Sam Fullbrook is a celebrated painter who has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Wynne Prize in 1963 and 1964 and the Archibald Prize in 1974. Fullbrook’s subject matter spans all genres from landscapes of the Pilbara region to surfers at Bondi Beach to nudes done in his studio.
Fullbrook has held numerous solo and group shows in Australia and internationally. The Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane held a tribute to his work in 1976. Between the years of 1948 and 1971, Fullbrook exhibited extensively and intensively across Australia and overseas. In 1971, he lost most of his work in a fire at his Brisbane studio, but recovered to continue working in the Darling Downs, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Melbourne. Critically acclaimed, Fullbrook has been described as 'A colourist . . . Fullbrook's forte lies in the difficult balancing of patches of pinks and teal, or striations of lilac and dashes of cadmium green.' (Robert Nelson, art critic, reviewing Racing Colours at the NGV in 1995.) He is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, most Australian state galleries and many regional galleries including significant private collections.