Overview
David Frazer is an Australian artist renowned for fine wood engravings, linocuts, etching and lithographs as well as his sculptures and paintings.
                           
Frazer's work explores a sense of place, and the emotions of longing, nostalgia and isolation that accompany it. The universal yearning to be 'somewhere else' is a common thread throughout. It exists in his figures amidst bleak Australian landscapes, along with those fixed in a foreign locale. Combined with this is a gentle sense of whimsy and humour. Frazer's skill as a storyteller is always present in the strong narrative component of both his paintings and his prints.
 
Frazer is the recipient of many awards in Australia and Internationally. In 2007, he took part in the International Print Biennale in China where he was the major prizewinner. He was also awarded first prize at the 2019 Cossack Art Awards in Western Australia.
 
Australian artist David Frazer spent his childhood amid the flat wheat fields of the WImmera region in Victoria's west, where his father was a school principal. He felt himself an outsider, torn between his love for the region and a desperation to escape it. As a boy, escape was found among the elevated branches of a tree or atop the roof, looking out across a landscape infused with a certain poetic, melancholic beauty. He reflects:
 
That landscape really made a big impression on me. I often use that image in my art - a kid or a man sitting on a roof, dreaming of flying away, maybe ... to somewhere more exciting. 
 
The family moved to Rosebud as Frazer commenced high school, and later he enrolled in art school at Caulfield Tech (now Monash University) where, by his own admission, he learned little. Painting was a struggle and the wrong medium through which to channel his storytelling . Music, particularly song writing, was where his heart lay, but it did not come naturally: 'I really wanted to write songs - really beautiful, sad songs. I tried, but I just couldn't do it.' 
 
When aged thirty, Frazer was introduced to wood engraving, 'It was love at first sight'. In the twenty-five years since, he has exhibited in more than forty solo shows and gained accolades and recognition. Through printmaking, he found parallels with song writing, the art form being historically and intrinsically associated with narrative illustration and responsive to text, poetry and lyrics. 
 
A Kind Of Prayer is one work in a larger suite that gives visual form to singer-songwriter Nick Cave's 'Love Letter', from which the print draws its title. First released on Cave's spoken word album The Secret Life of The Love Song, the song's lyrics recount the sorrowful appeal of a man in a faltering relationship, as he stands on the cusp of posting a letter: 'a plea, a petition' to his partner that they rebuild what they once shared. 
 
Frazer included A Kind of Prayer in his 2021 limited-edition artist book of illustrating Cave's lyrics, revealing his alignment of image and narrative, setting it against the verse: 'I kiss the cold white envelope / I press my lips against her name'. What we initially presumed by the work's title - an encounter with the Divine - becomes grounded in an earthly relationship. 
 
There is a temptation to find resonance in Frazer's 'love and empathy for the misfits and the lost man' in the solitary, highly recognisable figure of fellow artist Rick Amor's 'Running Man', who seemingly always seeks an escape. An ardent atheist, Amor has described the origins of this motif as an early 1980s depiction of the Biblical Cain escaping into the desert, 'fleeing the eye of God'. 
 
While Amor's Cain is, at one level, in stark contrast to Frazer's subservient figure, the tormented, lone figures of both nonetheless find parallels. 'Delusion. failed ambition and confused, bewildered men - I find it's … fertile subject matter' Frazer notes of his own lone figure. 
 
Within this we might find a deeper spiritual undercurrent to Frazer's a Kind of Prayer, informed perhaps by, the lyricist. In the same way the closing refrain of Cave's song has his protagonist cry out, 'The rain with a letter and a prayer / Whispered on the wind / Come back to me / Come back to me', Frazer may have equally drawn upon the psalmist's impassioned cry: 'Don't hide yourself from me! Don't be angry with me … You have been my help; don't leave me, don't abandon me'.
Works
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight (Major), 2025
    Burning Moonlight (Major), 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight V, 2025
    Burning Moonlight V, 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight (Minor), 2025
    Burning Moonlight (Minor), 2025
  • David Frazer, Marianne Faithful Burning Moonlight I, 2025
    Marianne Faithful Burning Moonlight I, 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight I, 2025
    Burning Moonlight I, 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight III, 2025
    Burning Moonlight III, 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight IV, 2025
    Burning Moonlight IV, 2025
  • David Frazer, Though I Love The Light, 2025
    Though I Love The Light, 2025
  • David Frazer, Burning Moonlight Broadsheet, 2025
    Burning Moonlight Broadsheet, 2025
  • Triptych linocut by Australian artist David Frazer using hand-printing techniques
    Walking for Solace (Composition I), 2023
  • Black and white wood engraving of a statue-like figure in a field by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the singer and actress Marianne Faithfull.
    Burning Moonlight VI, 2025
  • Black and white linocut of a woman holding a flame by renowned Australian artist David Frazer.
    Though I Love The Light, 2025
  • Black and white wood engraving by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of singer and actress Marianne Faithfull.
    Burning Moonlight VIII, 2025
  • Black and white wood engraving of a statue-like figure looking at the sky by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of singer and actress Marianne Faithfull.
    Burning Moonlight VII, 2025
  • Black and white wood engraving of a figure surrounded by flames in a forest by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of actress and singer Marianne Faithfull.
    Burning Moonlight IX, 2025
  • Black and white wood engraving of a woman sitting on her knees in a field looking up behind a starry sky by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of actress and singer Marianne Faithfull.
    Burning Moonlight II, 2025
  • Wood linocut by Australian print-maker David Frazer from his work A Kind of Prayer of Romantic Australian landscape inspired by the lyrics of Nick Cave.
    Love Letter (Panels I&II), 2020
  • David Frazer, Artist Studio
    Artist Studio
  • Wooden linocut of vast landscape with romantic rowing boat by Australian artist David Frazer represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Slow Boat, 2016
  • Wooden linocut of two trees wrapped around each other by Australian artist and print-maker David Frazer represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Two Trees Entwined, 2024
  • Wood engraving of a plant in a wheelbarrow by Australian printmaker David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of "Love Letter" by Australian musician Nick Cave.
    Begin Again (study III), 2020
  • Woodcut by Australian printmaker David Frazer of young man sitting down looking at a tree inspired by the lyrics of "Love Letter" by Australian musician Nick Cave.
    200 Words, 2021
  • David Frazer, Artist Studio
    Artist Studio
  • Black and white wooden linocut of a man kneeling down and praying in a field by Australian printmaker David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of "Love Letter" by Australian musician Nick Cave.
    A Kind of Prayer, 2022
  • David Frazer, David Frazer Proof & 'Love Letter' Book with Nick Cave (Detail)
    David Frazer Proof & 'Love Letter' Book with Nick Cave (Detail)
  • Wooden linocut of a couple kissing an intimate and romantic scene by Australian printmaker and artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of "Love Letter" by Australian musician Nick Cave.
    Rain Your Kisses Down Upon Me (Study), 2020
  • David Frazer, David Frazer Cutting Slowboat
    David Frazer Cutting Slowboat
  • Black and white wooden linocut of a woman standing on a path lined by trees by Australian artist David Frazer.
    Free Woman, 2020
  • Small black and white linocuts and wood engravings in broadsheet style by Australian artist David Frazer inspired by the lyrics of English musician Nick Lowe.
    Lately I've Let Things Slide (Broadsheet), 2022
  • Black and white wood engraving of a man hugging a tree in a field by Australian artist and printmaker David Frazer.
    Hug, 2011
  • Black and white wooden linocut of a path with trees and clouds in the sky by Australian artist and printmaker David Frazer.
    Walking for Solace (composition II), 2023
Exhibitions
Press
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