Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery in Crawley, Western Australia, Australia | Art Museum

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery

Locality: Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

Phone: +61 8 6488 3707

Address: UWA, 35 Stirling Hwy 6009 Crawley, WA, Australia

Website: http://www.lwag.uwa.edu.au

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25.01.2022 Nathan Beard, WIP detail of Limp-wristed gesture (i), 2020, silicon, resin, hand-stitched cotton, found objects. Installation size variable. Image courtesy the artist. Featured in "HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer, opening Saturday 29 August, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

25.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by Molly Werner, a UWA History of Art (Honours) student from the School of Design. Molly discusses Dora Chapmans 1973 screenprint The kiln from the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art. All important things are said through images. Techniques are ways of involving and using them. Silk screen can simplify to give clear and unencumbered images where little changes can alter the whole spirit and meaning of the thing. But when i...Continue reading

24.01.2022 If you missed seeing Victorian artist and academic Drew Pettifer’s exhibition A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk then you’re in luck - the exhibition is touring to Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and opens this Saturday! A Sorrowful Act delves into the local origins of Australia’s European queer history - specifically a 1727 sodomy trial following the wreck of the Dutch ship the Zeewijk at the Houtman Abrolhos, where two young sailors were sentenced to death by maroonin...g. The exhibition features built archives, found archives and quasi-fictional archives, with objects on loan from the WA Museum , and new installation and video work by Pettifer. At times unsettling and painful, A Sorrowful Act takes a look at the past in order to recontextualise and rethink the present. Don’t miss this landmark show. ---- A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk Bunbury Regional Art Gallery 19 December - 14 February 2021 ---- Image: Installation view, A Sorrowful Act, LWAG, 2020. Works visible: Drew Pettifer, Untitled (Sandy Island), 2020, chromogenic prints, 100 x 150 cm, collection of the artist and Untitled (Stick Island), 2020, chromogenic prints, 100 x 150 cm, collection of the artist. Photo: Bo Wong

24.01.2022 This Saturday is our 30th anniversary and we are celebrating with a special announcement: the launch of the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art database This important resource will ensure that audiences worldwide can experience the richness and diversity of the Cruthers Collection, the nations largest collection of art by Australian women artists. The new, searchable database will make the full catalogue of works in the CCWA and a selection of images available online.... Enjoy this preview of what is to come, with works pictured by Clarice Beckett, Fiona Foley and Madison Bycroft. The database will be accessible via the LWAG website from Saturday July 18. https://bit.ly/3fufhEO --- Images: 1. Clarice Beckett, Portrait of Hilda Beckett, c.1929, oil on board, 18 x 26.5cm, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia. 2. Fiona Foley, Native Blood, 1994, (detail), Type C photographs (set of 3), 50 x 41cm each, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia. (c) of the artist and courtesy of Andrew Baker Art Dealer and Niagara Galleries. 3. Madison Bycroft, (Un)Ladylike acts for every lady lacking (A Gift to the King), 2013, still from single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 3:58 loop, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia. (c) and courtesy the artist. ---

24.01.2022 We're delighted to be participating in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra #KnowMyName exhibition aimed at underscoring the importance of women artists' contribution to Australian cultural life The exhibition features ten artworks from The University of Western Australia's UWA Art Collection and Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, including works by artists A.M.E Bale, Elise Blumann, Narelle Jubelin, Erica McGilchrist, Ann Newmarch, Kathleen O’Connor, Adelaide Perr...y and Freda Robertshaw. The accompanying publication also includes texts by LWAG curators Dr Sally Quin (UWA Art Collection) on artist Freda Robertshaw and Lee Kinsella (CCWA Curator) on artist Miriam Stannage As Quin notes, ‘It is particularly exciting to see works by Western Australian artists in the university’s collections shown in a broader national context, alongside their contemporaries from around Australia. This kind of interaction results in a richer, more nuanced, and far more interesting history of visual arts practice in Australia’. Explore more here: https://knowmyname.nga.gov.au/

24.01.2022 Expressions of India: From the Ronald M. and Catherine H. Berndt Collection is now live on our website Presented by the Berndt Museum, this digital exhibition features over fifty high quality images, new research, animated video, educational activities and more! It explores paintings in the Pattachitra, Kalighat and Court styles from the 18th - 20th centuries that were privately collected by Ronald and Catherine Berndt. The selection of works cuts across social circumsta...nce, place and time to provide a glimpse into pockets of everyday life from across India and from varying contexts. Curated by Sofie Nielsen and Michael Houston from the Berndt Museum View the exhibition online here: https://bit.ly/2CVHfe9 --- Images: Narasimha Fighting Hiranyakashipu the Demon King early 20th century. Odisha, India. Opaque watercolour on cloth, 12.8 x 20.4 cm. Bequest of RM & CH Berndt, Berndt Museum of Anthropology Collection [1994/0851] Portrait of a King Riding a Composite Horse late 18th century. Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 38.2 x 30.5 cm. Bequest of RM & CH Berndt, Berndt Museum of Anthropology [1994/0904] The Goddess Kali 1880-1890. Kolkata, India. Watercolour and tin on paper, 46.2 x 29.3 cm. Bequest of RM & CH Berndt, Berndt Museum of Anthropology Collection [1963/0016] ---

23.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by Zahraa Al Taey, a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences student and a member of the LWAG Student Advisory Committee. Zahraa shares her thoughts on Evening on the Yarra by Australian artist Clarice Beckett: "Becketts oil painting strikes me due to its simplicity. The colour range made up of greens, blues and earthy hues elicits a calm presence. The painting is very lulling and reminds me of Melbourne, the holidays and better da...ys. Beckett is able to transform the simplicity of the subject of her painting into a means of encouraging the viewer to contemplate and associate the scene she has depicted on the Yarra river with inner peace and tranquility. I find the techniques used to create this painting quite interesting. It is as though some aspects of the painting have been deliberately skirted over and blurred, as though they were captured by an unfocused camera lens. The boat is perhaps the only part of the painting that seems clear, both in its defined depiction and its trajectory. It seems like the boat is a representation of our course in life, which may at times become be influenced by external forces - but it is our duty to remain grounded and unyielding, to continue going forward, just like this little boat is travelling through the misty unknown." --- Image: Clarice Beckett, Evening on the Yarra, c.1930, oil on paperboard, 32.2 x 49.5cm, Gift of Mrs M W Moody in memory of Thomas and Henry Ingram Moody, 1949 --- #lwagplus #lwagallery #museumfromhome #UWAartcollection

23.01.2022 'Exhibition curator Brent Harrison says that in bringing Here&Now20: Perfectly Queer together, he’s been grappling with what it means to call yourself a queer artist. ‘Queer’ is partly about being able to not be defined, so there’s a slipperiness, he says. All of the artists in the show take such a different approach, and none of the works are similar in their methodology or how they motivate and use queerness within their work.' - in Steve Dow's feature 'Queer Legacies', Art Guide Australia Read more about the exhibition and don't miss the opportunity to see the show yourself! We're open Tues-Sat, 12pm-5pm, admission is free

23.01.2022 This Saturday 29 August, we're delighted to reopen our doors with three new exhibitions! Find out more about what's on show from Lee Kinsella, Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, Brent Harrison, curator of HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer, artist Drew Pettifer and LWAG Director Ted Snell. In addition to these new exhibitions, you can also explore Boomerang A National Symbol, presented by the Berndt Museum, which has been extended now until 5 December. ... We're open TuesdaysSaturdays, 12pm5pm, from this Saturday 29 August until Saturday 5 December. We look forward to welcoming you back into the gallery! --- Artwork credits: Penny Bovell, 'Dream I', 1980, graphite and pencil on paper, 140 x 100cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia. and courtesy the artist. Kate Just, 'In my skin', 2011, hand and machine knitted acrylic yarn, 178 x 88 x 1cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia. and courtesy the artist. Photo credit: Catherine Evans. Video by Levi Williams.

23.01.2022 "'A Sorrowful Act’ is not a museum project, though the body of work includes historical items such as maps and items from the wreck. Their presence enhances the veracity of the narrative; they speak from that time. Yet, there is also a blurring of these truths, as the objects themselves acquire new meaning through contemporary slippage. The maps anchor the narrative to a particular site, but even then, the actual islands on which the boys perished are inconclusively document...ed. In the project, they are represented by a small pile of sand, another pile of shale referencing the different composition of islands in the archipelago. As an audience, we are left to reshape this narrative, make it our own, and re-articulate its significance through an act of remembrance." - Professor Ted Snell, ‘Sorrowful Truths’ in A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk There’s only two weeks left to explore the interrelation of objects in Drew Pettifer’s ‘A Sorrowful Act’. The exhibition includes historical artefacts from WA Museum Boola Bardip, items on loan from the Kerry Stokes Collection and photographs, installations and video by Victorian artist and academic Dr Drew Pettifer. At times unsettling and painful, the exhibition takes an important look at the beginning of Australia’s European queer history and, in doing so, recontextualises the present. A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk On show until 5 Dec Tues - Sat 12pm - 5pm - Images: All photographs courtesy of Bo Wong 1. Items from the wreck of the Zeewijk, c.1720, Western Australian Museum. 2. Drew Pettifer, Untitled (Sand) and Untitled (Shale), 2020, installation, dimensions variable, collection of the artist. 3. Installation view, Drew Pettifer, A Sorrowful Act, 2020. Including 39 framed photographs, 2019-20, chromogenic prints, each 27.6 x 38.2 cm, collection of the artist and items from the Kerry Stokes Collection

23.01.2022 Ross Seaton: The Master of Nedlands opens next Friday, 5.30-8.30pm at The Naval Store in Fremantle! Join exhibition curator and LWAG Director Ted Snell as he brings you behind the scenes into the making of the exhibition. The Master of Nedlands is the first large-scale exhibition devoted to Ross Seaton's work. It brings together a selection of the artist's compelling works to document his unique vision.... Ross Seaton: The Master of Nedlands The Naval Store, Fremantle 5 Dec - 13 Dec 2020 | Open daily, 12pm-5pm Presented in partnership with DADAA and supported by City of Fremantle, enkel and private donors. ------ Video by VAM Media Shot and edited by Brendan Hutchens Music by Envelope

23.01.2022 Did you know that The HUB at LWAG is a space where art lovers of all ages can explore their creativity in hands-on art activities inspired by the current exhibitions? The current HUB activity, ‘Soothing Secrets: DIY Painted Patches’, was created by artist Lill Colgan in connection to their artwork ‘Soothing Systems’, showing in HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. ‘Soothing Systems’ features an acronym created by Colgan that is a self-affirmation with special and symbolic significanc...e known only to the artist. For this activity, Colgan explores ways that you can use symbols and motifs to create your own self-affirming, wearable item. View the activity online and make sure to check out the work that inspired it on your next visit to LWAG! We're open 12-5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. https://bit.ly/3ldS38l

21.01.2022 Perth-based artist, writer and curator Andrew Nicholls has created a new, large-scale drawing--The Four Seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)--currently on show in HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. Hear more from Nicholls about the process of creating this portrait-based, four-part drawing, the ideas behind it and how it relates to his larger artistic practice. And don't miss the opportunity to see the work in person before HERE&NOW20 closes on Saturday 5 December!... ---- HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer On show until 5 Dec TuesSat, 12pm5pm | free entry Video by Levi Williams ----

20.01.2022 As part of our 30th Anniversary celebrations, we would like to highlight the earliest Australian work in the UWA Art Collection: The jetties, Perth, from the west, by Ernest Decimus Stocks (1896). An article in The West Australian from 1897 proclaims Stocks as a well-known and indefatigable painter of landscape scenery in Australia. Despite this apparent fame, his name and works have since faded into relative obscurity. Stocks was born in England and emigrated to Melbou...rne, hoping to find economic prosperity. After working as a school teacher in Ballarat, he turned to painting as an alternative source of income. He travelled and painted residences of property owners throughout many of the colonies. Stockss earliest known works, dating from around 1875, are predominately landscapes and paintings of architectural subjects. Often his works were exhibited and sold at art unions. Popular during the colonial period, art unions were lotteries with artworks as prizes that provided income and promotion for artists. The jetties, Perth, from the west presents a late nineteenth-century glimpse of jetties on the Swan River. In the far distance, the Darling Scarp can be discerned. The work was painted during the time of the gold rush, economic prosperity and a burgeoning population. During 1896-97, Stockss works were exhibited in the windows of Messrs Bickford and Lucass establishment and E J Normans Picture Arcade, both in Hay Street. The jetties, Perth, from the west was one of twenty-five paintings he included in an art union in Perth in September 1896. It was acquired in the UWA Collection almost a century later, in 1985. --- Adapted from A Partial View: The University of Western Australia Art Collection by John Barrett-Lennard and Allan Watson. --- Image: Ernest Decimus Stocks, The jetties, Perth, from the west, 1896, watercolour, 26.3 x 36.5 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Dr and Mrs R K Constable, 1985 --- #lwagplus #UWAartcollection

20.01.2022 Our latest podcast episode is now live UWA Students and members of LWAG Student Advisory Committee Victor Arul, Brendan John Harry Dias and Zahraa Al Taey go in-depth into the Gallery in this intimate conversation with Director Ted Snell. From the Gallerys response during the coronavirus shutdown, its engagement with The University of Western Australia students and its upcoming exhibitions to Snells own career path and the power of art to connect people, you wont want t...o miss this wide-ranging conversation! We look forward to welcoming you back into the Gallery at this time next week --- LWAGTalks Ep 15: Behind-the-Scenes with Ted Snell and LSAC Tune in here: https://bit.ly/2Zf1ZoG Published 21 Aug 2020 LWAG Reopens Sat 29 Aug Opening Hours: Tues-Sat, 12pm-5pm Free Admission

19.01.2022 It's your final weekend to check out Ross Seaton: The Master of Nedlands at The Naval Store in Fremantle We're delighted to be closing the exhibition with a Curator's Talk: Ross Seaton - The Master of Nedlands on Sunday at 3.30pm with LWAG Director Ted Snell. You won't want to miss this fantastic opportunity to hear more about the ideas and stories behind Seaton's extraordinary work!... --- Ross Seaton: The Master of Nedlands The Naval Store Open daily 12pm-5pm Closing Sun 13 Dec at 5pm Curator's Talk: Ross Seaton - The Master of Nedlands Sun 13 Dec, 3.30pm ---

19.01.2022 Happy 30th birthday LWAG! On this day 30 years ago we officially opened our doors for the first time. Take a look at our special anniversary video, featuring contributions from LWAG Director, Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA; founding curator Sandra Murray; UWA graduate and local businessman Ivan Hoffman OAM; partner at Ferguson Architects, John McLean; Friends of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery member Mandy Loton; and member of the UWA Cultural Collections Board, Dr Ian D MacLeod AM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGMMIS_145Q

18.01.2022 As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations we are highlighting significant moments in our history. In the 1970s, Rose and Joe Skinner, founders of Skinner Galleries, gifted over 70 artworks to the UWA Art Collection, helping to shape it into a leading collection of contemporary art. Perths first commercial gallery, Skinner Galleries opened in 1958. It held 214 exhibitions over 18 years, and furthered the careers of Western Australian artists such as Robert Juniper and G...eorge Haynes. When Rose Skinner passed away in 1979, she bequeathed her collection of paintings to The University of Western Australia The gift added depth to the post-war holdings of the UWA Art Collection, with the addition of works from artists such as Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, Ian Fairweather, Donald Friend, Henri Matisse and John Passmore. It was the most important and valuable donation that had thus been made to the Collection. The below image is an installation view of the exhibition Creating taste: the collection of Joe and Rose Skinner, which was held at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery from 18 November 2007 - 19 December 2007 and 15 January - 30 March 2008. Works visible are by Fred Williams, Donald Friend, Charles Blackman, Ray Crooke, Henri Matisse, Sam Fullbrook, John Passmore, Sali Herman, Kate OConnor and Sidney Nolan. --- Adapted from A Partial View edited by John Barrett-Lennard and Allan Watson; Rose Skinner: the firebrand Perth dealer neglected by a new art history by Ted Snell, The Conversation, 2017; and Skinner, Rose, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Phillipa OBrien, Vol. 16, 2002. --- #lwagplus #lwagallery #lwag30

18.01.2022 Get creative at our Zine Workshop next Saturday with Paper Cut artists in residence Carla Adams and Joanne Richardson! The workshop will offer a chance to explore a range of book-binding and zine making techniques. $20 concession | $30 standard... All materials provided - places limited so get in quick! See more

18.01.2022 Dislocation: Olga Cironis 13 February5 June 2021 Presented in association with Perth Festival Olga Cironis works with familiar materials to make powerful sculptural forms that resonate with a sense of disenfranchised identity. ... The experience of migration and otherness, both her own sense of dislocation and that of those she encounters, permeates all of her installations, objects, photographs and videos. Together they present a carefully constructed ambiguity, achieved through a disturbing interplay between material, form and text, that is engaging, poignant and familiar. Dislocation is a survey exhibition that amplifies recurring concerns about life, relationships, memory and empathy. Incorporating a newly-completed video work and reconstructed pieces from previous decades, the exhibition showcases the ongoing practice of one of the most respected members of the Western Australian visual arts community. Image: Olga Cironis, Alexandra, 2013, archival digital print, 120 x 80 cm, Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Image courtesy the artist and Art Collective WA.

16.01.2022 'I wanted to have this thread between all of the elements of the work, which is about this idea of elevation and empowerment. So ultimately, I think they have these resonant qualities that when combined together make the works more empowered, into sort of totems to this effiminate-like, limp-wristed gesture that I'm modelling the hands after.' - artist Nathan Beard Don't miss the opportunitiy to see Nathan Beard's work in-person, on show until 5 December alongside new commiss...ions by eight Western Australian contemporary artists in HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. ------------- HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer On show until 5 Dec TuesSat, 12pm5pm | Free entry Video by Levi Williams -------------

16.01.2022 We're thrilled to share our 2021 Season 1 exhibition program We’ll be kicking off next year with three new exhibitions opening on 13 Feb: Dislocation: Olga Cironis Paper Cut ... Creatures: Ochred, Pokered, Carved and Twined Presented in association with @Perth Festival, Dislocation surveys thirty years of Olga Cironis’s practice that explores disenfranchised identity and amplifies recurring concerns about relationships, memory and empathy through installations, objects, photographs and video. Paper Cut offers an alternative view on art history via a dynamic and eclectic survey of a century of paper-based practice by Australian women artists, including Mary MacQueen, Barbara Brash, Lesbia Thorpe, Joy Hester, Jude Adams, Ann Newmarch, Rosella Namok and TextaQueen. Curated by Lee Kinsella. Creatures: Ochred, Pokered, Carved and Twined delves into the depths of the Berndt Museum object collection, illuminating a diverse menagerie of animal representations from across 100 years of creation practices by Indigenous Australian peoples. Check out our website here for more info: https://www.uwa.edu.au/lwag/exhibitions And stay tuned for our 2021 schedule of events, to be announced in the new year! Images: 1. Olga Cironis, ‘Alexandra’, 2013, archival digital print, 120 x 80 cm, Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Copyright and courtesy the artist. 2. Jude Adams, [It couldn’t happen here] c. 1975, collage on brown card, 57.8 x 46.2 cm, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia, Copyright and courtesy of the artist. 3. Unknown Creator, ‘Tjulpu - Bird’, c.1995. Cundeelee, Western Australia. Wood, 28 x 7 x 8 cm. Gift of Rod Stockwell, Berndt Museum of Anthropology Collection [1995/0117].

14.01.2022 For this weeks #OurLWAGCollection, LWAG Student Advisory Committee member and Economics student Eugenia Tee reflects on Roger Kemps artwork Extension: "Modernist artist Roger Kemp has remained a critical figure in abstract art since his passing in 1987. Kemp had a lifelong relationship with music, but instead of devoting himself to it as a singer or performing artist, he infused his passion for music into his paintings, through his personal symbolism of geometric forms s...uch as circles and squares. He once said, I realised it [musical structure] was in my own body I worked on the square, and breaking the square twice, you get an octave within [each] break [eight segments] What the octave is to music, so the octave is to my painting. These words highlight the source of his inspiration and his fascination towards geometric forms. This work caught my attention from the very first moment I saw it. Kemps work is strong and intense, with the use of bold colours like red, blue, grey and black. A dark colour palette can sometimes incorporate negative connotations, often weighing down ones mind. I had a heavy heart looking at the work at first, but it became calming and soothing the more I looked at it. Perhaps this is due to the works balance of shapes, or it might be because of the vibrancy the red brought, or maybe I simply found inner peace through prolonged gazing. I am intrigued by how geometric shapes can form such a harmonious work; every form retaining its uniqueness while being overlapped with others." --- Image: Roger Kemp, Extension, 1965, synthetic polymer paint on board, 137.2 x 91.4cm, Acquired with the assistance of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, 1979. --- #lwagplus #museumfromhome #UWAartcollection

14.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been chosen by Victor Arul, a music student at The University of Western Australia . Victor reflects on one of the rare ceramic objects in the UWA Art Collection, a vase in the style of the Song Dynasty: For me, this work is a great example of intricacy contained within simplicity. The stoneware exhibits simplicity in its form. This represents the intrinsically utilitarian connotations of the work; to contain liquids, and to pour them. Th...e work contains geometric balance and homogeneity in palette and the general distribution of linear patterns. The work is segmented into top and bottom parts through lightness, but the entire palette is brown. On the other hand, the fine details of the patterns are quite nuanced. Repetitive structures on a microlevel are not easily found. For example, there are no duplicates within the dark brown vertical lines contained in the top portion of the work. There are imperfections contained within the work, but for me, these imperfections add character to the work; the imperfections apply a sense of complexity to the work. The artwork reflects the context in which it was made. That is, the artwork contains a snapshot of China during the Song dynasty. The idea of intricacy contained within and simplicity reflects how the complex social entities that characterised the Song dynasty era are contained within formalised and largely organised administrative operations and systems of rule. The utilitarian aspect of the work reflects societys value for material advancement, as in the case of the economic revolution of this period. At the same time, the works intricacies depict a sense of finesse, which could be found in other approaches within society including developments in historiography, philosophy, and mathematics. --- Image: Song Dynasty, in the style of (960-1279), untitled, n.d., green slip glazed stoneware, 22.8 x 17.7cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Dr Albert Gild, 1974 ---

14.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by Fannisa B. Assyilah, a Landscape Architecture student and a member of the LWAG Student Advisory Committee. Fannisa reflects on the painting Night gull (1957) by John Perceval: "This artwork somehow feels nostalgic. The white on blue stimulates an image in my mind of the ships docking at Matilda Bay at night, slowly rocking against the water. It exudes romanticism, recalling walks and personal reflections during the night,... the scent of sea creeping up as you inhale. Perhaps Im a bit biased - my favourite stress-reliever that comes with the responsibility of being a college student is a visit to Matilda Bay, just across from Reid Library. Im sure others can relate to this as well. Short or longer visits to Matilda Bay - it doesnt really matter. Just looking at the green, the sand, the water and the Perth skyline relieves the worries of everyday life, albeit just temporarily. Night gull by John Percival captures eloquently the beauty of lands by the sea and of lights reflecting in the blue water. It vividly evokes a busy night by the seaside. How calming to see these elements work in a composition, in a picture and in real life. The result is both scenic and nostalgic at the same time. Beautiful!" --- Image: John Perceval, Night gull, 1957, enamel on composition board, 91.8 x 122cm, Tom Collins Bequest Fund.

13.01.2022 Hear from artist Colin Smith speaks, as he speaks about his new work 'Bloodletting', now showing in HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. You have just over one week left to see this visceral, large-scale installation in person! Merging the setting of a Catholic church confessional booth with a doctor's waiting room, the installation makes reference to the historical practice of bloodletting as an analogy for the artist's gender transition. ... For Smith, the process was a means 'to reclaim the autonomy I had in that situation and reimagine it as something playful and absurd'. Alongside Smith's installation, HERE&NOW20 features new work by seven Western Australian contemporary artists that explore queer history and identity. Don't miss this landmark show! HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer On show until 5 December Opening hours: Tues - Sat, 12pm-5pm Video by Levi Williams

13.01.2022 Waiting for the weekend? Come along to one of our upcoming Saturday tours and explore HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. Tours are free - registration required via Eventbrite Verbal Description + Tactile Tour 12PM - SAT 19 SEPT HERE&NOW20 curator Brent Harrison and exhibiting artists Nathan Beard and Colin Smith share insights into their artworks and exhibition. The tour includes visual descriptions of the exhibition and the artworks and carefully controlled tactile opportunit...ies to explore sample items, maquettes and other materials. Presented with DADAA for visitors who are blind or vision impaired, friends and carers. + LWAG Signs: Auslan Interpreted Tour 2PM - SAT 26 SEPT Join Curator Brent Harrison for an Auslan-interpreted tour of HERE&NOW20. Presented with Auslan Stage Left for visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, friends and carers.

12.01.2022 This Saturday 29 August, were delighted to reopen our doors with three new exhibitions! Find out more about whats on show from Lee Kinsella, Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, Brent Harrison, curator of HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer, artist Drew Pettifer and LWAG Director Ted Snell. In addition to these new exhibitions, you can also explore Boomerang A National Symbol, presented by the Berndt Museum, which has been extended now until 5 December. ... Were open TuesdaysSaturdays, 12pm5pm, from this Saturday 29 August until Saturday 5 December. We look forward to welcoming you back into the gallery! --- Artwork credits: Penny Bovell, Dream I, 1980, graphite and pencil on paper, 140 x 100cm, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia. and courtesy the artist. Kate Just, In my skin, 2011, hand and machine knitted acrylic yarn, 178 x 88 x 1cm, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia. and courtesy the artist. Photo credit: Catherine Evans. Video by Levi Williams.

12.01.2022 For this weeks #OurLWAGCollection, Clare McFarlane, LWAGs talented designer and a practicing artist in her own right, shares reflections on her selection from the UWA Art Collection, this 1967 painting by Sydney Ball: Now, wouldnt this artwork just look brilliant on my wall? Of course, Id need to totally redesign my home to accommodate it actually Id need a new house to accommodate it. But it would look just amazing. It is very immersive; being as big as it is it seem...s to be trying to overwhelm the viewer. I love those colours the totally sixties mustard and the bright red line next to the thin blue one that just pops! Very evocative makes me think of The Beatles though that may be because I am re-listening to a lot of The Beatles at the moment on vinyl ah so cool. Getting back to the painting, I like to think of this as an extreme detail from one of those beautiful Moorish or Persian Palaces. Which is interesting one because that architecture is so detailed and ornate it seems like the antithesis of this minimalist painting and two they both share the aversion to the figurative. Of course, the title alludes to that influence as well it being the English name for a city in Iran known for its Persian architecture (thank you, Wikipedia). I havent been to Iran, but I have been to southern Spain where there is some beautiful Moorish architecture and I would love to go back there one day far away but for now if you could just loan me the painting that would be great :) --- Sydney Ball, Ispahan, 1967, acrylic on canvas, 182.8 x 341 cm, The University of Western Australiaa Art Collection, Gift of Dr Albert Gild --- #lwag #lwagallery #lwagplus #OurLWAGCollection #museumfromhome

12.01.2022 Todays #OurLWAGCollection highlights the writing of Suzanne Falkiner on Sir Sidney Nolans portrait of Randolph Stow. Suzanne Falkiners biography of Stow, Mick: A Life of Randolph Stow was published by UWA Publishing in 2016. This text was written in 2017 as part of the Sidney Nolan Trusts #Nolan100, celebrating 100 years since Nolans birth. In March 1963 the poet and novelist Randolph Mick Stow had resigned from teaching at Leeds University and was on his way home t...o take up a position at the University of Western Australia. Stow had met Nolan in London the previous year, after Geoffrey Dutton had suggested to the painter that he illustrate Stows poems. The two became friends, sharing a passion for the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and a love of the Australian landscape. Stow, in a fragile condition after a traumatic period in the Trobriand Islands, was taken under Cynthia Nolans wing. We were so late talking I finished staying the night. I do like Sidney - and Cynthia too, though she scares me a bit, Mick wrote to his mother. To mark the friendship, Stow dedicated to Nolan one of his best-known poems, The Lands Meaning: The love of man is a weed of the waste places. One may think of it as the spinifex of dry souls. A year later, Nolan presented Stow with a small, impressionistic sketch on a cardboard postcard, apparently made while the artist was on a train, entitled Stow as Rimbaud as Stow. Inscribed on the back, For Mick, Greetings from the Nolans, 24 March 1963, the image was based on a portrait photograph of Rimbaud that strikingly resembled the young, blue-eyed Stow. Nolan told Mick that while painting it he had two poets in mind, one being him and the other Rimbaud, wrote Stows sister Helen. Of the few portraits made of the notoriously shy Stow, this is the most evocative. --- Image: Sidney Nolan, [Portrait of Randolph Stow], c. 1962-63, watercolour, 14x9 cm, The University of Western Australia Art Collection, Gift of Mrs Helen McArthur, 2011 --- #OurLWAGCollection #lwagplus #museumfromhome

12.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by Payton Wilkins, a member of the LWAG Student Advisory Committee currently studying a double degree in Psychology. Payton reflects on Western Australian artist Bob Birchs mixed media work Heartbreaker - doo doo doo doo doo (1973-74). I was drawn to Bob Birchs Heartbreaker doo doo doo doo doo because of the vibrant colours within the mixed media composition. The paintings contrasting colours ensure it has the abili...ty to capture the attention of anyone within its radius, and it definitely caught mine. Bob Birchs fascination with the natural world and appreciation for different cultures and landscapes is reflected in this work. From colourful and abstract to closely-observed studies, each section is enjoyable. Image: Bob Birch, Heartbreaker - doo doo doo doo doo, 1973-74, synthetic polymer paint, canvas, paper, rubber and fabric, 203 x 170cm, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1975. ---- #lwagplus #museumfromhome #UWAArtCollection

11.01.2022 Happening tonight Life drawing organised by The ALVA Student Society - open to UWA Students and general public. $10 ALVA members | $15 Non-members... Online tickets close at 4pm. Limited door sales available. See more

11.01.2022 Calling all female identifying and non binary UWA Students: We are seeking submissions for a design to promote an upcoming exhibition of works on paper from The University of Western Australia's Cruthers Collection of Women's Art! The selected design will not only be featured on posters across Perth and on display in the Paper Cut exhibition, the artist will also receive $1000!... Tune in this Wednesday 16 December at 10am to hear more about this fantastic opportunity from CCWA Curator Lee Kinsella! --- Paper Cut: Design Call-Out INFO SESSION: Weds 16 Dec, 10am Zoom: https://bit.ly/3n3hrio | Password: 440901 Designs Due: Thurs 7 Jan More details: https://www.uwa.edu.au/lwag/exhibitions/paper-cut ---

09.01.2022 #OurLWAGCollection this week has been selected by Teba Al Taey, a Physiology and English and Cultural Studies student and member of the LWAG Student Advisory Committee. Teba shares her thoughts on Moored Boat by Western Australian painter and printmaker Edith Trethowan: Trethowans Moored boat stands out with its use of contrasting black and white engraved wood. It gives the artwork a rustic aura that at the same time is able to depict a serene scene. The man casually ...perched on the boat which rocks on the still, calm waters creates an overwhelming sense of peace and warmth. I find it interesting that I can still grasp the dynamic atmosphere of the suspended boat, moored yet still prone to the ripples of the sea, when the artwork is a wooden engraving that is static and still. The colours of the mans surroundings, although depicted in black and white, are almost palpable the more I gaze at the harmonious view. Trethowans artwork seems to wholeheartedly celebrate solitude, when it is in the companionship of none other than nature. --- Image: Edith Trethowan, Moored boat, c. 1930, wood engraving, 10.2 x 13.2 cm, McGillivray Bequest Fund, 1988 --- #lwagplus #lwagallery #museumfromhome #UWAartcollection

09.01.2022 Thanks to everyone who attended our Thinking Queerly Symposium this weekend! We’re excited to continue the conversation this Thursday at 6pm with a Panel Discussion: Exploring contemporary issues challenging LGBTQI+ people Come along to hear different perspectives on issues pertinent to the LGBTQI+ community with a series of presentations followed by a panel discussion. Featuring a range of experts working in the fields of law, medicine, politics, education and healthcare. ... ----- Thursday 19 November 6pm - 7.30pm Woolnough Lecture Theatre, UWA Free event | Register at Panel Discussion: Exploring contemporary issues challenging LGBTQI+ people ----

09.01.2022 There’s only a few days left to see Paper Cut: Part 1, which closes this Sat 10 April! Don’t miss this fantastic selection of strident, powerful and political works on paper from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art. From 17 April, a second mass showing of works on paper from the CCWA will be on display this time featuring representations of landscape and animals, alongside political posters relating to the environment. ... Paper Cut: Part 1 features the work of Ann Newmarch, Barbara Brash, Barbara Hanrahan, Bea Maddock, Edith Trethowan, Eveline Syme, Helen Eager, Joy Hester, Jude Adams, Julia Church (Another Planet), Margaret Preston, Mary Macqueen, Mary Moore, Memnuna Vila-Bogdanich, Miriam Stannage, Nancy Grant, Nola Farman, Pamela Brañas (Redletter Press), Pamela Harris, Rhonda Dick, Rina Franz, Ruth Tuck, Susan Norrie, TextaQueen, Toni Robertson, Vicki Varvaressos, Vivienne Shark LeWitt, Vivonne Thwaites, Women’s Domestic Needlework Group and Yoshiko Tsushima. We’re open 12pm-5pm, Tues-Sat. See you in the Gallery soon! Image: Installation view, Paper Cut: Part 1. Photograph by Illka K Photography.

09.01.2022 Join us for the livestream of the Thinking Queerly symposium!

09.01.2022 Join the Friends of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery on a visit to April Pine's studio this Sunday 11 October. April Pine is a professional architect turned artist who works in the medium of sculpture. A popular exhibitor at Sculpture by the Sea in both Bondi and Cottesloe for several years, this year she received the Alcoa Aluminium Sculpture Award for her work Flutter. Her work can be found in private and public collections throughout Australia, and internationally in Por...tugal and New Zealand. Ticket are $25 for Friends of the Gallery and $30 for the general public. Refreshments provided. Book here: https://lwag2039.eventbrite.com.au/?aff=fb --- Image: April Pine, Flutter I and II, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, 2020. Photo by Richard Watson.

08.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by LWAG Director, Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA. Ted reflects on Guy Grey-Smiths painting Rottnest (1954-57): Although it has a terrible history as a place of incarceration for Aboriginal prisoners, a reformatory for recalcitrant youth and a POW camp during the First and Second World Wars, Wadjemup/Rottnest has retained its iconic status for Western Australians as a place of escape. It is, as George Seddon explains ... a si...mpler, better, truer world that the one we usually tread. It is this truer world, vibrant, stark and blisteringly hot, that Guy Grey-Smith captured in his painting Rottnest, completed in 1957. The clarity of his vision and the intensity of his colour giving concrete form to Seddons words in an enduring image that has been burned into the consciousness of Western Australians. Matisses influence is evident in the vermilion red addition to the blue underpainting of the sky and reflected back in the salt-lake. It generates an extraordinary quality of oppressive heat. The stark simplification of the distinctive flora into black, rhythmic cones and circles, and the direct, almost crude handling of the paint, also echo the Fauvist concern for a totally expressive picture. As Matisse explained in his Notes of a Painter: The simplest means are those which enable an artist to express himself best. If he fears the obvious, he cannot avoid it by strange representations, bizarre drawing or eccentric colour. The influences of English painters Ceri Richards, Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland are also evident, but the resulting image transcends its influences and, in its vigour and freshness, creates a new schema for a uniquely local experience. --- Image: Guy Grey-Smith, Rottnest, 1954-57, oil on canvas, 61.2 x 76 cm, The University of Western Australia --- #lwagplus

08.01.2022 This weeks #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by Mia Davis, a UWA Fine Arts & History of Art student. Mia discusses Lindsay Pows painting Double funnelled, twin screwed, brass bound, stamped in every link (1977) from the UWA Art Collection. "Lindsay Pows Double funnelled recontextualises a faded photograph of the artists grandfather, Claude Choules, in a loose-fitting Royal Navy (RN) uniform at age 14. The repeated image of the wide-eyed boy is visually striking; h...e looks fearfully at the viewer, uncertain of his future. Primary colours intricately outline the portrait beneath a wash of dull blue paint which blurs across the canvas, whereby the fourth rendition of the boys face is no longer recognisable. Part of a larger series of paintings, Pows work investigates the loss of childhood innocence as a direct consequence of war. Choules served with the RN from 1915 until 1926. After emigrating to Australia, he served for a further 30 years with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). His outstanding contribution to both World Wars was recognised in 2011 as the RAN named a supply ship after him, the only Mercury boy to have this distinction. At the time of his death in 2011, Choules was the oldest known combat veteran of the First World War and the last man to serve in both World Wars. Double funnelled demystifies the glorification of war by revisiting a time of innocence and a place of confusion. Through this artwork, Pow remembers the men and boys who risked their lives fighting for this country, and in so doing, pays homage to his grandfather." --- Image: Lindsay Pow, Double funnelled, twin screwed, brass bound, stamped in every link, 1977, oil and silkscreen on canvas, 177.2 x 203 cm, Acquired with the assistance of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council --- #lwagplus #lwagallery #museumfromhome

08.01.2022 This week’s #OurLWAGCollection has been selected by LWAG Director, Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA. Ted reflects on Guy Grey-Smith’s painting ‘Rottnest’ (1954-57): ‘Although it has a terrible history as a place of incarceration for Aboriginal prisoners, a reformatory for recalcitrant youth and a POW camp during the First and Second World Wars, Wadjemup/Rottnest has retained its iconic status for Western Australians as a place of escape. It is, as George Seddon explains ... a si...mpler, better, truer world that the one we usually tread. It is this 'truer' world, vibrant, stark and blisteringly hot, that Guy Grey-Smith captured in his painting ‘Rottnest’, completed in 1957. The clarity of his vision and the intensity of his colour giving concrete form to Seddon's words in an enduring image that has been burned into the consciousness of Western Australians. Matisse’s influence is evident in the vermilion red addition to the blue underpainting of the sky and reflected back in the salt-lake. It generates an extraordinary quality of oppressive heat. The stark simplification of the distinctive flora into black, rhythmic cones and circles, and the direct, almost crude handling of the paint, also echo the Fauvist concern for a totally expressive picture. As Matisse explained in his Notes of a Painter: The simplest means are those which enable an artist to express himself best. If he fears the obvious, he cannot avoid it by strange representations, bizarre drawing or eccentric colour. The influences of English painters Ceri Richards, Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland are also evident, but the resulting image transcends its influences and, in its vigour and freshness, creates a new schema for a uniquely local experience.’ --- Image: Guy Grey-Smith, 'Rottnest', 1954-57, oil on canvas, 61.2 x 76 cm, The University of Western Australia --- #lwagplus

07.01.2022 In celebration of our 30th anniversary, were shining a light on some of our favourite exhibitions! This week, it is the very first HERE&NOW exhibition, which opened on 10 August 2012. Curated each year by an emerging curator, the annual HERE&NOW exhibition series explores key themes within contemporary practice in Western Australia. HERE&NOW12 surveyed the work of artist-run initiatives and highlighted an experimental and interconnected system of art-making unique to Western... Australia. Three local galleries Galleria, the Museum of Natural Mystery and OK Gallery served as satellite venues, co-presenting the program alongside LWAG. Curated by Katie Lenanton, the LWAG exhibition featured work by artists Ben Kovacsy, Clare Peake, Tom Freeman and Jacob Ogden Smith. On August 29, well be re-opening to the public with a round of new exhibitions, including the next iteration of HERE&NOW. Curated by Brent Harrison, HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer will feature new work by artists Benjamin Bannan, Nathan Beard, Janet Carter, Lill Colgan, Jo Darbyshire, Bront Jones, Andrew Nicholls and Colin Smith. --- Opening at LWAG on 29 August 2020 HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer Drew Pettifer: A Sorrowful Act Unladylike Acts: Recent Acquisitions from the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art Boomerang A National Symbol (re-opening) Images: Installation views, HERE&NOW12, curated by Katie Lenanton, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, 10 August - 6 October 2012 --- #lwag30 #lwagplus

06.01.2022 This week is your last chance to see our current exhibitions before we close for 2020! Don’t miss the new works in HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer, including installations, video, sculpture and textiles created by eight talented Western Australian contemporary artists. Continue to explore queer themes in Drew Pettifer’s A Sorrowful Act, which investigates the first recorded moment in Australia’s European queer history following the wreck of the Dutch ship the Zeewijk in 1727.... History and contemporaneity collide in (Un)ladylike Acts, which highlights seven recent acquisitions from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art that interrogate ideas of power, gender and identity. Finally Boomerang - A National Symbol explores the many uses and symbols of boomerang, featuring objects drawn from a collection of over 200 boomerangs at the Berndt Museum. We’re open Tues - Sat, 12pm-5pm until 5 Dec. See you soon! HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer Drew Pettifer: A Sorrowful Act (Un)ladylike Acts: Recent Acquisitions from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art Boomerang - A National Symbol On show until 5 Dec - Image: Installation view, HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer. Photograph: Illka K Photography.

04.01.2022 Easter Opening Hours - Open Saturday! If you’re in Perth over the break, why not drop in Saturday and see our current exhibitions Dislocation, Paper Cut and Creatures, and artists in residence Fold, Stitch and Staple. There’s only one week left before Paper Cut closes for changeover - from 17 April, a whole new selection of CCWA works will be on display. From 13 April, there will also be new artists in residence - Haus of Memories by Studio Kiin - so get in while you stil...l can! 2/4 Good Friday: Closed 3/4 Easter Saturday: OPEN 12PM-5PM 4/4 Easter Sunday: Closed 5/4 Easter Monday: Closed 6/4 Tuesday: Normal opening hours (12pm-5pm Tues-Sat) resume Paper Cut Part 1: 27 Feb - 10 April Paper Cut Part 2: 17 April - 5 June Paper Cut Residency Space Fold, Stitch & Staple: 23 March - 10 April Haus of Memories: 13 April - 8 May Dislocation: 27 Feb - 5 June Creatures: 27 Feb - 5 June Image: Installation view, Olga Cironis: Dislocation. Photograph by Lyle Branson.

04.01.2022 Thank you so much to everyone who visited The Naval Store for Ross Seaton: The Master of Nedlands Didn't have the opportunity to visit in person? Or interested in delving further into Seaton's work? Visit our website to order your copy of the Ross Seaton publication or explore the online exhibition, both of which feature numerous images of Seaton's work alongside text by curator and LWAG Director Ted Snell ... Find out more here: https://bit.ly/3oQ8s4Q

04.01.2022 Vale Ross Seaton. We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of local artist Ross Seaton, aged 76. Ross was an iconic figure, easily recognisable as he walked up and down Stirling Highway to the ocean, often pushing a wheelbarrow. Ross was also a prolific artist, creating thousands of paintings and drawings from his front garden in Nedlands over the past 30 years. We are looking forward to sharing Rosss extraordinary work in our upcoming digital exhibition Ross Seaton - Master of Nedlands, which will launch in December 2020. Curated by LWAG Director, Professor Ted Snell, the exhibition will feature paintings and drawings that communicate Seatons complex and interdisciplinary view of how the world works in harmony. It will be the first exhibition dedicated to Ross Seatons work.

02.01.2022 The latest episode of LWAGTalks is now live In this episode, members of the LWAG Student Advisory Committee Victor Arul, Fannisa Assyilah, Mia Davis and Amy Reid interview Lee Kinsella, Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art. Listen in to hear more about the history and role of the CCWA and the newly-released collection database, as well as details about the upcoming collection exhibition (Un)ladylike Acts. ... Tune in now: https://bit.ly/2Zf1ZoG --- Image: LWAG Collection store, photograph by Nic Montagu. ---

02.01.2022 We are delighted to announce our next series of upcoming exhibitions, as well as the reopening of our doors on Saturday 29 August! Online from 11 July: Expressions of India: From the Ronald M. and Catherine H. Berndt Collection - a selection of Indian paintings that cuts across social circumstance, place and time to provide a glimpse into pockets of everyday life throughout India from various perspectives. ... In the Gallery from 29 Aug: HERE&NOW20: Perfectly Queer - featuring new work by 8 contemporary Western Australian artists that draw on histories and their own lived experiences to create work that reflects on what it means to be queer. Drew Pettifer: A Sorrowful Act - Melbourne-based artist Drew Pettifer builds on his work unearthing hidden queer histories in this solo exhibition exploring the first recorded moment in (European) queer history: a 1727 sodomy trial following the wreck of Dutch ship the Zeewijk off the Houtman Abrolhos. (Un)ladylike Acts: Recent Acquisitions from the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art -an exploration of the gendered politics of art practice through a suite of recent donations and acquisitions to the Cruthers Collection. Boomerang A National Symbol - which explores the idea of the boomerang beyond a symbol of Australia to highlight its many uses and meanings. We cant wait to see you all back in the gallery soon! --- Images: (1) Benjamin Bannan, Salvation Rainbow (detail), 2020, etched aluminium and two-pack enamel paint, 320 x 180 x 5cm, photograph by Lyle Branson, (c) courtesy the artist. (2) Drew Pettifer, Untitled (Journal #4), 2019, chromogenic print, 30 x 45cm, (c) courtesy the artist. (3) Madison Bycroft, (Un)Ladylike acts for every lady lacking (A Gift to the King), 2013, still from single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 3:58 loop. Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, University of Western Australia. (c) courtesy the artist. (4) Narasimha Fighting Hiranyakashipu the Demon King, early 20th century, Odisha, India. Opaque watercolour on cloth, 12.8 x 20.4 cm. Bequest of RM & CH Berndt, Berndt Museum of Anthropology Collection [1994/0851] ---

01.01.2022 For this weeks #OurLWAGCollection, Lee Kinsella, Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, discusses the painting Hanging mask by Leanne Emmitt: "This work was included in Configured: Aspects of contemporary Western Australian figurative art, a touring exhibition that was curated by Kevin Robertson and shown at LWAG in 2006.(1) It was here that Lady Sheila Cruthers viewed Emmitts work and expressed a wish to acquire all three portraits that were on display. As ...the artist stated: I consider all of the images to be self portraits as they were all painted from life using myself as the model.(2) I have never met the artist, but in 2012 selected her three paintings to be included in the Surface and Self exhibition at LWAG alongside work by Jillian Green and Kirstine Sadler. Since that time, I have enjoyed intermittent email correspondence with Emmitt, initially when the artist was living in Useless Loop, and working to collect seeds from native plants with scientists at Kings Park for the rehabilitation of the land after mining. Emmitt engages with, and commits to, local stories and community. She is now living in far North Queensland, and balances her work supporting Indigenous artists at Yalanji Arts Centre with her own practice. When Doug Sheerer, WA artist and gallerist, viewed Surface and Self, he commented that he had been one of Emmitts lecturers during her art studies at Curtin University and recalled her precocious talent, even then.(3) This work demonstrates the artists dedication to the crafting of a hyperrealist painting to detail the texture and features of the face in monochrome. Having spent many hours working to register how light falls across her face, the trompe loeil (trick the eye) effect enables the illusion of three-dimensions using paint on a flat surface. Emmitts conflation of the mask and the self defies the metaphorical notion that the mask conceals a true self beneath. What is real and false are no longer distinguishable. I read the masks grinning expression as evidence of the artists enjoyment in laying bare the mechanics of her self portrait while revealing so very little of herself. It is playful and brilliant in its execution." 1. Exhibiting artists were Andrew Daly, Jo Darbyshire, Leanne Emmitt, Richard Gunning, Thomas Horeau, David Lamb, Joanna Lamb, Gary Pumfry and Kevin Robertson. See catalogue, Configured: Aspects of contemporary Western Australian figurative art, ART ON THE MOVE, Perth, 2005. 2. Artists email to John Cruthers, August 2007, UWA CCWA artist file. 3. Conversation between Doug Sheerer and the author, August 2012. Image: Leanne Emmitt, Hanging mask, 2005, oil on board, 45.5 x 45.5cm, Cruthers Collection of Womens Art, The University of Western Australia and courtesy of the artist

01.01.2022 We have a new LWAGTalks episode for your weekend listening pleasure It is the second episode of Art Aside, a series of short, 5-10 minute stories by LWAG Director Ted Snell that delve into fascinating, little-known aspects of the history of art. Art Aside 2: The Case of the Backyard Pollocks explores the effects of the 1973 purchase of Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles by the @nationalgalleryaus . At $1.3 million, the painting was so expensive its pur...chase had to be approved by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The ensuing controversy continued some years later, thanks to some fake Pollocks exhibited by a Perth art dealer... Listen here: https://bit.ly/2Zf1ZoG See more