University Art Gallery Past Exhibitions
ATELIER PARIS: THE POWER STUDIO
2 February - 26 April 2013
This exhibition surveyed the work of five mid career artists who have all held residencies at the Power Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. This was the final exhibition in our program that celebrated the 50th anniversary of J.W. Power’s visionary bequest to the University.
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J.W. POWER: ABSTRACTION-CREATION, PARIS 1934
24 September 2012 - 25 January 2013
Curated by A.D.S Donaldson and Dr Ann Stephen.
A remarkable reconstruction of J.W. Power’s 1934 solo exhibition with the Abstraction Création group in Paris, revealing the cosmopolitan vision of this expatriate artist and benefactor who aimed to ‘make available to the people of Australia the latest ideas and theories in the plastic arts’.
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VIBRATION, VIBRAÇÃO, VIBRACIÓN: LATIN AMERICAN KINETIC ART OF THE 1960s AND ’70s
7 July - 13 September 2012
Curated by Dr Susan Best. This exhibition explored the Latin American Kinetic art holdings in the Power Collection. Including well known artists such as Lucio Fontana and Julio Le Parc, the exhibition revealed shared peripheral relationships to international modernism, in the art of the Southern hemisphere.
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Joseph Beuys and the 'Energy Plan'
7 April - 29 June 2012
Curated by Donna West Brett. This exhibition focused on Joseph Beuys’s fascination with medicine, science, myth and history that forms the basis of his diverse body of work. Shaman-like, his art transforms natural and found materials, combining an interest in politics and education.
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Jeffrey Smart: Unspoken
2 October - 27 November 2011
Curated by Power Professor Mark Ledbury. Drawing on the University’s rich collection of Smart works, the University Art Gallery’s Jeffrey Smart: Unspoken exploresd the striking but deceptive simplicity of the artist’s style and probed some of the artist’s cherished themes.
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FREEDOM RIDERS: Art and activism 1960s to now
3 July- 25 September 2011
Curated by Katie Yuill and Matt Poll. The starting point for the exhibition FREEDOM RIDERS: Art and activism 1960s to now is a major portrait, Charlie Perkins, 1986, by Aboriginal artist Robert Campbell Jnr in the University Union Art collection. Campbell’s art played a pioneering role in exposing the social and political realities of NSW Aboriginal people. His Perkins portrait and the Freedom Ride provided an historic framework for the work of six Aboriginal artists Karla Dickens, Adam Hill, Jonathan Jones, Michael Riley, Elaine Russell and Christian Thompson.
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Japan in Sydney: Professor Sadler & modernism, 1920-30s
3 April to 30 May 2011
Curated by Ajioka Chiaki & Maria (Connie) Tornatore-Loong. Japan in Sydney revealed for the first time the key role played by Arthur Lindsay Sadler (1882 - 1970) in stimulating exchange between Australian modernists and Japanese culture and aesthetics.
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Exposed: Art and the Naked Body
4 January to 27 March 2011
Curated by Michael Turner, the exhibition brought together works from the collections of the Hon. Roddy Meagher, the Power Collection and the University Art Collection to explore the concepts of nakedness and nudity. Artists represented include Renoir, Matisse, Cocteau and John Power.
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China and revolution: history, parody and memory in contemporary art
8 August to 7 November 2010
The exhibition explored the relationship between poster art of the 1960s and 1970s, specifically the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and contemporary artists whose work engages a conscious dialogue with that period. More
Kent State: Four Decades Later
Thursday 13 May - Sunday 18 July 2010
For Kent State: Four Decades Later, Dr Ann Stephen and co-curator Luke Parker invited eight contemporary artists of differing generations to reflect on the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings and Hamilton’s work. More
Mirror Mirror
mirror mirror … then, UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY 4 Jan–2 May
mirror mirror … and now, TIN SHEDS & VERGE 25 March–1 May
In the 1960s, mirrors began to be used by artists across a spectrum of international movements from pop, kinetic, minimal and conceptual art. Mirror Mirror presents classic mirror pieces from the 1960s and early 1970s.
The first part of the exhibition mirror mirror … then consists of mirror works from the 1960s and early 1970s. The second part of mirror mirror … and now has mirror pieces by contemporary Australian artists.
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Anne Marie Grgich: Archaeologies of the extraordinary everyday
4 October - 13 December 2009
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1961, Anne Marie Grgich began making spontaneous are at the age of 15, mostly junk constructions and clandestine paintings in her family's books.
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Collecting Passions: A century of Modernism from the home of Justice Roddy Meagher
26 July - 27 September 2009
Behind Roddy Meagher's illustrious legal career is a gentle connoisseur, passionate for the visual arts, who has spent his adult life collecting since studying arts at the University.
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Poesia Visiva: Italian Concrete & Visual Poetry of the 1960s & 1970s
17 May - 19 July 2009
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s 'concrete and visual poetry' was one of the most active movements in the visual arts.
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Resort Nadir: Irene Hanenbergh
22 March - 10 May 2009
Netherlands born, Melbourne based artist Irene Hanenbergh's practice consists of painting, printmaking (Zundprints on aluminium) and drawing.
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Melt
1 February - 15 March 2009
This exhibition draws together three female artists and their responses to time spent in the Polar Regions.
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Foresight
19 October 2008 to 25 January 2009
Works from the University of Sydney Union Art Collection
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New Victorians
August - 12 October 2008
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Siri Hayes - Landscapes
June - 10 August 2008)
With an eye to the romantic sublime and another on the burgeoning urban sprawl, Siri Hayes' photographic landscapes are at once lyrical and down-at-heel.
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David Sequeira: My Father's Library
12 May – 22 June 2008
Working in a range of media, David Sequeira explores notions of language and information through colour and geometry.
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Cuts both ways
23 March - 4 May 2008
Cuts both ways explores the phenomenon of the worldwide development of woodcuts and linocuts from the 1920s to 1940s
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Greatest Hits/Previously Unreleased Tracks
27 January – 6 March 2008
A selection of videos by Queensland’s leading and emerging artists: Peter Alwast, Christopher Bennie, Daniel McKewen, Tracey Moffatt, Archie Moore, Paul Mumme, Scott Redford, Sandra Selig, Van Sowerwine, Grant Stevens and Jemima Wyman.
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Morpheus - Mark Hilton
11 November 2007- 20 January 2008
During 2007 Hilton has spent time researching the collections of Sydney University Museums and will present new work related to his findings on the Greek god Morpheus, morphine and contemporary drug use.
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Chartres - Lloyd Rees
25 August - 4 November 2007
This stunning exhibition of paintings and drawings showcases works from a series Rees worked on depicting the great Gothic cathedral at Chartres in France.
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Dreaming Spires and Ivory Towers
Exhibition dates: 18 June- 5 August 2007
Founded in 1850, The University of Sydney aimed to create an architectural and intellectual focus for the settlement of Sydney. From early views of the Quadrangle by Conrad Martens through to commissioned photographs by David Moore, this exhibition showcases a selection of works depicting the wide variety of architectural styles at The University of Sydney.
outpouring- Jan Fieldsend
Exhibition dates: 30 April- 8 June 2007
"outpouring" is an installation created by Jan Fieldsend for the almost chapel-like University Art Gallery space. Formerly known as the War Memorial Gallery, it once housed a collection of ribbons and medals- the decorations of war.
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The last thing I remember...
Jane Burton
Lily Hibberd
Brie Trenerry
A Monash University Museum of Art exhibition
Curated by Dr Kyla McFarlane
Exhibition dates: 12 March- 20 April 2007
In "The last thing I remember ..." three artists explore the rupture of narrative in the domestic sphere.
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Strange Matters
4 December 2006- 4 March 2007
Showcasing works from the University of Sydney Art Collection, The University of Sydney Union Collection and the University Library Rare Books collection, Strange Matters focused on dark and strange realities.
Fortuna
22 February - 13 April 2006
New gifts and loans to the Art Collection
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The Phantasmagorical Grid
24 August- 1 December 2005
Justin Trendall and the influence of Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
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Kinetic
at the University Art Gallery
9 June- 11 August 2005
The exhibition Kinetic explored the artwork of Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Rah Fizelle, Margel Hinder and Frank Hinder who came together in Sydney in the 1930s and later pioneered abstract and kinetic art in Australia.
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Imaging the apple
at the University Art Gallery
6 April- 2 June 2005
Imaging the apple featured works by thirty three contemporary Australian artists. Each artist approached the subject of the apple from a unique point of view. All of the works were created on the same format of a canvas 30 cm square.
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Friends and lovers
at the University Art Gallery
17 February- 24 March 2005
This exhibition featured the work of one of Australia's most gifted artists Donald Friend, along with works by his friends Jeffrey Smart and Justin O'Brien, all selected from the University of Sydney's Art Collection.
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Fire Dreaming
1 September- 9 December 2004
Fire Dreaming explored the theme of fire in contemporary art from cultural, historical, mythological and spiritual perspectives.
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Sightseeing from Beijing
23 June - 22 August 2004
Sightseeing from Beijing featured some of the latest avant-garde works by China's leading artists including installations, paintings and prints by eleven contemporary artists all of whom teach in the most prestigious art academy in China, the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing.
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Horses for Courses - Suzanne Archer
21 April - 10 June 2004
Artist Suzanne Archer produced an exciting new body of work based on an unusual teaching environment, the animal dissection laboratory in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney.
The Way of the Brush – Fairweather, Jackson and Tuckson
15 October- 27 November 2003
This exhibition looked at aesthetic connections in the paintings of Ian Fairweather (1891-1974), Tony Tuckson (1921-1973), and Roy Jackson (1944 -). The starting point was Fairweather’s Kalighat, 1950, in the University’s collection.
Norman and Lionel Lindsay - Prints and Drawings
16 July - 18 September 2003
The University Art Collection includes over eighty works by Norman and Lionel Lindsay. This exhibition included the fascinating black and white images made by Norman Lindsay to illustrate the story of Ned Kelly that were used to illustrate Douglas Stewart’s popular story in 1946. Lionel Lindsay’s satirical illustrations of famous men and his series of fine wood engravings of birds were included. More
Japanese Prints 1950-1990
20 May- 26 June 2003
This travelling exhibition introduced contemporary Japanese prints from 1950 onwards, the period when Japan was beginning it's recovery from the Second World War.
Temptation –Sir Charles Nicholson’s collection
10 April - 14 May 2003
Schools of Thought by Lisa Giles
8 October - 24 October 2002
Recent photographs that showcased academics and eminent alumni of the University of Sydney. A sesquicentennial event.
Beauty and the Beast, the art of James Gleeson
28 August - 3 October 2002
James Gleeson is regarded as Australia's leading surrealist painter. This exhibition focused on seven paintings in the collection as well as loans from public galleries and private collections of surrealism.
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New Chinese prints
16 July - 15 August 2002
A selection of 40 prints and works on paper from leading Chinese printmakers. Contemporary artists included Su Xinping, Liu Li Ping, Ding Yi and Song Guangzhi.
John Wardell Power 1881-1943
8 May - 27 June 2002
John Wardell Power studied art in Paris in the 1920s and exhibited in London in the 1930s. He was influenced by modern art theories of Cubism and abstraction and developed his own ideas on picture composition based on geometric forms.
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The Midday Movie & the History of Australian Painting
12 noon Friday 17 May
A performance by Barbara Campbell as part of her survey exhibition.
Botanica
20 March - 24 April 2002
This exhibition explored the patterns and beauty of nature through painting and installation. Artists featured were Juliana Bartulin, Elise Benamane, Rose Steedman and Mark Walker, all exciting graduates from Sydney College of the Arts. These artists alternately use botany, plants and biology as a point of departure, as metaphor, as material and as a means of exploring our relationship with nature.
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