B. 1972

McLean Edwards is an esteemed contemporary artist. A five-time Archibald finalist, he has a rare knack for teasing out his subject’s psyches through paint. Delightfully idiosyncratic, his darkly comic scenes are fantastical, while still cutting to the core of human nature. Whether loneliness, vulnerability or love - Edwards approaches the guts of life with intelligence, flare and more than a dash of humour. A critic once compared his work to playwright Samuel Beckett, whose absurd, theatrical sadness merge “morality and humility” in a tragicomic universe.  

Edwards is represented in the Australia War Memorial collection and Artbank and in 2019, won the Sulman Prize.