Raymond Mather

Selected exhibitions, awards, and professional appointments from a four-decade creative practice.

Practice Overview

Raymond’s photographic work explores abstraction, human traces, and poetic moments across landscape, object, and environment. Each artwork begins with his original photographic capture and is developed individually through a layered digital process refined since 2006. Working at the edge of destruction, Raymond pushes each image until a new artistic version emerges, using visual tension, artefacts, and density as expressive elements that preserve and heighten the essence of the original moment.

Works by Raymond Mather are held in public museum collections and are catalogued through the National Library of Australia’s Trove archive.

Solo Exhibitions

2019 - MAT19, Murwillumbah Arts Trail, NSW

2019 - Lost In The Bush, Old John’s Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW

2019 - Coffs Goes POP, Old John’s Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW

2018 - Coastal Noir, SHIMMER Photographic Biennale, panel-selected, City of Onkaparinga, SA

2003 - Extreme Cladding, Cell Art Space, Cairns, QLD (Solo exhibition, 3D installation)

2000 - Tropicale, Festival Cairns, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns, QLD (Digital installation)

2000 - Tropicale, Lifestyle Café, Cairns, QLD

2000 - Tropical, The Edge, Sydney, NSW (First solo exhibition, sold out)

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020 - #BESTILL A Pandemic Art Challenge, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW (Three works selected, exhibited online and in-gallery)

2020 - Northern Exposure 6, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, NSW

2019 - Northern Exposure 5, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, NSW

2019 - New Year New Work, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW

2019 - The Other Portrait, Proudfoot's Loading Dock Gallery, Murwillumbah, NSW

2019 - The Selfie Show, M-Arts, Murwillumbah, NSW

2004 - Hitting On & Kicking Off, KickArts, Centre of Contemporary Arts (CoCA), inaugural exhibition, opened by Rupert Myer, Cairns, QLD

2000 - River, Stream, Pond - Barry Stern Gallery, Paddington, Sydney, NSW

Selected Awards & Prize Selections

The Lethbridge 20000 Prize
Finalist, 2019

The Percival National Photographic Portrait Prize
Finalist, 2018

The Lethbridge 10000 Prize
Finalist, 2018

STILL National Still Life Award
Selected for STILL Salon, 2017, 2019

Your Health Link National Photographic Competition
Finalist and Semi-Finalist (multiple works, multiple categories), 2016–2018

Moran Photographic Portrait Prize
Semi-Finalist, 2011, 2016

Public Collections

Coffs Harbour City Collection
Coffs Harbour Regional Museum Collection

Selected Publications & Catalogues

The Percivals Photographic Exhibition catalogue
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, QLD
Finalist publication, 2018

The Kempsey Place Plan - the journey continues
Community and government publication, NSW Government, 2018
Photography and visual documentation in collaboration with Dr Jan Strom

Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA) - 10th Anniversary Publication
Selected photographic documentation of artworks from the Coffs Harbour City Collection reproduced in the EMSLA 10th Anniversary publication, 2016

The Most Interesting Person I Know (MIPIK)
Community portrait project and published book, 2015
Lead photographer, Cr8Studios - four-day intensive portrait project photographing 27 participants (in collaboration with writer Stephanie Hunt)

Keith Bain: The Principles of Movement
Edited by Michael Campbell.

Book cover visual artwork contribution by Raymond Mather, derived from a portrait of Keith Bain held at NIDA. The portrait, titled Keith Bain (everyone is doing the farandole), by Jenny Sages, was a finalist in the 1993 Archibald Prize.

Official Book Launch: Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, 2005.

Art Commission

Amphora Resort, Palm Cove, QLD
Commissioned by interior design firm for new resort opening, 2004.
Five original artworks selected, reproduced, framed, and installed across approximately 100 guest rooms.

Editorial Photography

Burke’s Backyard Magazine (March 2001)
Commissioned full editorial shoot documenting contemporary landscape architecture projects by Andrew Prowse in Port Douglas, QLD. Shot on slide film for national print publication.

Education

TAFE Far North Queensland, Photography (1999)