Artist Bio
Aarone Neill is an Irish-Australian artist working across sculpture and painting. Born in 1979 on the County Down coast of Northern Ireland, his work is informed by a childhood spent amidst extraordinary natural beauty during the years of The Troubles. Reflecting on this experience, he notes, "It was a beautiful childhood, in a place of beauty, at a time of violence."
Aarone's practice is rooted in sculpture. Through steel, bronze, found materials and beeswax, he has spent much of his career exploring how materials can hold traces of time, place, and human experience. His sculptural works range from bronze-cast wasps' nests and steel works submerged in remote desert watering holes to large-scale installations of translucent boxes inspired by the soaring murmurations of starlings above a divided Belfast.
He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the National Art School, Sydney, where he received multiple awards and was awarded an internship at Titjikala Art Centre on Eastern Arrernte Country, Central Australia. Following graduation, his work was selected for the National Art School graduate exhibition at Australian Galleries, Sydney, before he was invited to present a solo exhibition at Knulp Gallery, Sydney.
After many years living and working in Australia, a return to Ireland has brought a renewed appreciation for the landscapes of home. Rediscovering familiar places with fresh eyes, he has become increasingly drawn to the vivid colours of Northern Ireland's fields, coastlines, mountains, and ever-changing skies. Although encaustic has been part of his practice for many years, this renewed connection to place has deepened his engagement with the medium, making it a natural vehicle for capturing the colours and character of the Irish landscape.
Built through layers of molten beeswax and pigment that are fused, carved, and excavated, Aarone's encaustic works seek to capture not simply the landscape itself, but the colour, light, and atmosphere of a place, inviting an intimate connection with the viewer through both sight and touch.
Exhibitions
Railway Street Studios
Solo show, Sydney (2024)
Portraits of Place
Australian Galleries, Sydney (2023)
Solo Show, In This Shirt: Door
KNULP Gallery, Sydney (2022)
Queer Contemporary Exhibition, Metonymymesis
National Art School (2022)
BFA Grad Show, In This Shirt
National Art School, Sydney, 2022
BFA Grad Show Drawing Exhibition, Uncommissioned
National Art School, Sydney, 2022
Group Show, barefoot
Sculptures in the Garden, Mudgee, 2021
Margaret Olley Drawing Exhibition
Rayner Hoff Project Space, 2021
Pink in the Middle
Sculptures in the Garden, Mudgee, 2020
Margaret Olley Drawing Exhibition
Rayner Hoff Project Space, 2020
Lady Daffodil
Sculptures in the Garden, Mudgee, 2019