Sam Cranstoun (b.1987) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines various forms of research with a wide array of media to create work that investigates different systems of representation. His work regularly focuses on historical figures and events as a way of exploring how history is shaped, how it functions and how we as spectators rely on different visual systems as a way of understanding the past. These investigations address the importance of the role assumed by the artist in creating work, as well as the importance of popular culture, mass media, art, architecture and design in forming a collective understanding of our environment and surroundings.
Cranstoun’s work has been included in solo and group shows such as ‘The National’, Carriageworks Sydney (2019); Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2019); ‘Impossible Conversations’, Museum of Brisbane (2018); Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2017); Elaine Birmingham National Watercolour Prize (2017); GOMA Q, QAG|GOMA (2015); Light Play, UQ Art Museum (2015); ‘Guarding the Home Front, Casula Powerhouse (2014); ‘Art/Life’ QUT Art Museum (2012); and Brisbane Emerging Art Festival (2011). He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize at Art Gallery of NSW in 2009 and 2007.
