About

Sam Foley is a contemporary New Zealand landscape painter. His detailed paintings portray and often combine the natural and urban world, merging aspects of hyper-realism and photo-realism.

Foley has exhibited internationally, with works placed in a number of public and private collections. From 2007 to 2018 he was a regular visitor to Europe, basing himself between Dunedin and Berlin, exhibiting throughout Europe and Scandinavia. In 2013 he was the recipient of the Kaipara Foundation Wallace Arts Trust Award which included a 4 month residency at the cultural centre Altes Spital in Solothurn Switzerland. 

Currently, he is happily ensconced with his family, back in his home city of Dunedin.

‘My practice is mostly not concerned with painting beautiful landscapes, it’s more subversive than that, in being about finding ways to paint mundane or sometimes even ugly locations in a beautiful way. It’s the tension created in attempting to transcend the subject that interests me.

Further back, moving image and how the two mediums of painting and digital projection can be combined into a singular medium was a focus. Creating ‘moving image paintings’ which shift and change, using light and texture in a complex way, a simulacrum of a simulacrum which still retains the integrity of time and place. They move with incident and create memories.

The urban landscape as a subject; the man-made and it’s encroachment into an environment. Line opposed to curve, the nature of chaos vs conformity, the myriad variations between absolute light and terminal dark are my constant fascinations.'

POB: Wellington, New Zealand, 31/05/1977

Qualifications: 1995-1998, Bachelor of Fine Art, Otago School of Art, Dunedin

Selected Exhibitions:

2024 - Whakanewha, Gallery Anomalous, Waiheke Island, NZ

2024 - Across the Tracks, The Artists Room, Dunedin, NZ

2023 - Rural Drift, a storm is coming, Artbay Gallery, Queenstown, NZ

2022 - Last Light in the Garden, Dowling St Studios and The Artists Room, Dunedin, NZ

2021 - Post Pop Division, Artbay Gallery, Queenstown, NZ

2020 - A Forest, Artbay Gallery, Queenstown, NZ

2020- Nocturne, Selected Wanderings 2004 - 2019, Wallace Gallery Morrinsville, NZ

2019- Nocturne, Selected Wanderings 2004 - 2019, The Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland, NZ

2019- Graff, New Urban Landscapes, Dowling St Studios and The Artists Room, Dunedin, NZ

2017- Dowling St, In Of and Around About, Dowling St Studios and The Artists Room, Dunedin, NZ

2016- Lake, Artbay Gallery, Queenstown, NZ

2016- Rennande Vatn (Running Water), S9 Galeri, Oslo, Norway

2015- Moving Image Paintings, Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, NZ

2015- Something About the Water, Galerie 9, Solothurn, Switzerland

2014- Harbour, The Artist’s Room and Dowling St Studios, Dunedin, NZ

2014- Kontraste, Galerie 9, Solothurn, Switzerland

2012/14- Rennande Vatn, Tours various locations around Norway

2013- Into the Deep, Whitespace, Auckland

2012- Running Water, Dowling St Studios, Dunedin

2011- Tiefschwarz, The Artist’s Room, Dunedin

2011- Tiefschwarz, Atelier Bar-Am, 2 Goethestr, Berlin, Germany

2011- Domain, Whitespace, Auckland

2010- Otira, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

2010- Detour, Ashburton Art Gallery

2009- Get Real, Whitespace, Auckland

2008- On the Surface, Whitespace, Auckland

2008- Passage of a Shadow, Temple Gallery, Dunedin

2007- Sanctum Viridis, Whitespace, Auckland

2006- Green Belt, SoHo Galleries, Sydney, Australia

2005- The Green Belt, Temple Gallery, Dunedin

2004- The Littoral Tourist, SoHo Galleries Sydney

2001- Tracing the Remains, Grantham Galleries, Auckland

2000- New Works, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Auckland

1999- Sanctuary, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Auckland

Prizes and Awards:

2013- The Kaipara Trust Wallace Art Award

2010- Peoples Choice Award, The Wallace Art Awards, Auckland

2009- Peoples Choice Award, The Wallace Art Awards, Auckland

2009- Peoples Choice Award, Norfolk House Realist Invitational, Dunedin

2008- Peoples Choice Award, Norfolk House Realist Invitational, Dunedin

2007- Merit Award (1st equal), Parklane Art Awards, Auckland

2006- Highly commended, Park Lane Art Awards, Auckland

2005- The Downie Stewart Peoples Choice Award, Cleveland Art Awards, Dunedin

2003- Peoples Choice Award, Cleveland Art Awards, Dunedin

1998- Merit Award, Oil on Canvas, Southland Young Contemporaries, Invercargill

Professional Development:

2024- Competition Judge, Craigs Investment Partners Aspiring Art Prize, Wanaka

2022- Competition Judge, Otago Art Society’s Summer Exhibition, Dunedin

2020- Competition Judge, Hope and Sons Art Awards, Dunedin

2020- Competition Judge, Student Art Awards, Otago Uni

2016- Open Studio Event, Ufferhallen, Berlin

2014- Gastkünstler (guest artist), Altes Spital, Solothurn, Switzerland

2012- Artist in Residence, Lom Kommune, Norway2011/12- Extended working periods in Berlin

2011- Completed a 4 week intensive Deutsch language scholarship in Berlin

2008/13- Co-Director, Whiteroom Design Store, Dunedin

2007- 10 week R & D trip to Europe, visited 30+ major museums and galleries

2005/07- Technical Assistant, Dunedin Public Art Gallery

2003- Invitational Judge, Salmon Hall Art Competition

2001/02- Gallery Director, Cite Gallery, Ponsonby Rd, Auckland

2002- Artist in Residence, Puzzling World, Wanaka

2000- Formative member of CITE Artists Collective, Ponsonby, Auckland

1998- Visiting Artist, Logan Park High School, Dunedin

1994- Art Department Technician, LPHS