Shaun Gladwell

Shaun Gladwell
Gladwell planking with a Kangaroo
Born	1972 (age 44–45) Sydney, NSW, Australia
Nationality	Australia
Education	Sydney College of the Arts, UNSW College of Fine Arts, Goldsmiths University of London
Known for	Video art, Sculpture, Photography, Painting
Notable work	Storm Sequence, 'The Turning (film)
Movement	multimedia art
Patron(s)	Sir Elton John

Shaun Gladwell (born 1972) is an Australian contemporary artist whose work spans moving image, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, performance and virtual reality.

Gladwell was born in Sydney in 1972 and graduated from Sydney University's Sydney College of the Arts. He subsequently gained a master's degree from the University of New South Wales' College of Fine Arts and undertook further studies as an associate researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London (2001-2) on a Samstag Scholarship from the University of South Australia. Initially, the artist studied painting but explored video and other mediums as a postgraduate student. In the late 1990s, Gladwell was a member of the Sydney-based art collective, Imperial Slacks.

Gladwell's video work from 2000-2013 saw the artist attempt to systematically catalogue many of the 'movement cultures' that were emerging and evolving within his generation. In interviews, Gladwell has described his interest in forms of Street dance, extreme sport, and skateboarding.

From 2007-9 the artist applied many of his ideas concerning performance, gesture and the transformation of urban space to natural environments. During this period, Gladwell spent extended amounts of time in the Australian desert, producing his iconic series of works titled Maddestmaximus (2009). The series included video of Gladwell car surfing (Interceptor Surf Sequence) and ritualistically burying roadkill kangaroos (Apologies 1-6).

In late 2009, Gladwell was the Australian War Memorial's Official War Artist in Afghanistan. This commissioning program began in World War I with artists Will Dyson, Arthur Streeton, George Lambert and Frederick McCubbin, Gladwell being the first video/new media artist in the history of the scheme. Gladwell has stated that during this commission he became both reliant upon and extremely critical of military technology within the theatre of war. A key work Gladwell made during his time in Southern Afghanistan is titled Double Field/Viewfinder (Tarin Kowt), 2009-10.