About Geoff Cunningham
I’m a Melbourne-based artist working primarily with hand-cut stencils and spray paint. I’ve been a full-time artist since 2007, and before that spent 15 years in graphic design - allowing me to utilise this skill set in the creation stage of my art, and is the basis that shapes the way I think about composition, colour and visual impact.
My work is rooted in storytelling, memory, and the strange power everyday images and experiences manage to stick with us. A lot of it draws on Australian life in the 1970s and 80s — beach culture, suburban streets, old cars, Mr Whippy vans, headphones, snack food and commercials, summer light, and those small visual details that instantly take you somewhere.
I’m interested in the way an image can trigger a feeling before you’ve even worked out why. That sense of recognition. A place you remember. A mood you know. A version of Australia that feels both personal and shared.
Each piece begins with a process of cutting and layering stencils by hand, then building the image with spray paint. I’m drawn to the balance between control and imperfection in that process — the sharp edges, the layering, the physical labour of making, and the way the final image can feel both polished and raw at the same time.
What matters most to me is that the work connects. I’m not trying to make decorative filler. I want to make pieces that carry some feeling, some atmosphere, and some sense of story.
If you’ve found your way here, thanks for looking.
— Geoff Cunningham
See how a stencil painting is created....
ART PRIZES
- Salon des Refusés - Tattersal's Club Landscape Art Prize 2026
- Finalist - Omnia Art Prize 2024
- Finalist - Lethbridge Gallery Small Scale Art Award (2023)
- Finalist - National Capital Art Prize 2022 (sustainability section)
- Finalist - Omnia Art Prize 2022
- Finalist - National Capital Art Prize 2021 (open section)
- Finalist - Bluethumb Art Prize 2021
- Finalist - Art Lovers Australia Art Prize 2019/20
- Finalist - Stencil Art Prize (2019/20)
- Finalist - Lethbridge Gallery Small Scale Art Award (2019)
- Finalist - St.Kevins Art Show (2018/19)
- Finalist - Gallipoli Art Prize (2016).
- Semi-Finalist - Signature of M Art Prize (2008)
PUBLIC WORKS
- 2021 - Gooligulch Playspace, creation of various artworks/play equipment based on the childrens book by Graeme Base; ‘My Grandma Lived In Gooligulch’
- 2015 - Anzac Anniversary Signal Box Project, Boroondara council
SOLO & ART FAIR EXHIBITION HISTORY
- 2025 - Affordable Art Fair (Brisbane & Melbourne edition)
- 2024 - Affordable Art Fair (Melbourne edition)
- 2022 - The Other Art Fair - (Sydney edition)
- 2022 - Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery - ‘Streets Of Your Town’
- 2022 - The Other Art Fair - Melbourne edition
- 2018 - Hawthorn Studio & Gallery - ‘Urban Nature’ exhibition
- 2014 - The Stonehouse Gallery
- 2014-16 - The Firehouse Restaurant
- 2010 - The Yellow Door Cafe (Albert Park)
GROUP EXHIBITION HISTORY
- 2026 - Art To Art - 'Brave' Exhibition
- 2025 - Art To Art - Grand Opening Exhibition
- 2025 -'Expressions Of Place' (MAVA) at Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn
- 2024 - Summer Exhibition - Market Gallery Prahan
- 2021/22 - National Capital Art Prize
- 2019/20/21 -Stencil Art Prize travelling exhibition
- 2019 - Lethbridge Gallery Small Works Art Prize
- 2018 - Summer Exhibition- Hawthorn Studio Gallery
- 2017 - Hong Kong Art Fair - Manyung Gallery
- 2016 - "Stories" Yard Furniture
- 2016 - "Metropolis" Manyung Gallery
- 2016 - Singapore Art Fair - Manyung Gallery
- 2016 - Gallipoli Art prize exhibition
- 2008-14 - Linden Contemporary Art (Postcards Show)
- 2011/12 & 2017 - Brunswick Street Gallery (small works)
- 2008-10 - Beechworth Fine Art
- 2009 - Without Pier Gallery-Cheltenham
Geoff has been a Feature Artist at several art shows in and around Melbourne in recent years including:
- Canterbury Art Show (2019),
- St.Kevins Art ( May 2016),
- Roberts McCubbin Art (2015),
- Brunswick Art Festival (2013),
- MountView Art (2013),
- Fairfield Art4All (2012),
- Mt.Eliza Art (2009).