, James Jones, Chris Langlois, Francesca Raft, Phillip Wolfhagen, Emma Walker] king street gallery on burton
Abstraction Now Geelong Regional Art Gallery, Geelong, Vic
[touring to regional galleries throughout Australia]
Gallery artists king street gallery on burton
1994
Australian Contemporary Art Fair 4 [king street gallery] Melbourne Exhibition Building
Gallery artists king street gallery on burton
1993
Gallery artists king street gallery on burton
1992
Terracollaboratis [curated & exhibited with: Elisabeth Cummings, Roy Jackson, James Jones, John Peart, Geoffrey Russell] king street gallery on burton
1991
Microcosm Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney
1990
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Cell Block Theatre, National Art School, Sydney
Windsor & Newton Art Awards Coventry Gallery, Sydney
Graduate Exhibition Cell Block Theatre
1984
National Art Award Civic Centre, Canberra, ACT
Artbank
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Benalla Regional Art Gallery
Campbelltown Bicentennial City Art Gallery
HOTA [formerly Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Qld]
Hawkesbury Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Vic
La Trobe University Museum Gallery
Macquarie University, NSW
Macquarie Bank, Australia
Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW
National Art School, Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney
University of Wollongong, NSW
Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery, Vic
Recognition at last for a founding father of Queensland colonial art by John McDonald
Sydney Morning Herald
1994
