“Marcus Callum’s painting has an arresting luminosity that matches the sensitivity of the treatment of his subject. It’s a virtuosic demonstration of contemporary realist portrait painting.”
Dr Andrew Frost, Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award 2018 judge on Marcus's winning
portrait | Art Guide Australia | October 29, 2018
"Marcus Callum has won the prestigious 2015 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture with his portrait of well known Australian artist Abdul Abdullah titled ‘Wrecking Ball’. Callum, who is currently completing a Masters of Fine Art at the New York Academy of Art, beat 39 other finalists to take out the $50,000 prize, which was donated by The Lester Group and awarded during a major ceremony at the Linton and Kay Galleries Perth.
The judging panel, which comprised National Portrait Gallery senior curator Christopher Chapman, Wesfarmers Arts curator Helen Carroll-Fairhall, and Perth artist Ben Joel, described “Wrecking Ball” as a “compelling example of the possibilities of contemporary portraiture. While the sitter is outwardly recognisable, at the same time the portrait gives a very strong sense of a resourceful inner life and the sense of flux that characterizes selfhood. The artwork has been filtered and processed in a particularly inventive way. A very deliberate sense of perfected craft."
Nicholas Forrest | BLOUINARTINFO | October 02, 2015
"Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, Dr Christopher Chapman, nominates Marcus Callum's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and works by Fiona Lowry, McCulloch and Zavros as strong works... These works convey a powerful sense of psychological insight..."
Sydney Morning Herald | Archibald Prize | Mar 2013
"Marcus Callum is an exciting addition to Trinity College's significant art collection. In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Sir William Dobell Scholarship at Sydney's Julian Ashton Art School, and has since gone on to be a multiple finalist in the renowned national Archibald Prize in 2011, 2012 and 2013; an achievement that has assured his position as one of Australia's leading contemporary figurative realist artists."
Campbell Bearstow, Dean, Trinity College | University of Melbourne
"I would also single out Marcus Callum's work, ...virtually as good as anything that might have come out from the Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of David or Ingres."
Eugene Barilo von Reisberg 2013 | Charles Nodrum Gallery, Director BvR Arts Management