The recipient of the 2009 H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship was artist Michael Callaghan

Michael Callaghan, the man behind the iconic If the unemployed are dole bludgers, what the f*** are the idle rich?  and Give Frazer the razor posters, will continue to mix politics and printmaking as the 2009 H.C. Coombs Creative Fellowship recipient. Hosted by the Painting Workshop at the School of Art, Michael will spend the next five months as artist in residence developing new works on the lingering effects of the war in Iraq and the war on terror.

The Wollongong-born artist came to prominence during the mid-1970s for his role in the irreverent Earthworks Poster Collective at Sydney University, before founding the group Redback Graphix in 1979. Redback Graphix mixed art production with graphic design work for clients including government departments, the Australian Electoral Commission, trade unions, community groups and Indigenous organisations.  His work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, in State and regional galleries and library and university collections across Australia, and in museum collections in California, Mexico, Japan and Paris.

The Fellowship is administered and funded each year by the Research School of Humanities & the Arts within the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences