Artist Profile: Max Dingle OAM

Meet Max Dingle, artist and conservation champion.  This is the second profile of artists living and working in the Shoalhaven, introducing you to locals who both care for this place and enrich its cultural life.

In the first profile (featuring Barbara Dawson) I described the strong and binding thread linking these artists – their deep concern and care for the environment. No one exemplifies this better than Max Dingle. 

In 2023 Max’s extensive land holding at Sussex Inlet became a biodiversity conservation area, protected in-perpetuity from urban development.

Max came to know and love the Shoalhaven during a stint living and working here in the 1960s. He bought the 45 hectare (111 acre) parcel of land at Sussex Inlet in the early 1980s as a place to focus on his burgeoning art practice.

“I was working with welded steel and grinding metal and needed a place where I could make noise. It suited me well to have a welding workshop and painting studio and to be in the bush.”

Max and his partner, architect Gavin Hughes, cleared a small patch on the property to build a beautifully considered small-scale, timber and glass house and establish a productive garden, plus three separate studios for Max’s art making – painting, metal work, ceramics. The vast majority of the land was purposefully left as beautiful intact bush, maintaining its ecosystem.

“I think we have grown together, this place and I.”

Over the decades this tranquil, restorative place became a haven for Max and, through his generosity, a gathering place for other artists. It was a particular boon for other sculptors who, like Max, were creating outdoor works in steel and stone. As Max produced pieces, and he also acquired works for the art collection he was developing with Gavin, something of a sculpture trail emerged. Set amongst the native vegetation, the sculptures soon became novel perches and resting places for other inhabitants.

Local inhabitant taking to Max Dingle’s sculpture, Untitled, 1982.

The growing pace of urban development in the Shoalhaven over the years was equally matched by Max’s concern for the property and the need to protect this untouched tract of land, its trees, plants, birds, animals and insects. When the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust approached Max to enter into a conservation agreement he did not hesitate. His sense of urgency was heightened by the 2019-2020 bushfires which came within 500m of what is now the conservation area, and the likelihood that all sorts of creatures had taken refuge there.

Through the field work conducted by NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust officers Max has been surprised and delighted to expand his knowledge of the native fauna and flora on the property. 

“I knew there were animals here that are endangered, but I didn’t realise there were possibly Pygmy Eastern possums here and that sort of gives me a thrill.”

Max’s move to conserve the place he cares so deeply for not only benefits the protected ecosystem, the preservation of biodiversity benefits us all. I for one am truly grateful.

Find out more about the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust here.

A painted steel sculpture by David Horton, Geisha 2003, finds a home in Max’s garden and the Dingle & Hughes Art Collection.

Artist / Curator / Writer / Collector

Max’s creative interests and practice take many forms not least of which is as a volunteer curator for the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, producing major exhibitions. The most recent being Death Love Art in which Max surveyed some of the many ways art has been used to express grief, honour the departed, and celebrate life. 

In 2020 Max was awarded an OAM in recognition of his decades of voluntary work supporting the arts in the Shoalhaven. You can find out more about Max and his wide-ranging art practice by visiting his website here.

M G Dingle and G B Hughes Art Collection & Archive

Another major contribution Max has made to the cultural life of the Shoalhaven is the unique art collection and archive he built over a period of more than 50 years with his life partner Gavin Hughes. In June 2008 they generously gifted it as a bequest to Shoalhaven City Council.

Sadly, Gavin died just months after the agreement was signed. He did not get to experience the series of exhibitions and publications Max went onto to produce for the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, presenting the city’s residents and visitors with opportunities to see and learn from the unique collection they had so lovingly created and donated.

In today’s era of Know My Name initiatives to balance the representation of women artists in our national collecting institutions and elsewhere it may not seem so unusual to know the Dingle and Hughes collection has a high representation of Australian women artists, particularly abstractionist painters. Now remember that Max and Gavin started the collection in the early 1960s. I have been fortunate to meet a number of women artists represented in the collection and I can tell you they are deeply appreciative of the collectors’ vision and ongoing commitment over decades.

The collection and archive has a dedicated website where you can explore the artworks and artists. Visit it by clicking here.

Dingle & McDonagh

I first met Max in 2017. We got know each other through our volunteer work organising community arts events, discovering some strong shared threads in our view of arts in society, and the role of art making in our lives. This led us to form a creative alliance in 2019. Since then we have collaborated to produce and present free, live events.