Geoff Morrell is an Australian actor and artist living and working on Dharawal land.

During his 40-year career on the stage and screen, he has appeared in countless iconic Australian productions including Blue Murder, Cloudstreet, Changi and Grassroots, a role which earned him an AFI (AACTA) Award for Best Lead Actor in a TV series. Alongside this performance career, Morrell has also forged an acclaimed visual art practice which has seen his work held in private collections throughout Australia, England and the USA. His work has also been exhibited publicly on numerous occasions, including five solo shows.

Since 1995, Morrell has made a name for himself as an artist who effortlessly crosses the boundaries between painting, sculpture and collage to create powerful and astonishing work. Reclaiming found materials such as pieces of old linoleum and discarded wood, Morrell cuts and splices them together - sometimes even including chopped up pieces of his own original paintings - reimagining these fragmentary pieces into abstract patterns, vast landscapes or evocative memories. Not all Morrell’s works are made in this way however - some of his original paintings have been spared this “butchering” process and survive intact.

But perhaps the most exciting development in his artistic process to date occurred recently while in Aotearoa shooting for Amazon Prime’s upcoming TV-series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. With copious amounts of downtime due to Covid-19 and separated from his studio, stocked with years of collected materials, he concentrated exclusively on painting, both abstract and figurative. Spurred on by a deep-rooted spirit of adventure and curiosity, these works were then photographed and a layering process was undertaken with different images double exposed and digitally manipulated. The result is a series of striking, multi-layered portraits, landscapes and abstract images that are haunting and breath-takingly beautiful. A solo exhibition of these works will be mounted later in 2022.