Biography

Jon Plapp was born in Williamstown in 1938. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1959.  In 1960, he moved to St Louis, Missouri. He was to complete his doctorate in psychology at the University of Washington in 1967.  While at the University of Washington, Plapp took courses in painting and life drawing, which were to be his only formal studies in art.

In 1968, Plapp moved to Toronto, Canada, where he met his lifelong partner, the sculptor and academic Richard McMillan (1951-2017).  Both were to become key figures on the social scene surrounding the David Mirvish Gallery.  It was through this gallery that Plapp became acquainted with abstract expressionist artists Jules Olisky (1922-2007), Frank Stella (b. 1936), Larry Poons (b. 1937) and Jack Bush (1909-77). He was profoundly influenced by these artists and their aesthetics, so much so that he decided to become a visual artist himself.  In 1976 he moved into his first studio, which he shared with David Bolduc (1945-2010) and Paul Sloggett (born 1950).

In 1977, Plapp and McMillan moved to Sydney, Australia. They quickly established themselves on the art scene.  In 1979, Plapp was taken under the wing of Frank Watters, who offered him his first solo exhibition at the Watters Gallery that same year. From the 1990s onwards, he was represented by Charles Nodrum in Melbourne, the Klonaridis Gallery in Toronto and the Rosenberg Gallery in New York.

Plapp's artistic practice has been somewhat dictated by his Parkinson's disease, the first symptoms of which appeared in the early 1980s. Because of the tremors symptomatic of the disease, Plapp had to adapt his technique.  Part of his method was to tear his canvases into strips and use the loose strands to "trace arrangements of threads perpendicular to the surface, securing them with tacks". "He often laid his canvases on the floor and worked on top of them, one arm stretched downwards.  He worked in series, experimenting with different shades of a theme until he was satisfied that he had exhausted all the possibilities.

Plapp was highly respected in the art world by critics, curators, dealers and collectors.   In 2000, he and McMillan were awarded a residency at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.  His work is held in public and private collections in Australia and North America, including the National Gallery of Australia, MOCA, the University of Toronto, the University of Sydney and the New England Regional Art Museum.