Exiled by God for his unchecked pride, condemned to live as an animal in the wilderness for seven years, Arthur Boyd depicted the Old Testament story of King Nebuchadnezzar through paintings in the 1960s. Now, through a body of work that draws on diverse art historical references, Shaun Gladwell reimagines Boyd’s paintings through the moving image, performance, and works on paper. Boyd used Nebuchadnezzar’s story – an allegory of a powerful man, fallen from divine grace yet redeemed through transformation – to explore ideas including masculine inheritance and deeply felt war protest; while Gladwell presents a solitary man stripped of everything human, abandoned to the powers of the natural world, who too struggles in the throes of transformation. In conversation, Boyd and Gladwell meditate on unbounded egos, fragilities of the human condition, and potentials for change.
Bundanon Art Museum
4 July to 11 October 2026
New South Wales
Arthur Boyd, Lion’s head on fire and Nebuchadnezzar eating grass, 1968, oil on canvas / Private collection
Shaun Gladwell, A Nebuchadnezzar Cycle, 2026, 4k digital video / Director of Cinematography: Judd Overton / Director of Photography: Evan Papageorgiou / Editor: Greg Ferris / Stunt Coordinator: George Saliba / Stunt Assistants: Ali Kadhim, Chris Stanley, and Brayden Havard / Camera Assistants: Simon Noonan and Benjamin Fyfield / Courtesy the artist and Bundanon Art Museum, New South Wales
