Noel Hodnett was born in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1949 and moved to South Africa at an early age. In 1968 Hodnett enrolled at the School of Fine Art at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and graduated with distinctions in painting in 1971. He joined the staff of the Fine Art Department at Rhodes University and was appointed Head of Photography in 1975. In 1985 he was appointed Head of Painting and Drawing. Hodnett held this position until the beginning of 1997 when he chose to leave academia and further his career as a professional artist in Canada. Noel Hodnett is now a Canadian citizen and currently lives and works on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
Hodnett’s work was selected for inclusion in all three Cape Town Triennials and was chosen to represent South Africa at the IX Inter-national Biennial of Art in Valparaiso, Chile, following democratic elections in 1989. In 1995 Noel Hodnett was invited to exhibit his work as part of the ‘Africus 95’ Biennial in a major solo exhibition at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1997 his work was selected for inclusion in “The South African Landscape – Four Points of View” exhibition at ‘Art First – Contemporary Art’, London, U.K. Hodnett’s well-received “Portraits of the Forgotten” exhibition at the Britannia Community Centre Project Gallery in East Vancouver held in May 2002, featured portraits of victims of Apartheid and the Holocaust.
The artist’s first major solo exhibition in Canada was held in November 2002 at the Ballard Lederer Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia. Hodnett was later represented by the prestigious Buschlen Mowatt Gallery in Vancouver. In 2007 the Director and Curator of Simon Fraser University Galleries, Bill Jeffries, invited Noel Hodnett to exhibit a series of paintings entitled “Memory, History and Loss”. The exhibition was formally opened by SFU President, Dr. Michael Stevenson, and centred around eight paintings that now form part of SFU’s permanent collection. Hodnett has curated numerous exhibitions and has been selected as judge for various national and international art competitions in both South Africa and Canada. In 2012 he worked with author and poet Tom McGauley, editor Michael Barnholden and The Art Emporium on a  book on Canadian painter Jack Shadbolt entitled: ‘Jack Shadbolt Between the Wars, Local Developments, International Influences’.
Since his arrival in Vancouver, Noel Hodnett has actively supported the Canadian Foundation for Trauma Research, VGH Foundation, UNICEF’s Unite with Art and Arts Umbrella’s SPLASH.