Biography

Oliver Shepherd is an Adelaide-born artist currently living and practising in Canberra.

Oliver practices predominately in oils, with an emphasis on naturalist figurative art, portraiture and still lifes, sometimes journeying into surrealism, allegory and abstraction. He also works in lead-light on the side. His art comes simply from an innate desire to improve, to create, and to express a love for something or someone. Oliver believes that Art, the expression of what it is to be human, should be one of the three great endeavours of our age along with scientific progress and the assurance of basic human rights. He believes that art should not be scrapping for its own subsistence; it should be thriving and inspiring the creation of a better world.

Oliver trained as a lawyer at the University of Adelaide from 2004, during which time he discovered oil painting after seeing Peter Webber's film 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' in between law lectures. Since his first exhibition in 2007, he has held a number of shows in Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra, and been a finalist in many presigious art prizes, including the Archibald Prize, the Lester Prize, the Kilgour Prize, the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award, the Southern Buoy Studious Portrait Prize, the Lethbridge 20000, the Adelaide Portrait Prize, The Whitewall Art Prize and the Brisbane Art Prize.

Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. His works can be seen at the Grainger Gallery (Canberra), Lethbridge Gallery (Brisbane), the Elliott Eyes Collection (Sydney) and Macquarie University.