Vale John Colin Reid: born Townsville, March 21, 1948 – died Canberra, May 4, 2026.

Internationally respected artist, educator, researcher, graphic designer, and ecological and human rights warrior, John Reid, has died. He was 78.

Reid spent his early years in Townsville, where his parents, Dulcie and Mick, were involved in inter-town camera club competitions and gatherings of photography enthusiasts. He experimented with his first camera, a 35mm Minolta gifted by his mother.

While supplementing an undergraduate scholarship as a graphic design assistant in the ANU Architecture/Design Section, he went on to join the teaching staff of the then Canberra School of Art in early 1978 under founding director Udo Sellbach.

He taught there until his retirement in 2013, after which he became an emeritus fellow of The Australian National University.

Known for his daring and often dangerous artistic exploits, which sometimes led to confrontations with the Canberra constabulary, Reid is being mourned by former colleagues as an icon of the earlier, more adventurous days of the Canberra art scene.

A formidable practising visual artist working across photography, collage and performance art, Reid explored themes of environment, human rights and cultural identity. He was recognised nationally and internationally for his contributions to graphic and typeface design and community-based environmental art projects.

In early 1983, troubled by the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, he conceived a performance work involving the discharge of 11 rifle rounds into the brick wall of the Canberra School of Art Gallery. He was suspended from his academic duties until the Special Branch of the Federal Police investigated the incident but, much to Reid’s disappointment, they were unable to find charges to lay.

He had hoped to argue: “Why is there such a fuss over my shooting up a brick wall while, out of earshot, thousands of our neighbours in East Timor were being murdered?”

He founded the ANU School of Art Field Study Program, established in 1996, which saw students and artists work in remote, rural and suburban communities across eastern Australia, including a remarkable project on the Hay Plain. He convened 46 semester programs and field-co-ordinated 30 programs.

Very much a family man, Reid would often take his wife, the Polish-Australian photographer Marzena Wasikowska, and the whole family to reconnoitre in landscapes suitable for subsequent student excursions.

He later founded the ANU School of Art Environment Studio and was a chief investigator on the Engaging Visions Research Project, examining relationships between artists and regional communities in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Reid’s projects included Walking the Solar System, a performative work examining global warming and environmental change, and Collage of Australian Banknotes, which led another confrontation with the law.

A visit from the AFP Fraud Squad culminating in 52 charges being laid against him over cutting up banknotes, later resolved when Federal minister Chris Hurford, acting for Federal Treasurer Paul Keating, gave limited permission for destruction of banknotes for the project, which he described as as “an exciting piece of work”.

In 2015-16, Reid undertook a consultancy for the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Kuala Lumpur to develop an arts strategy for involving fine artists in projects around health and wellbeing in urban environments.

From 2016 to 2022, he was contracted by the University of Canberra as a mentor on an art recovery program for the Australian Defence Force. Later, OUTPUT Art after Fire saw him working online during 2020-21 with artists affected by recent bushfires.

Reid’s artwork is held privately and in the collections of the University of Canberra; The Australian National University; Chiang Mai University, Thailand; the Centre for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art; Canberra Museum and Gallery; and ACT Government Health Services.

He is survived by his wife, Marzena, and his children Dan, Jess, Mia and Kai.

A public memorial service will be held in October; details will be updated.

–HELEN MUSA