Past exhibitions 2009

The Field was the inaugural exhibition for the reopening of the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. Our 2009 display features six paintings shown in this seminal exhibition, from the Gallery’s collection.

A video program revealing the remarkable breadth and diversity of video art in Sydney, including Shaun Gladwell, TV Moore, The Kingpins and Kate Murphy.

An annual exhibition of children’s art from schools throughout NSW created for the Children’s Hospital, Westmead.

Over 100 works by Romantic artists, including Blake, Turner, Géricault and Delacroix, who turned to printmaking for its unique, expressive possibilities.

A display of late 19th-century robes, tunics and textile panels presents the remarkable artistic achievement and technical virtuosity of the silk designers, dyers and weavers of Central Asia.

Explores the tradition of landscape painting, how our concept of nature has changed after the digital revolution and the use of natural materials to craft allegories of place.

The tiny pacific island of Nauru is the starting point for a richly imaginative installation incorporating found objects, collages and video.

Purchased by the Gallery in 1898, Sydney Long’s painting Pan remains one of the most favoured treasures of the Australian art collection.

Presents the work of some of the most important post-war Dutch artists, including those associated with CoBrA and art informel, and those who preceded them, such as Willem de Kooning.

The artists in this year’s Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts consider what it means to transform the self into another persona.

This collaborative exhibition unites the artists’ interests in post-colonial experiences: Ferreira’s in Mozambique and South Africa, Jubelin’s in Australia.

This video installation – inspired by the aesthetics of the early avant-garde – references the legendary dance-performances of Sophie Tauber-Arp at Cabaret Voltaire.

In this video installation, portraits made of coal dust float on water surfaces before distorting and draining away.

This first showing of traditional Korean painting in the Gallery features screens, hanging scrolls and album leaves from the U Fan Lee Collection in the Guimet Museum, Paris.

The bark paintings and works on paper from the Northern Territory became the foundation to the Art Gallery of NSW collection.

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

A visionary and often eclectic search for artistic and spiritual connections between cultures and countries is at the core of Tim Johnson’s art.

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.

Featuring over 32 key artists from the Gallery’s collection, this exhibition celebrates Indigenous Australia’s cultural heritage and its many contemporary expressions.

Horace Trenerry’s late work provides the most significant evidence of his genius: boldly designed images that place him on a par with the finest modern Australian landscape painters of his time.

The first major survey of the work of Australian Indigenous artists engaging with the photographic medium and the portrait.

2008 marks the 1000th anniversary of Japan’s oldest novel, The tale of Genji. This exhibition shows the imaginative power of Japanese artists to adapt and translate this timeless, popular tale.

The Gallery is the only Australian venue for this extraordinary exhibition, including 29 works by Claude Monet alongside masterpieces by Cézanne, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley and others.