We are proud to introduce Hartley Snape, one of the winners of our Bloom 2026 Graduate Show. Selected for his compelling and distinctive practice, Hartley has been awarded 12 months of gallery representation, alongside a fully supported solo exhibition at our gallery.
Hartley Snape is a Sydney/Eora born, Melbourne/Naarm based artist and spent most of his early life in Adelaide, Australia. When he was 13, his family moved to rural Japan as Christian missionaries, despite not being funded by their home church. The two years he spent in Japan were a highly formative experience for him, and the way he exists in the world.
In 2016 Hartley chose to study Philosophy and Creative Writing as an undergraduate degree in Adelaide, Australia. He did this on the conviction that philosophy would teach him about what to write, whilst creative writing would teach him how to write. In retrospect, he considers that perhaps the inverse may have been true. He finished this degree in 2020.
In 2021, Hartley moved to Melbourne (Naarm) and attempted study in various other fields. It was not until the following year that Hartley began to paint to get into a Fine Art degree at RMIT University. He was accepted, and completed his second undergraduate degree in 2025, majoring in painting. During this time he honed his conceptual and technical skills, predominantly exploring traditional oil on canvas methods.
Hartley’s work explores themes of time, ambiguity, perspective, significance, and the assumptions behind these unstable concepts. His paintings are often fractured, with a push and pull between structure and disruption. One result of this is that movement (or inversely, stillness) seems to resonate from the picture plane.
Despite the headiness of his subject matter, his paintings seem to implicate the physical body and its movements. His paintings seem to present an alternative to everyday perception. You might say he is seeing with his legs, or some other part of the body, perhaps. Hartley’s style is the amalgamation of many readings, physical sensations, emotions, alienations, convictions and perceptions of various kinds.
Hartley is integrated within the local art and music scene, and works as a graphic designer. He is dedicated to artistic exploration in all of its forms.
“Ok here I go I must tell you all who I am and what I am doing. PROFESSIONAL DILETTANTISM I am a person who is there and not there because I am dreaming a lot. Meaning I wake and then I go back to sleep again. How am I supposed to make a living? I am doing the living thing. What are our assumptions? SYNTAX Language is a parachute that won’t open. And you try to squeeze the blood out of the stone but actually it’s just red cordial.
Of course things have changed a lot since back when I was into rap music and moral philosophy. But still there is foreshadowing of the loss of soul and consequent redemption, from setting out to prove and disprove at the same time.
All around the world in 12pt Arial. What even is this life, anyway?”
Visit the artists website: https://hartleysnape.com.au/index.htm
View the artists catalogue: https://www.hartleysnape.com.au/FolioWorksHS.pdf
