IN CONVERSATION: Leonard Brown & Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA
Leonard Brown, to annihilate all that’s made to a green thought in a green shade 2015, oil on Belgian linen, 120 x 120cm. Photography: Mick Richards.
28 Mar 2026
Leonard Brown, to annihilate all that’s made to a green thought in a green shade 2015, oil on Belgian linen, 120 x 120cm. Photography: Mick Richards.
| Dates | Saturday 28 March |
|---|---|
| Times | 3:30pm - 4:30pm |
| Cost | FREE |
| Booking | RSVP required (book via link below) |
| Age | Recommended for ages 12 and up |
Painting the Celestial curator Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA and artist Leonard Brown in conversation.
Join Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA and Leonard Brown as they discuss Painting the Celestial, the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition in Australia of Leonard Brown’s work that traces the artist’s development for more than five decades.
Please meet us at the front reception of the Ipswich Art Gallery from 3:20pm. We look forward to seeing you there.
For more information on parking and how to get to our gallery, head to our VISIT page.
Note: Please be advised that the gallery will be closed between 5:00pm and 5:30pm for the changeover between the gallery's opening hours and the opening event for Leonard Brown — Painting the Celestial.
BIOGRAPHIES
Leonard Brown, Portrait by Mick Richards
THE PAINTER - Leonard Brown
Leonard Brown is an established Australian painter whose practice moves between two distinct yet spiritually unified modes: the sacred, living tradition of the Byzantine canon of religious iconography and contemporary abstraction. Both strands of Brown’s practice are rooted in theological understandings of time, eternity, and the soul’s ascent.
Brown’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Artbank, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand; Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Bundall, Queensland; Griffith University, Brisbane; Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne; Ipswich Art Gallery, Queensland; Museum of Brisbane, Queensland; Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane; The University of Queensland, Brisbane; and private collections both nationally and internationally.
Leonard Brown is based in Ipswich.
Portrait of Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA in Siberia
CURATOR - Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA
Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, who works internationally as an art historian, art critic and curator. He studied at the universities of Melbourne, Moscow, London and Oxford and has served several terms as visiting scholar at Harvard University. In 2004 he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, in 2005 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for services to Australian art and art history and in 2008 was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.
He has published over thirty books and over two thousand articles and catalogue essays dealing with various aspects of art. In 2013 his massive Australian Art: A history was published by Melbourne University Publishing, in 2015 his monographs on John Wolseley (Thames and Hudson), Inge King (Macmillan) and S.T. Gill (National Library of Australia) were published and in 2022 his books on Erwin Fabian, Murray Walker and Joyce Evans appeared in print.
Grishin’s work on Painting the Celestial: A retrospective exhibition by Leonard Brown combines his professional research interests in Australian art, Byzantine and Russian art and Russo-Byzantine Orthodox theology.
Related programs
Leonard Brown
Byzantine Holy Cross, with luminous terminals, the painter’s personal logo. Digital recreation by Tiffany Johnson, 2025.
Leonard Brown — Painting the Celestial
28 Mar 2026 — 14 Jun 2026
COMING SOON - Painting the Celestial is a retrospective exhibition by Ipswich based painter, Leonard Brown.