Tag: Australian art
Sydney Contemporary 2024
Thursday, September 5th, 2024 Art Column,Sydney Contemporary has quickly found its niche in a city in which the most probing critical analysis of a work of art is usually: “How much did you pay for that?” Variations on a theme include: “Why would anybody pay that much?” and “They must’ve seen him coming.” In Melbourne, art aficianados are more likely […]
Lesley Dumbrell: Thrum
Saturday, August 31st, 2024 Art Column,Patrick Heron, one of Britain’s most prominent abstract artists, told me he lost his job as art critic at The New Statesman for writing too much about “space”. It may have bored the readers rigid, but for Heron, space was a colossally exciting topic. It probably takes an artist to understand the thrill of seeing […]
Darwin 2024
Friday, August 16th, 2024 Art Column,Darwin at the beginning of August is one of the essential experiences on the Australian art calendar. The main attraction is the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), often called “the Telstras”, after the major sponsor, but there are enough exhibitions and activities to keep visitors busy for a week. Along with […]
Hadley’s Art Prize 2024
Saturday, August 10th, 2024 Art Column,This year Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart is celebrating its 190th anniversary. An icon of Tasmania’s colonial era, this veteran will never be competing with the more glamorous, expensive establishments that are springing up around town, but it has history on its side. Stay at Hadley’s and you’ll find a plate with a picture of […]
So Long, Guy
Friday, July 26th, 2024 Blog,When I spoke to Guy Warren three years ago, on the occasion of his hundredth birthday, I walked away feeling like I’d never felt following an interview. I felt energised. Talking to Guy, 100 not out, and so full of life he could have kept going all day, I realised that if I managed to […]
Six Ways of Looking at Newhaven
Friday, July 26th, 2024 Art Column,Seven years ago, I spent a few days in Newhaven, a property on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, owned and administered by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). Last week I returned, in company with a group of artists who had seven days to make sketches and observations in preparation for an exhibition in […]
Archibald Prize 2024
Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 Art Column,In Dante’s Inferno there are nine circles of Hell, each reserved for a different kind of sinner. The lustful get thrown about by storms, the gluttonous wallow in icy slush, heretics are trapped in flaming tombs… But try as I might, I’ve never been able to locate the particular niche in which the sinner is […]
Cutting Through Time: Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston and the Japanese Print
Sunday, June 2nd, 2024 Art Column,Cutting Through Time is an artful title for an innovative exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery that explores affinities between Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the great Japanese printmakers of the Ukiyo-e school. It’s yet another instance in which a Victorian gallery is surveying the work of artists firmly associated with Sydney. At the opening, […]
Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone
Saturday, May 11th, 2024 Art Column,Few artists are so well informed as Nicholas Mangan in diverse fields of knowledge. In Mangan’s survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, A World Undone, one can’t help but be impressed by the breadth of his interests and the thoroughness with which he pursues them. In the first essay in the catalogue, Amelia […]
Adelaide Biennial 2024
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 Art Column,It’s rare one comes across a survey exhibition that feels so personal, so achingly sincere, as the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, subtitled Inner Sanctum. Guest curator, José Da Silva, has put heart and soul into his choices and gone to great pains to explain them in the catalogue, writing at length on every […]