Robin Eley (born in London, England in 1978) is an Australian hyperrealist painter.
Eley was born to an Australian father and Chinese mother.[1] In 1981 his family migrated to Australia[2] where he completed his secondary education at Pembroke School. In 1997 he moved to the United States where he would attend Westmont College, captaining the basketball team[3] and earning a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in fine art in 2001.[4]
Eley is currently represented by Hill Smith Gallery in Australia and 101/exhibit in the United States. He has held two solo exhibitions at Hill Smith Gallery. In 2012, his debut solo exhibition "Singularity" sold out prior to the opening.[5] His second solo exhibition "Idolatry" opened at Hill Smith Gallery in June, 2013.[6] He has also participated in several group exhibitions, most notably "Chinese Australia" at Ausin Tung Gallery in Melbourne, Australia in 2012,[7] "Journeys - Westmont Alumni Artists Invitational" at The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, CA, USA in 2012,[8] "BMG - First Look" at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery in New York, NY, USA in 2013 [9] and Koi No Yokan at 101/exhibit in Los Angeles, CA, USA in 2013.[10]
His work was recently recognized in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (highly commended runner-up in 2010 and highly commended 3rd place in 2011). He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2012. His debut solo exhibition Singularity recently concluded at Hill Smith Gallery in South Australia.
Eley has been a finalist in numerous Australian art prizes, most notably Runner Up (2010)[11] and Highly Commended (2011)[12] in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the world's richest prize for portraiture. In addition, he has also been a finalist in the Archibald Prize (2012),[13] the Eutick Memorial Still Life Art Prize (2010, 2012) [14] and the Nora Heysen Still Life Art Award (2011).[15] In 2012 he was the recipient of an International Presentation Grant from Arts SA [16] which enabled him to accept an invitation to travel to the United States to exhibit his work at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art in Santa Barbara, California. His work is also included in the museum's permanent collection.[17]