Shaun Waugh

Shaun Waugh (b. 1982, Townsville, Australia) is a New Zealand-based artist who lives and works in Wellington. Waugh completed his MFA in 2012, Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University Wellington where he is currently employed as Lecturer in photography. Waugh’s most recent work has focused on the material culture of photographic history. Working primarily with the complexities of colour, Waugh has sought to explore and expand the artistic and technical potentials of the photographic medium. Avoiding arbitrary definitions in favour of interdisciplinary tendencies, Waugh’s practice exploits the tension between image and object-making, pitching his chromatically-driven practice into an uncertain terrain between photography, painting and sculpture. 

Recent exhibitions include; News from the Sun, curated by Aaron Lister, Senior Curator, City Gallery Wellington (2020); Runes: Photography and Decipherment, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, group exhibition curated by Geoffrey Batchen & Justine Varga (2018), Antipodean Emanations: cameraless photographs from Australia and New Zealand, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, group exhibition curated by Stella Loftus-Hills (2018), The Devil’s Blind Spot: Recent Strategies in New Zealand Photography, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, curated by Lara Strongman  (2017) Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, group exhibition curated by Geoffrey Batchen  (2016) and The More You Know: Then and Now, Here and Nowhere: Gavin Hipkins, Peter Trevelyan, Shaun Waugh, Kate Woods, and Brent Wong, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, curated by Christina Barton (2015). His work is held in public collections across New Zealand including Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection and Wellington City Council Art Collection.