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Sam Cranstoun

@samcran

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Milani Gallery | Brisbane
Sullivan + Strumpf | Sydney/Melbourne/Singapore

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Fresh batch of under-paintings 🌈 by @samcran

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7 days ago

We are delighted to announce that Sam Cranstoun has been selected as a recipient for the prestigious Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship for 2027.

This scholarship will support Cranstoun’s practice by covering institutional fees for one academic year at a leading international art program.

"Cranstoun takes the combinatory approach underlying these discourses to absurdity through applying them in a straightforward and unembarrassed way to Modernism. The unhinged and strangely beguiling results thus take the combinatory logics of provincialism, academicism and our AI-suffused lives to extremes, and the resultant absurdity functions as a critique of these discourses.” – Michael Newall

The gallery gives thanks to the generous support of @samstagmuseum @samstagscholarships

To request a catalogue of available works by Sam Cranstoun, visit our link in bio.

@samcran

Pictured: Sam Cranstoun in the studio, 2026. Photography Phillip Huynh. by @samcran

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11 days ago

ANNOUNCEMENT / 📣Meet the Class of 2027📣

Samstag is pleased to announce Sam Cranstoun (QLD) as a recipient of the prestigious Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship for 2027.  Cranstoun will receive a scholarship that provides institutional fees for one academic year, a $75,000 tax-free allowance, and travel expenses to a leading international art program of their choice.  Sam Cranstoun works across painting, sculpture, video and installation, investigating how the legacy of modernist visual language continues to evolve across contemporary contexts.
 “Cranstoun takes the combinatory approach underlying these discourses to absurdity through applying them in a straightforward and unembarrassed way to Modernism. The unhinged and strangely beguiling results thus take the combinatory logics of provincialism, academicism and our AI-suffused lives to extremes, and the resultant absurdity functions as a critique of these discourses.”  Read Michael Newall’s essay on the Samstag website. 🔗Link in bio.  We warmly congratulate Sam Cranstoun on this tremendous achievement and look forward to seeing where this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity takes him.  adelaideuni @samstagscholarships @samcran   📸 1: Portrait of Sam Cranstoun. Photograph by Russell Shakespeare for Art Collector @artcollectormagazine. Courtesy the artist. 2-3: Sam Cranstoun, ‘Between Dystopia and Utopia’, 2019. Installation view, Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane. Photography by Thomas Oliver. Courtesy the artist. by @samcran

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13 days ago

‘First at the Cross, Last at the Cave’
2026
Oil on linen
132cm x 198cm

Revisiting a smaller study from last year. The drones are up there by @samcran

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20 days ago

"By tracing the gestures of those who came before him, the artist discovers the casual vitality the objects exuded prior to their eventual fossilisation. They bear traces of doubt, revision, and changing direction — or a scrap of tin quickly touched with paint to match a more precious surface." – Benjamin Clay, 2026.

Sam Cranstoun's 'Those Cold And Timid Souls' continues at the Gadigal/Sydney gallery until 15 August. Explore these works online via the link in bio.

'Those Cold and Timid Souls'
23 Jul – 15 Aug 26
Sullivan+Strumpf Gadigal/Sydney

@samcran
@benjaminjclay

Pictured: Sam Cranstoun, Those Cold And Timid Souls, 2026, installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf Gadigal/Sydney. Photography Simon Hewson. by @samcran

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3 months ago

Monty: not convinced taken in Sullivan + Strumpf by @samcran

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3 months ago

Sam Cranstoun’s exhibition ‘Those Cold and Timid Souls’ opens this Thursday 23 of Jul at the Gadigal/Sydney gallery. Preview the works now via the viewing room at the link in bio.

Opening event
Join Sam Cranstoun and Grant Stevens for opening drinks to mark the launch of their concurrent exhibitions at our Gadigal/Sydney gallery, Thurs 23 Jul from 6 – 8 PM.

Artist Talk
Saturday 25 July, 11 AM
Hear from Cranstoun and Stevens as they discuss the ideas and processes behind their new work, and the threads that connect their practices.

@samcran

Pictured: Detail from 'Sleepy Time In The Western World', 2026; 'To Never Quite Be Where You Happen To Find Yourself', 2026; 'Stop The World I Want To Get Off', 2026. by @samcran

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3 months ago

Preview now: Sam Cranstoun’s ‘Those Cold and Timid Souls’, opens next week at Sullivan+Strumpf Gadigal/Sydney.

Rather than critiquing a particular movement or its proponents, Cranstoun playfully reworks his source material as a sincere homage to the ambition, inventiveness and, at times, understated beauty of the Modernist project.

Cranstoun describes this aspect of his practice as ‘Superstructures’, a body of work that draws directly from some of the most recognisable works in the art-historical canon.

Access an early preview of this exhibition through the link in bio.

‘Those Cold and Timid Souls’
23 Jul – 15 Aug 26
Sullivan+Strumpf Gadigal/Sydney

@samcran
@benjaminjclay

Pictured: Sam Cranstoun, Hey Now Little Speedy Head, 2026, oil on linen, 162.5 x 122 cm; To Be Everywhere Like Weather, 2026, oil on linen, 152.7 x 117 x 3.3 cm. by @samcran

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3 months ago

⁠Sangeeta Sandrasegar @sangeeta_sandrasegar⁠
Sam Cranstoun @samcran⁠
Awarded the Prairie Residency!⁠
⁠
To everyone who applied, thank you. We’re grateful for the openness, care, and energy you brought to your applications, and for being part of a community that continues to inspire us.⁠
⁠
Congratulations to our selected artists, and thank you to Prairie for their generosity in awarding TWO artists this opportunity!! `*★ by @samcran

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3 months ago

@samcran's If Wishes Were Horses (2026) is a large-scale oil painting that reconvenes legacies of sculpture and design to recover significance lost to the proliferation of the image.

Here, Gerrit Rietveld's Red Blue Chair (1918–23) meets Alexander Calder's Untitled (mobile, c.1940), the two works finding a new, mirrored balance of colour and gravity in a single composition. See this work in person at our Gadigal/Sydney gallery from the 23 Jul in Those Cold and Timid Souls.

Register your interest at the link in bio to receive a preview catalogue.

@samcran

Pictured: Sam Cranstoun, If Wishes Were Horses, 2026, oil on linen, 162.5 x 122 cm/ by @samcran

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3 months ago

Register your interest for an early view of Sam Cranstoun's exhibition ‘Those Cold and Timid Souls’, opening 23 Jul in Gadigal/Sydney.

In this body of work, Cranstoun uses the term “superstructure” to examine familiar sculptures from modernism, shifting the framework through which their scale, cultural weight and historical position might be reconsidered.

In ‘To Live In Clover’, Cranstoun brings together references to Henry Moore’s monumental bronze ‘Draped Seated Women’ (1957–58) and a suspended mobile by Alexander Calder. The works consider how canonical images circulate, how significance is constructed, and how meanings shift when viewed from an Australian perspective.

Opening in the Gadigal/Sydney gallery on 23 Jul – 15 Aug 26.
Register your interest at the link in bio.

@samcran

Pictured: Sam Cranstoun, To Live In Clover, 2026, oil on linen, 228 x 168 cm. by @samcran

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4 months ago

The gallery is thrilled to announce a new exhibition by Sam Cranstoun arriving on the 23 July at the Gadigal/Sydney gallery.

Building on his ‘Superstructure’ series, Cranstoun presents large-scale works that reconfigure canonical modernist references into hybrid forms that are playful yet formally complex.

Cranstoun’s practice examines the circulation of images and their capacity to distort and reframe our understanding of history. Rather than adhering to fixed art-historical frameworks, he develops layered, associative compositions that position meaning as unstable and continually open to revision.

To request a preview of ‘Those Cold and Timid Souls’ visit the link in bio.

@samcran

Sam Cranstoun in the studio, 2026. Photography Phillip Huynh by @samcran

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4 months ago