Gregory Ladner is an Australian artist whose creative practice spans couture and contemporary painting. From an early age, he demonstrated a strong sensitivity to form, colour and composition; an artistic foundation that would quietly inform his work across all disciplines. Painting was one of Ladner’s earliest creative pursuits, remaining an enduring influence throughout his career which began with his formal creative education at the age of sixteen, enrolling as a four-year fashion student at the Prahran Institute of Technology. Although his early ambition was to become a painter, this aspiration was gently redirected towards fashion which was a compromise shaped by his love of design. Ladner became a renowned fashion and accessory designer in Australia, celebrated for his refined aesthetic, meticulous craftsmanship and intuitive understanding of structure and material. Over decades in the fashion industry, he developed a distinctive visual language defined by balance, texture and elegance; establishing a lasting presence within Australia’s fashion landscape. Painting remained present during his studies as a minor subject, a decision that would later prove significant.
Progression into the Visual Arts
Following his retirement from fashion, Ladner redirected his creative focus toward painting, marking a natural evolution rather than a departure from his earlier work and returned, in a deeply personal way. Wanting to create a gift for a long serving employee who loved kookaburras, he painted a large bird for her. Unexpectedly, this work sparked widespread interest, leading him into a period of painting Australian birds. This body of work culminated in an exhibition held in Noosa approximately two years ago, presented as a charity event supporting the Brisbane Children’s Hospital.
While developing this series, Ladner began introducing abstract works to balance the figurative nature of the bird paintings. These abstract pieces became a turning point, directly informing the direction of his current practice. Viewers often remarked that they could see faces or figures emerging within his paintings (forms Ladner himself frequently only noticed once they were pointed out). This phenomenon became central to his work, particularly after an experience with a dark, atmospheric landscape from his private collection in which a viewer identified a gorilla – an image impossible to unsee once recognised. His debut solo exhibition with West End Art Space, Hidden Figures, introduced audiences to a painterly practice characterised by layered colour, gestural abstraction and subtly emerging figurative forms. Faces and figures reveal themselves gradually within the compositions, inviting close observation and an active engagement between viewer and artwork.
Current Works
Although Ladner describes himself as a decorative painter, his background in life drawing, remains evident throughout the work. He does not seek to embed psychological narratives or hidden meanings within the paintings. Instead, his practice is driven by an enduring love of the process itself: the quiet pleasure of standing before a blank canvas and allowing a painting to emerge instinctively, without preconception.
