Neil Frazer was born in Canberra Australia in 1961 and moved to New Zealand in 1965. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in 1985. He attended the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, New York, USA in 1986. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, Australia in 2000.

Fraser has been exhibiting since the early 80s and has had over 40 solo exhibitions. He has received many premier awards and fellowships in New Zealand and Australia, including the 1992 Frances Hodgkin's Fellowship at the University of Otago. His work is included in most major public, corporate and private collections in New Zealand including the National Bank, Fletcher Challenge and the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.

"The oddly compelling nature of Neil Frazer's body of work is not solely the result of his handling of paint. The power of the works hinges on his creation of a duality of spatial illusion and material literalness on a scale that is all-involving. The picture plane is rendered elusive, replaced by optical recession and tactile fact, resisting a complete assimilation of the image. The works all operate on this frontal/recessive contradiction, evoking simultaneously thick, constructive curtains of paint and veiled depths." (1)

"In his recent paintings the landscape is clearly a scorce and impetus for his imagery... the muscularity and painterliness of his surfaces clearly show that he has brought to these works the lessons and disciplines of abstract painting. These paintings - although landscapes - could only have been made by a sophisticated abstract painter." (2)

In Frazer's large-scale oil paintings, paint is often laid in thick impasto so that it protrudes from the canvas. "Frazer works his canvases on the vertical, attached to the wall, and applies the paint in a variety of ways, including rags, brushes and his own hands. Often in the later stages, he flicks the paint with his fingers straight from the tube onto the canvas, the twist of his wrist creating regular, bright loops of colour which articulate the surface of the painting, erupting away from the receding nebulous tones of the background." (3)

Neil Frazer: "I'm not trying to make paintings that solve world problems or hold out a mirror to society, but I believe painting has the power to provoke thought and feeling and can make a positive contribution". (4)

Sources:

1. Lisa Beaven, 'Neil Frazer Recent Paintings', Art New Zealand 66, Autumn 1993.
2. Martin Browne quoted by Donna Duggan, 'White-out', Mindfood, April 2008.
3. Felicity Milburn, 'Neil Frazer: Stretched to the Limit', McDougall Art Annex, 1996.
4. Neil Frazer quoted in Michael McHugh 'Opposites Attract' FQ Entertaining, Winter, 1998.