Background

Biography

Ian Henderson (born 1939) is a British–Australian fine artist, painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and author. His work has been recognised in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and spans landscape, genre works, portraiture, design, and illustration. Henderson’s career includes early appointments in Britain, notably as the first artist appointed to a UK New Town Development Corporation at Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Since relocating to Australia in1972, he has combined studio practice and commissions with academic roles, including senior positions at the University of Newcastle, Queensland College of Art, and the University of New England, where he established visual art and design programs at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His exhibitions, from the 1960s to the present, explore themes of sense of place, memory, and overlooked perspectives, expressed most recently in his forthcoming book Flying Under the Radar.

Henderson is a Petherick Reader at the National Library of Australia, an Honorary Permanent Member of the National Portrait Gallery (Canberra), and holds a Doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. His honours include a Gulbenkian Fellowship in Painting at Keele University, Staffordshire, UK, and First Artist in Residence at Brock University, Ontario, Canada.

Henderson lives and works in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and continues to paint, write, and illustrate.

Qualifications

Listings

1964. Artist to the New Town Development Corporation of Skelmersdale, Lancashire. 1964.

Gulbenkian Fellow in Painting, Keele University, Staffordshire. 1966.

Artist in Residence, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario. 1969.

St. David's Studio, Moreton Marsh, Gloucestershire. 1985.

Southgate Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh, 1986.

Australia.  S/L Visual Arts & Design, Dept, Architecture, Newcastle University, NSW, 1972.

Villiers Gallery Sydney, 1973.

S/L Applied art and design, Queensland College of Art, Seven Hills, Queensland, 1974.

Chief Graphic Designer, CSIRO Science Communication Unit, 1979.

Art consultant for redevelopment Brisbane’s Expo Site (Southbank). 1989.

Town Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland 1989.

S/L Visual Arts and Design, University of New England, 1990.

Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA), Wollongong University, NSW, 1993.

Petherick Reader, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2015.

'Eyecatcher' exhibition HYRE Gallery, Braidwood, 2022.

Honorary Permanent Member, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT. 2025.

Archived collection of work 1985-2025, ACT Heritage Library, Canberra, ACT. 2026.