Ronnie van Hout

Ronnie van Hout was born in Christchurch in 1962. He attended the School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University between 1980 and 1982, though he failed to graduate. In 1999 in received a Masters of Fine Arts from RMIT University, Melbourne.

van Hout works with a wide variety of media including sculpture, video, painting, photography, embroidery, and sound recordings. Interested in the formation of personality, his more recent work has focused on images of self, the artist portrayed in different guise.

Humour has long been a feature of his work, with the entertaining self-effacement of his recent works deflecting any suggestion of egotism.

Regularly exhibiting in New Zealand and Australia since the early 1980s, van Hout’s work has also featured in solo and group shows in the USA, Netherlands, Austria and Germany.

van Hout has been the recipient of numerous national and international artist residencies. In 2003 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery curated the touring survey show I've Abandoned Me. In 2004, he was a finalist in the Walters Prize Art Award, and in 2005 was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards.

He currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

- all images courtesy ocula.com/art-galleries-and-exhibitions/darren-knight/