Chris Wise is an Australian abstract painter with a lifelong connection to landscape and expressive mark-making.

Born in London, Chris’s affinity for working plein air began with large-scale works made overnight in Hampshire’s New Forest, culminating in a First-class BA Hons in Fine Art Painting in 1998. 

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Wise is becoming widely recognised for his large-scale abstract landscapes – paintings that act as physical records of their environment and climatic conditions. His process incorporates natural debris gathered during their creation – earth, charcoal, grass, water drawn from rivers and dams are blown, embedded and dispersed across the painted surface – further anchoring the viewer to the natural world. These elements remain visible within the finished works, serving as enduring traces of the time, place, and environmental conditions that shaped them.

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Through the physicality of action painting in the landscape and his connection to the place he finds himself, Wise works intuitively yet remains deeply attentive to the forces around him. The resulting works are an abstracted response to landscape, in collaboration with it. There is a stoic sense of purpose underpinning the process – these paintings emerge not from indulgence, but from a necessity to engage physically and honestly with the environment.

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Chris has been a finalist in notable Australian art prizes, including the 2024 National Emerging Art Prize, the Greenway Art Prize, and the National Contemporary Art Prize. He was also a non-acquisitive award winner at the 2024 Paddington Art Prize and the highly commended award-winner of the 2025 Hawkesbury Art Prize.

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Over 2024/2025, Chris undertook many self-directed residencies on Gundungurra Country in regional NSW, producing a series of large-scale plein air works titled ‘The Golspie Paintings’ which were shown at Sydney Contemporary 2025.

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Wise’s upcoming presentation at the Aotearoa Art Fair 2026 will be the result of an artist residency in the awe-inspiring landscape of New Zealand’s South Island. This represents a significant moment of cross-Tasman artistic exchange – with an Australian painter working directly within the New Zealand landscape to create paintings shaped by the physical and elemental realities of place – specifically for the Aotearoa Art Fair.​

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