Past exhibitions 2005

James Gleeson is Australia’s premier surrealist artist and The Ubu diptych is widely regarded as one of his greatest works.

Explores the changes in international photographic portraiture from 1839 to 1900.

This installation comprises 90 large neon tubes that make a dividing wall from floor to ceiling, with sensors switching sections off or on in response to viewers’ movements.

Daniel Crooks’ video reconfigures views of a train into a mesmerising animation, which helps break down the conventional relationship between space and time.

Focusing on the cultural life of the imperial Chinese mandarins, this exhibition reveals the important role of calligraphy both in an official’s career and as a leisure activity.

From the early 1960s, Earle Backen established himself as one of the finest and most respected Australian printmakers of his generation.

The third Balnaves Sculpture Project features German artist Wolfgang Laib, best known for his magical work with pollen, bees wax and other materials used in a ritual setting.

The most respected award for drawing in Australia, the annual Dobell Prize brings the remarkable drawing talents of Australian artists into the public domain.

Piccinini is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. Swell is part of a sequence of works that examines the evolution of nature in relation to progressive technology.

An exhibition of works that reflect the idea of a new picturesque in Australian art, flourishing largely through the legacy of TS Eliot’s poetry.

Colourful Indian miniature paintings depicting the luxurious lifestyle of the Rajput courts of the Indian state of Rajasthan from the 17th to 19th centuries.

Language and the language of art have often been central tenets in the work of these two artists.

Considers how contemporary Australian artists use language to communicate through their art.

This annual exhibition is one of the most popular in Australia and often one of its most controversial.

This project brings together two of Australia’s most established collaborative partnerships, Rose Farrell/George Parkin and Lyndell Brown/Charles Green.

A reprise of the confronting and moving, larger-than-life sculptures of human suffering by Dadang Christanto, first seen here at the launch of the new Asian galleries in 2003.

A selection of gouache landscapes, dating from the 1960s to 1980, by one of the most important Australian artists of the 20th century.

A series of 116 photographs that explores Simryn Gill’s interest in the passage of time and the evocation of place.

The first survey of the photography of Bill Henson brings together many of the artist’s important series and explores major themes from the last 30 years of his work.

A dynamic and popular annual exhibition featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts.

In their collaborative endeavours, Mutlu Çerkez and Marco Fusinato create abstract excursions about time and reality.

Six moving image and new media artists feature in the inaugural Anne Landa Award exhibition: Van Sowerwine, David Rosetzky, Peter Hennessey, Guy Benfeld, Craig Walsh and Shaun Gladwell.

Highlights from the Gallery’s outstanding collection of Japanese screens, dating from the 17th to 19th centuries and ranging from striking ink landscapes to studies of nature in vivid colours and gold.

Over the past 30 years Allan Mitelman has produced a remarkably wide-ranging and varied body of works on paper, unlike any other in Australian art.