Past exhibitions 2011

On display are 30 books with unique bindings created by 23 artists, ranging from caterpillar with handmade paper covers to plastic, coptic and cane toad ones.

A small selection of works from this year’s scholarship winner and finalists.

This enormous new sculpture, created for the AGNSW Contemporary Projects series, is made up of tree-like forms covered in fake fur.

Over 200 diverse works, including film, theatre, photography, decorative arts and design as well as painting, by leading artists from collections around the world.

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

A collection of artist books by Belinda Brydon, Carma Buesnell, Robbie Cunningham, Ffranses Ingram, Jumaadi, Lia Pielli and Leanne Thompson.

A photographic series examining the vagaries of outback life from one of Australia’s most successful international artists.

The first in-depth exploration of the work of David Aspden (1935-2005), for whom colour, music and landscape were sustaining inspirations.

The most comprehensive exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite drawings ever seen in Australia.

Margaret Olley’s legacy as an artist, patron and great character of the Australian art world will live on through her paintings, her gifts, and the many people who experienced her extraordinary presence.

This exhibition pays homage to Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, the charismatic teacher and champion of the Sydney Moderns, whose studio was the hub for Sydney’s avant-garde in the first half of the 20th century.

Shot in Berlin, this video installation presents a curious sequence of events that take place between a film set, a cameraman’s apartment and an artist’s studio.

Four seminal series by Eikoh Hosoe, a leading figure in modern Japanese photography.

From a poetic walk, to a long-distance flight, to a voyage through a digital desert, seven video and new media artists offer ‘unguided tours’ through rich and unexpected worlds.

The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art awards. JF Archibald’s primary aims were to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians.

Drawing on key works from the Gallery’s collection, art + soul reveals the myriad contemporary artistic expressions that evidence the enduring heritage of Indigenous Australia, in all its diversity and complexity.

Explores the ways in which Australian photographers from the 1970s until now have approached the idea of place, comparing the politically and conceptually charged Australian landscape photography of the 1970s with more recent experimentations.

In the history of white Australian art, there have been few exceptional stone or wood carvers. Rosemary Madigan is one of them, and the female torso is her great forte.

Stunning objects, around 2500 years old, illuminate the ancient belief in the afterlife and the importance of ritual worship of ancestors to the Chinese state and society.

A dynamic and popular exhibition featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts, 2010.

Come face to face with the guardian warriors of China’s First Emperor, entombed for over 2000 years.

The first major retrospective of Justin O’Brien’s work since 1987 and the first since his death in 1996.

Paintings, drawings and prints of Asian ceramic objects by Melbourne-based artist, Kevin Lincoln. Lincoln’s works are exhibited among the works from the Gallery’s and his own collections that have inspired him.

The Dobell Prize is the most respected award for drawing in Australia. Initiated by the trustees of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, the prize was first awarded in 1993.

This Focus Room exhibition presents four recently acquired masterpieces by four artists who, each in their own way, have defined certain boundaries and aspirations of modern Australian painting.

Introducing the competing narratives that emerged following the first European encounters with India, from images of the India of the European imagination to images created under the patronage of foreigners.