Biography
Born in Sydney, Australia in 1968, Craig Ruddy studied design and fashion illustration in the late 1980s, before working as landscape gardener, designer and commercial art director. His true passion for drawing and painting emerged in 2001, when he quit his successful design career in order to pursue a life in art.
Since 2002 his work has been exhibited at Art Depot Gallery, Graphis Gallery and S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, at his solo show at the Cork Street Gallery in London, as well as in group exhibitions at many Australian institutions including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Broken Hill Art Gallery and Victoria Arts Centre.
In 2004, his highly controversial portrait of Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil entitled "Two Worlds", won the Archibald Prize, Australia's most prestigious art prize. Ruddy's also won the 2010 Archibald Peoples Choice Prize for his portrait of writer/director Warwick Thornton titled "Prince of Darkness". "Levitation" was Ruddy's fourth solo show at Richard Martin Art Gallery in Sydney, who has represented the artist since 2006. Craig Ruddy lives and works in Sydney, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
As a child, Ruddy would wake from his dreams to see the profiles of unfamiliar faces in the shadows of his darkened bedroom. Ruddy, then seven years old and chronically ill with a rare lung disease, kept company with the elusive images, drawing them late into the night. By the age of 16, Ruddys gift for capturing that intangible essence and energy in his subjects inspired him to pursue a life in art.
One of the youngest students to be accepted into Sydney's Randwick Design College, Ruddy went on to study design and fashion illustration. He worked as an art director and designer for advertising and marketing agencies and later as a set designer creating events for major Australian corporations.
Despite his successful and lucrative career, Ruddy's passion for painting prompted him to break away and start his life as an artist in earnest, crediting his practice of Qi Gong and Vipassana meditation for giving him the strength and courage to make a go of it. But it was never going to be an easy road. Needing to make a living, Ruddy turned to landscape gardening, using his every spare moment to paint.
It was then, in early 2004, that Ruddy was inspired to paint the portrait of Aboriginal acting legend David Gulpilil. Ruddys decision to enter the portrait, titled "Two Worlds", in the 2004 Archibald Prize was a decision that would prove to be a major turning point in his career and would catapult him into the international art scene.
He not only won Australia's most prestigious art prize but also picked up the Peoples Choice Award in both Sydney and Melbourne. The arresting portrait continues to attract worldwide media attention. His reaction to the fame and notoriety that came his way after winning the Archibald prize was encapsulated in "Poppy Seeds", a series of emotive portraits, nudes and self studies that was successfully exhibited in November 2004. The series addressed the Tall Poppy Syndrome that often accompanies success.
These days, Ruddy spends all of his time in his studio, now surrounded by the real life beauty of the faces which at one time came only to him in the solitude of his empty room. He was also a finalist in the 2006 Archibald Prize for a diptych, which maps his struggle with the highs and lows of what happens when dreams become reality.