Past exhibitions 2013

This exhibition of the Australian Bookbinders focuses on contemporary practice in the art form known as design binding. On display are over 40 books with unique bindings created by 33 artists.

Over 130 exceptional prints and drawings from the British Museum, which holds one of the finest collections of Spanish drawings in the world.

This magnificent 6th-century marble sarcophagus, from the tomb of Yu Hong and his wife in China’s Shanxi province, in many ways exemplifies life along the famous Silk Roads.

In a multi-screen video installation, presented alongside raw and woodfired ceramics, Kershaw considers the practice of Japanese flower arrangement, known as ikebana, and its relationship to the human body.

Brenda L Croft’s works present a realistic portrayal of contemporary Aboriginal life – a positive image from an insider’s viewpoint.

Over 180 works by Australia’s most iconic artists, exploring the making of a modern city.

Brings together a selection of photographs from the Gallery’s collection by this renowned Australian photographer to give insight into the shifts and continuities in his expansive career.

A diverse range of Whiteley works, including rarely exhibited studies, tender paintings, tactile sculptures and frank expressions of the most intimate moments between lovers.

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

New works by Melbourne-based artist Agatha Gothe-Snape and Auckland-based artist Sriwhana Spong, incorporating installation, sculptural objects, video and live performance.

Features seven emerging artists connected by their interest in the artist as performer and or as creator/director of performances, and the viewer’s role as an active participant.

Works from the Gallery’s collection by one of Australia’s most admired artists and one of the pre-eminent landscape artists of his age.

Tony Albert reworks kitsch objects that naively depict Australian Aboriginal people with new painted and graphic elements to create complex installations.

A reprise of the confronting and moving, larger-than-life sculptures of human suffering by Dadang Christanto.

Australia’s most extraordinary art event, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes is an annual exhibition eagerly anticipated by artists and audiences alike.

Over 50 works by two iconic fashion photographers, from the Gallery’s photography collection.

A collection of images on paper related to India, including prints, lithographs and chromolithographs, photographs, posters, paintings and drawings.

This exhibition of photomedia, video, collage, sculpture and installation considers the variegated terrain of love’s language – joy, elation, desire, eroticism, longing, loss, melancholia and memory.

A dynamic and popular exhibition featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts, 2012.

Explores Brett Whiteley’s art and life from 1960 to 1967. Includes works from his Bathroom, Christie and London Zoo series, and monoprints of conversations with Francis Bacon.

Works from the early 1970s to a landmark 2009 print portfolio, including leading artists such as Timmy Payungka Tjapangati, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Doreen Reid Nakamarra and Naata Nungurrayi.

Surveying Bacon’s life and work, this is the first major exhibition in Australia of rare works by this towering figure of 20th-century art.

The most respected award for drawing in Australia, the annual Dobell Prize has always been the subject of discussion and debate about the nature of drawing.

Examines photography’s role in transforming the way we perceive, organise and imagine the everyday world, by looking at the changing ways artists have depicted public and private environments.

In these video works, two staged performances unfold in the spectacular and unforgiving landscapes of clay pans and desert lakes in outback NSW.