Ross Woodrow - Workhorse

Ross Woodrow was born in Mackay, Queensland. After training as a secondary art teacher, he lived and worked on the Gold Coast, where he established his reputation as an artist. His work, characterized by robust figures and suburban dramas, earned him significant recognition, including winning the Gold Coast Art Award twice and Brisbane’s first major art prize, the GIO Art Award along with a solo exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries. Becoming a full-time artist also allowed him to complete an art history degree at the University of Queensland. After completing his studies, he left Queensland, first relocating to Canberra to work at the National Gallery, and later accepting a position at the School of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. During this time, he held regular exhibitions in Newcastle and Sydney and earned both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctor of Philosophy from The University of Sydney.

While Woodrow has worked across most art mediums, his return to Queensland in 2006 to teach at the Queensland College of Art at Griffith University, marked a shift to an almost exclusive focus on printmaking. A pioneer in using the Internet for teaching and visual arts research, he offered Australia’s first online art theory course in the 1990s. However, his artistic focus on the graphic arts and historical print technologies stems from their ability to interrogate and explore the status and significance of iconic and symbolic imagery.

Woodrow’s research often centres on representations within the field of physiognomy, a recurring theme in both his writing and creative work. His engagement with the synergy between old and new technologies informs the critical operations underlying the muscular iconography in his prints. This approach makes his work conceptually rich, technically proficient, and deeply resonant in exploring the complexities of visual representation.