“His investigation of the elements as codes, their very ambiguity offering a philosophical bridge, a communion between art & audience, harmony and resolution”
Meet Andrew Totman
The Australian/American artist background covers four decades and six continents having works held in major public, private and university collections including Art Gallery of NSW, State Library of NSW and Australia National Gallery. Totman’s current investigation is a mixture of gouache paintings and monoprints on paper, under the broad title of Exploration.
Abstraction, by its very alchemic quality, offers an investigation on the balance and convergence of the elements. Although the landscape may be evoked, there are other determinants present, emotional and profound aspects of the natural world that are created in the diaphanous, weightless forms and luminosity achieved with repeated layers of transparent colour. These works metaphorically link art (form and surface) with the human spirit and change, a mutability of the natural world and the place of humanity in it.
Andrew was recently awarded the 4th Biennial National Monoprint Prize, recognising his innovation and mastery in print-based media.
FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
Biennial Australian Monoprint Prize 2025
Winner Biennial Australian Monoprint Prize 2025
Curriculum Vitae
Driven by a profound connection to nature, Andrew’s work responds to the seasons, tides, and lunar cycles. His abstract works express a kinetic, sensory relationship with the natural world, creating visual experiences that feel alive, pulsing, and immersive.
Andrew continues to contribute significantly to both the Australian and international artistic landscape.
Andrew’s career spans both the USA and Australia, with decades of experience teaching art at tertiary and secondary levels.
He has taught at institutions including the University of Alaska Anchorage, UCLA, Wichita State University, and in Australia at the National Art School, Art Gallery of NSW, Hazlehurst Art Centre, Waverley Woollahra Art School, TAFE NSW, and delivery more than 500 workshops-lectures globally.
He has exhibited widely, with over 70 solo exhibitions to date. His work is represented in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), National Gallery of Australia, and collections in China, Italy, France, the USA, Japan, and Norway.
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Master of Fine Art, Wichita State University, Kansas 1986 | Major: Printmaking Minor: Drawing, Painting
Bachelor of Art, University of San Diego, California 1983 | Major: Printmaking
Bachelor of Teaching, Charles Sturt University 2015 | Major: Secondary Education
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Artist-Master Printmaker | 1996-Current | Heavy Pressure Studio International Arts practice
Industry Innovation Specialist | 2022-2025 | TAFE NSW State-wide Management role
Creative Industry Lead | 2018-2022 | TAFE NSW, State-wide Management role
Head of SkillsPoint Creative | 2020 | TAFE NSW SkillsPoint, State-wide Senior Executive role
Manager Higher Education | 2016-2017 | TAFE NSW Region South, Senior Manager with multi campus management
Head of Faculty | 2011-2016 | TAFE NSW Region South, Team Leader with multi campus management
Discipline Leader | 2014 | TAFE NSW Region South Multi discipline and Campus leadership
Manager Education Training | 2013 | TAFE NSW Region South Multi discipline and Campus leadership
Lecturer | 1996-2010 | National Art School, Darlinghurst
R Head of Department | 2008 | National Art School, Darlinghurst
R Head of Public Programs | 2003 | National Art School, Darlinghurst, Multi discipline leadership
Public Programs Coordinator | 1991-1995 | University of California at UCLA, California, USA
Artist in Residence Manager | 1988-1989 | Beychevelled’ Art, Bordeaux, France
Head of Department | 1987-1991 | University of Alaska, Anchorage, USA
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Sydney Children Hospital, Randwick, NSW
Sunshine Museum, Beijing, China
La Universidad, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Gemini Print Workshop, Los Angeles, California USA
Center of the Performing Arts, Anchorage, Alaska USA
Academy Awards, Los Angeles, California USA
Australian Sport Icons, Institute of Sport ACT
Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Kansas, USA
Northwest Print Council, Portland, Oregon, USA
Christofle Silver International, Paris, France
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Art Gallery of New South Wales
Idyllwild School of the Arts, California
Awagami Factory Japan
Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas
Hong Kong Open Print Workshop
Norman Lindsay Gallery Springwood
College of Fine Arts, UNSW
Alaska Artist in Schools, Alaska
Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Centro Internationale Grafica, Venice, Italy
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Top Australian Printmakers, Town Hall, Hawthorne Victoria
Partners of the Americas, New York City, New York USA
United States Information Agency, Washington D.C. USA
Fred Meyers Corporation, Seattle, Washington USA
Alaska State Council on the Arts, Anchorage, Alaska USA
National Endowment for the Arts, Washington D.C. USA
National Association for the Visual Arts, Sydney NSW
Australian Export Marketing Development Trade Grant
Wagga Wagga Rural Referral Hospital Art Selection Committee
Albury City Gallery (MAMA), Visual Arts Development
Junee Correctional Centre Aboriginal Visual Arts delivery
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Australian House of Representatives on how the Creative sector responded during Covid-19 -2021
Collage Art Association, Presentation of the International Distinguished body of work award
Collage Art Association, International selection committee for 2022 annual conference
University of the Sunshine Coast, Japan-Australia conference lecture, Queensland 2019
Impact 11 International Graphics Symposium, Global Issues in arts practice, Hong Kong 2021
La Universidad, International Artist Invitation, Solo exhibition and lectures, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Sydney Contemporary International Art Fair, Workshops and lecture series, Carriageworks, 2021
ArtState, NSW Regional Arts Forum/Conference Wagga Wagga, 2020
Art Gallery of NSW, Contracted Workshops-Lectures relating to current exhibitions
National Arts School, As Head of Department own Arts practice lecture, Darlinghurst, NSW
UNSW, Artist in Residency Lecture Series, Paddington, NSW
Charles Sturt University, Contemporary Printmaking, Wagga Wagga
Los Angeles Printmaking Society, Professors lectures, California USA
California Society of Printmakers, Lectures from in Practice, Oakland, California USA
Print Council of Australia, Northwest Print Council, Change of practice Lecture-Workshop, Portland, Oregon USA
Center of the Performing Arts, Northwest Stage Design Forum, Anchorage, Alaska USA
Awagami Paper Factory/ Tama University, Historical Practice Lecture Tokyo, Japan
Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Kansas, USA
Centro Internationale Grafica, Venice, Italy
Exhibitions & Workshops
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EXHIBITION | Seasons, Tides, & Lunar Cycles
Pivot Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre
Opening | Friday 6 February 2026, 6pm
Exhibition | 6 February - 22 March 2026
In this series, Totman presents a fresh direction developed from memories of the natural world; an awareness of the influence of environment, weather and the unfathomable depth of galaxy. Always inspired by light and colour, Totman has taken a glance back to recollections of a childhood fascinated by luminous, stained glass panels in church and the velvety darkness of a star-studded night sky. Reliant on repetition of shape and form, these images are essentially abstract. They represent Totman’s symbolic use of the sphere as a natural, organic form and a spiritual icon of the universe. Telescoping as though from an observatory, the spherical form is strongly resonant of the night sky, the light haloes emanating outwards from stars and moon pulsating in a dark space.
The Art
Totman reveals his admiration for and a kinaesthetic response to the certainty of the seasons, the cycles of tides and moon. The abstract field implies an expansive character that is simultaneously enveloping and breathing, pulsating and muted.
Abstraction, by its very alchemic quality, offers an investigation on the balance and convergence of the elements. Although the landscape may be evoked, there are other determinants present, emotional and profound aspects of the natural world that are created in the diaphanous, weightless forms and luminosity achieved with repeated layers of transparent colour. These works metaphorically link art (form and surface) with the human spirit and change, a mutability of the natural world and the place of humanity in it.
Totman’s established work reveals many indications of his past preoccupation with the strength of the hand, its universality, its contradictory character. In this current series, the authority of the hand is implicitly evident in a deft and essential touch. Although on occasion languorous and tender, at other times vigorous and whimsical, the sensuality of the surface resonates with the muted power and strong form of the gesture.
These abstract compositions seem to emanate from the grace and calm of an inner peace, that, although expressing something of the dynamic, contrary forces of nature, remain convinced that an equilibrium will be achieved. Totman is not a romantic in the sense of the terror experienced in the presence of the sublime. Rather, his works display a mature knowledge and recognition of the constancy of change; extremes are balanced with harmony, darkness lifted with light, intuition tempered by intellect. Here is an artist whose belief in the elemental force of nature of the world, those universally recognised symbols of air, earth, wind and fire slipping within and around us, ground even the most resilient human hubris.
Totman plans to exhibition new works that continue the interest in metamorphosis extends also into the qualities of a culture. Through personal experience, his growing knowledge of east and west and the contradictions of both…, in so to investigate conceptual notions and reflections on change, contrast and distance. References to the iconography of the elements of fire, air, water and earth, go straight to the heart of the traditional cultural east.
His investigation of the elements as codes, their very ambiguity offering a philosophical bridge, a communion between art and audience, harmony and resolution. Showing works that strike a balance between the changeability and contested character of what is the space between, posing a quieter, more humane questioning, an admiration for our vulnerabilities and strengths.
The Art
Totman reveals his admiration for and a kinaesthetic response to the certainty of the seasons, the cycles of tides and moon. The abstract field implies an expansive character that is simultaneously enveloping and breathing, pulsating and muted.
Abstraction, by its very alchemic quality, offers an investigation on the balance and convergence of the elements. Although the landscape may be evoked, there are other determinants present, emotional and profound aspects of the natural world that are created in the diaphanous, weightless forms and luminosity achieved with repeated layers of transparent colour. These works metaphorically link art (form and surface) with the human spirit and change, a mutability of the natural world and the place of humanity in it.
Totman’s established work reveals many indications of his past preoccupation with the strength of the hand, its universality, its contradictory character. In this current series, the authority of the hand is implicitly evident in a deft and essential touch. Although on occasion languorous and tender, at other times vigorous and whimsical, the sensuality of the surface resonates with the muted power and strong form of the gesture.
These abstract compositions seem to emanate from the grace and calm of an inner peace, that, although expressing something of the dynamic, contrary forces of nature, remain convinced that an equilibrium will be achieved. Totman is not a romantic in the sense of the terror experienced in the presence of the sublime.
Rather, his works display a mature knowledge and recognition of the constancy of change; extremes are balanced with harmony, darkness lifted with light, intuition tempered by intellect. Here is an artist whose belief in the elemental force of nature of the world, those universally recognised symbols of air, earth, wind and fire slipping within and around us, ground even the most resilient human hubris.
Totman plans to exhibition new works that continue the interest in metamorphosis extends also into the qualities of a culture. Through personal experience, his growing knowledge of east and west and the contradictions of both…, in so to investigate conceptual notions and reflections on change, contrast and distance. References to the iconography of the elements of fire, air, water and earth, go straight to the heart of the traditional cultural east.
His investigation of the elements as codes, their very ambiguity offering a philosophical bridge, a communion between art and audience, harmony and resolution. Showing works that strike a balance between the changeability and contested character of what is the space between, posing a quieter, more humane questioning, an admiration for our vulnerabilities and strengths.
Gallery
Art that is truly global. Take a look at what Andrew has on offer.
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