About Sam

Jess Macc Photography

Sam is a Western Sydney based artist creating landscapes, portraits, and sculptures. He explores aspects of people, places, and the world through his own lens of abstraction.

Sam started painting at a very young age as a way of communicating his ideas. He was drawn to the works of Basquiat, Picasso, and Brett Whiteley, inspired by their ability to capture personality, place, and emotion.

Sam studied visual arts through high school and completed a Bachelor of Secondary Education/Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle. Through his student years, Sam experimented with different forms of painting and sculpture, working with a range of mediums such as clay, recyclables, acrylics, oils, fabrics, and paper. He was heavily influenced by forms of pop and street art.

Sam’s portraiture has evolved many times throughout his career. His initial style of portraiture drew on street art and graffiti, though quickly leaned towards experimentation with realism. Tending towards abstraction, Sam also creates expressionist portraits depicted by single lines. Currently, he continues to fluctuate between abstraction, cubism, and contemporary impressionism.

In recent years, Sam has begun experimenting with abstract landscapes, capturing the essence of Australian landforms. Within his paintings, he draws heavily on his own travel experiences, transforming them with bold colours, highly textured patterns, and primitive yet beautiful depictions of the world around him.

Sam has enjoyed success across multiple platforms, selling his works both online and in galleries. He has previously exhibited his works at Whitewall Art Projects in Berrima, with his works currently available at Clayfire Gallery Daylesford in Victoria and Dirty Jane’s Vintage Emporium in Canberra and Bowral. Sam has been featured in local and regional art prizes, including the Blacktown Art Prize, Fishers Ghost Art Prize, and ‘Into the Light’ with Whitewall Art Projects. In 2021, he won the ‘Art of the Pie’ prize and was a finalist in the Bluethumb People’s Choice Award in 2022 and 2023.  

Sam has also had the privilege of collaborating with Australian musicians. He supplied the cover art for Tuka, a rapper of the Thundamentals, and participated in an art and live music exhibition with ‘Horrorshow’. More recently, Sam collaborated with ‘Kangarilla Road Wines’, providing the label art for their 2022 Petnat and Syrah wines.

Sam currently lives in the Hawkesbury region of NSW and is often found working in his art shed until the early hours of morning, joined by his two dogs Luigi and Maslow. He continues to be inspired by the beauty of Australia and the uniqueness of human personalities and form.

“Art enables me to reveal my own thoughts, ideas, and memories”