Middle Head Landscape Project

On campus exhibition of 2nd Year student works, opened by Bernard Ollis, Director at 5.30pm Wednesday 28 May 2008, in Building 25, National Art School.

The exhibition is based upon the 2nd Year Landscape Project at Middle Head and displays the process involved in making a painting, from the original study on site to the finished studio painting. The project is made possible with the cooperation and support of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Exhibition dates: 27-29 May 2008 Opening Hours: 10am-4.30pm

NATIONAL ART SCHOOL CERAMICS STAFF EXHIBITIONS

AUSTRALIAN WOODFIRE CERAMICS 3 April - 12 May John Freeland Gallery 120 Glenmore Rd Paddington.
Group exhibition including staff: BILL SAMUELS, SANDY LOCKWOOD,DON COURT & TANIA ROLLOND

STURT WOODFIRE CONFERENCE 18-21 APRIL at the Sturt Contemporary Craft Centre in Mittagong.
SANDY LOCKWOOD is a presenter.

KEY PRESENTERS 26 March-21 April
Sturt Gallery, Mittagong
Group Exhibition including SANDY LOCKWOOD

THE MASTERS 14 -21 April
Sturt Contemporary Craft Centre, Mittagong Group exhibition including BILL SAMUELS

A TASTE OF WOODFIRING 16-21 April
Sturt Contemporary Craft Centre, Mittagong Group exhibition including staff DON COURT

BOTANICALS: 5 April - 15 June
OBJECT GALLERY, Bourke Street, Darlinghurst Group exhibition including staff TANIA ROLLOND

MERRAN ESSON 15 April – 17 May at
Stella Downer Gallery 2 Danks Street, Waterloo

EAST WINDS 21 March - 5 May
Cudgegong Gallery, Gulgong
Group exhibition including staff WON SEOK KIM.

Scumbag

Scumbag - Ella Dreyfus

Exhibition Opening at Stills Gallery on Wed 9 April 6-8pm
Exhibition 9 April to 10 May 2008
Artist Talk Saturday 12 April 2pm

36 Gosbell Streeet, Paddington NSW 2021

Doug Moran National Portrait Prize

Among the finalists in this year's Moran prize for portraiture were NAS lecturer Noel McKenna and alumni Seth Birchall, Cherry Hood, and Guy Maestri.

Congratulations to all!

Images of all finalists' work are available at the Moran Prizes website.

Rodney Pople wins Sulman!

Congratulations to NAS lecturer Rodney Pople on winning the 2008 Sulman Prize with his work Stage fright.

An image of the work and details of the exhibition are available at: http://www.thearchibaldprize.com.au/winners/sulman

Archibald, Wynne and Sulman finalists

National Art School staff, students and graduates feature in this year's Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Finalists in the Archibald are Joanna Braithwaite, Rodney Pople and Leslie Rice.
Finalists in the Wynne are Euan Macleod and Rodney Pople.
Finalists in the Sulman are Vilma Bader, Yvonne Boag, Janet Haslett, Rodney Pople and Aida Tomescu.

Announcement of the winners will take place on Friday 7 March 2008 at 12 noon.

The exhibition will be on display at the Art Gallery of NSW 8 March - 18 May 2008.

Salad Days: Justin Balmain, Deidre Brollo, Catherine Fox, David Wills

In 2007 The National Art School selected four talented young artists to undertake residencies within the fields of drawing, photography, painting and printmaking. After a year of working in their studios on campus, teaching and sustained interaction with students and faculty, The National Art School is presenting an invigorating exhibition defined by fresh new ideas inspired by the art school environment. The exhibition features work by the artists Justin Balmain, Deidre Brollo, Catherine Fox and David Wills. Salad Days is an exciting and diverse exhibition that is the manifestation of a years’ work for these four artists. The title Salad Days plays with the idiomatic expression used to refer to the days when we are young and relatively inexperienced and idealistic, but can also mean a time when we are at the peak of our abilities.

Justin Balmain’s abstract paintings and drawings playfully embrace ornament, pattern making and shifting perspective often creating striking optical effects. His work questions the material parameters of two dimensional works, and incorporates blankets, wallpaper, rubber, and graffiti along with traditional media of paint and ink. David Wills’ photo-media based work examines the nature of consumer society and mass-consumption. His mass accumulation of photographs look at both images of luxury and the abject that make up our daily intake of visual information. Catherine Fox’s large and small scale oil paintings evoke both traditional and contemporary representations of the nude and self-portraiture. Deidre Brollo is a printmaker with a particular interest in artists' books. Using various printmaking techniques she creates familiar images of unfamiliar places as a means of evoking ideas of place and the uncertainty of memory.

Salad Days will take the format of a group exhibition with an evolving project space that will be utilised by three of the artists for a period of 6 days each over the duration of the overall presentation. This allows for a continuous display of work and evolving solo presentations by the artists.


Salad Days: Justin Balmain, Deidre Brollo, Catherine Fox, David Wills
National Art School 2007 Artists in Residence

21 February – 29 March 2008
National Art School Gallery
10am – 4pm (Closed Sundays & Public Holidays)


EVENTS

Midweek Social
Thursday 6 March, 6 – 9pm
David Wills invites you to an evening of board games, refreshments, entertainment and prizes
Dress Code: Cocktail/Cruise

The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKenna

Service Station, Paddington (1988)



From 21 February – 29 March 2008 the National Art School Gallery will present The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKennaa selection of little or never before seen works by McKenna that he made as a young man after moving from Brisbane to Sydney in the late 1970s. These early watercolours, drawings and prints convey the human dimension in the modern city, depicting the familiar and changing terrain of Sydney from Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Centennial Park and beyond. In these delightful images of the city we see the pleasure of the artist as he explores his new home, from the camaraderie of friends playing football in Centennial Park, a solitary urban figure in an apartment complex in Surry Hills or the thrill of the ferris wheel at Luna Park and the monumental presence of the Harbour Bridge.

McKenna’s work shows a wry and subtle sense of humour without ever being cloying or sentimental. His ongoing interest in depicting flat, spare images are seen in their earliest incarnation in these works on paper from 1976-1989. The portable nature of works on paper inherently convey the nature of his trajectory as he moved about Sydney turning his incisive eye on the ordinary, the everyday, the ‘crapola’ as he calls it. This is part one of a two part presentation, McKenna will be showing works from his 2007 travels through Sydney at Darren Knight Gallery later this year.

The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket: Noel McKenna

21 February – 29 March 2008

National Art School Gallery
10am – 4pm (Closed Sundays & Public Holidays)


Public Programs

Art Forum Series 5 March, 1 PM FREE
Join artist Noel McKenna and Katie Dyer, NAS Gallery Curator, for a discussion on the selection of works in the exhibition and McKenna’s intriguing narrative works about the city which he has made over the last three decades.

Congratulations to all NAS prize winners for 2007!

FONAS Art School Ball Prizes for Drawing ($500 each)
ROBERT SHEPHERD, 1st yr and NAOMI MIKHAIEL, 2nd yr
Blankcanvas Award (materials to the value of $500)
DANIEL HOLLIER, 2nd yr
FONAS Prizes ($500 for outstanding 2nd yr student in each Dept)
Art History & Theory - ANGELIKI ANDROUTSOPOULOS
Ceramics - CAROLYN LEDERMAN
Painting - KATHERINE UREN
Photography - KYLIE SYLVESTER
Printmaking - JASMINE FRANCIS
Sculpture - TAMMIE CASTLES
Global Materials Award – $500 worth of materials for outstanding 2nd yr (Painting)
JANICE HEBERLING
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Awards for 2007, totalling $4,800.
MARIE O’BRIEN
NAOMI MIKHAIL
CHRIS WALTER
REBECCA BLACKBURN
GEORGINA POLLARD
GAIL JACKSON
CHRISTINA BUDDEN
HUW LEWIS
2008 Onslow Storrier National Art School Paris Studio
Ana Anderson Honours Painting
Lauren Murphy Honours Printmaking
Catherine Bailey Painting Alumnus 05
Kim Spooner NAS Painting staff
National Association for the Visual Arts Ignition Prize for Professional Development

GIOVANNA MARELLI

CERAMICS
The Australian Ceramics Directory Award
JUSTINE KITSON
The Journal of Australian Ceramics Award
KIM MAREE
The Ceramics Art & Perception Prize
JUSTINE KITSON
The Janet Mansfield Ceramics Award
JUSTIN COOPER
N.E. Pethebridge Award ($500 for research in ceramics for an Honours student)
SEINILEVA HUAKAU
N.E. Pethebridge Award ($500 for research in ceramics for 3rd Year Student)
RAQUEL THOMPSON
The Inner City Clayworkers Gallery Student Award
JUSTIN COOPER
Sabbia Gallery Exhibition Prize for an exhibition in December 2008
RAQUEL THOMPSON
Sydney Olympic Park Residency – Ceramics
SEINILEVA HUAKAU
ADFAS Award ($1,000 for an outstanding 3rd year student)
RAQUEL THOMPSON

DRAWING
FONAS Art School Ball Prizes for Drawing ($1,000)
AKHIRO MATSUDA
The John Olsen Prize for Figure Drawing ($2,000)
NICOLE TOMS
The Clive Stanbridge Prize ($2,000)
NICOLE TOMS

PHOTOGRAPHY
The Kayell Award (voucher for $500)
ALLAN GARLICK
The PhotoKing Award ($1,070 photographic printing voucher)
Wina Jie
The Joel Corrigan Memorial Photography Award ($1,000)
ROSLYN DURNFORD

PRINTMAKING
The Stella Downer Printmaking Award ($500)
DEAN BROWN
The Akky Van Ogtrop Printmaking Award ($200 towards materials)
NICHOLAS CHRISTOFORIDIS
Sydney Olympic Park Residency – Printmaking
JAMESON KING
The Australian Galleries Works on Paper Exhibition Award
LAUREN MURPHY (HONOURS)
YORI PRICE (3RD YEAR)

SCULPTURE
Australian Casting Prize (value of $700 towards bronze casting)
HILDRETH POTTS
Sydney Olympic Park Residency – Sculpture
TANYA ZHIVANOVICH
The Julian Beaumont Sculpture Prize ($5,000)
GINI VECERINA

PAINTING
Chroma Paints Award ($500 of painting materials)
KEVIN McKAY
The Sydney Art Cooperative Studio Award (Use of a studio for 6 months each)
PHILIPPA HAGON
KATE BUTCHER
Sydney Olympic Park Residency – Painting
GINNINA QUINN
St Vincent’s Xavier Exhibition Award
ALESANDRO LJUBICIC
Parkers Sydney Fine Art Supplies Award ($1000 for materials)
TROY QUINLIVEN
Parkers Sydney Fine Art Framing Award ($1000 for framing)
NATHAN HAWKES
St. Vincent’s Public Hospital Painting Collection Award ($2,000, plus acquisition of work)
KEVIN MCKAY
SHANNAN SAINSBURY
SUZIE WILLIAMS
IVAN GOODACRE
William Fletcher Foundation (prizes totalling $9,000)
STEPHEN BENWELL ($1000)
KIM FASHER ($1000)
SHANNAN SAINSBURY ($1000)
ALESANDRO LJUBICIC ($3000)
KEVIN MCKAY ($3000)
The Reg Richardson Travelling Scholarship ($2500)
CHRIS HORDER
The Paris Studio Residency
MEREDITH WILLIAMS
Clitheroe Foundation Scholarship ($20,000 for a 3rd year student to assist in studying Honours)
MELITA ORAM

NAS Honours Grad wins SOYA07

Congratulations to Joan Cameron-Smith on winning the Qantas Spirit of Youth Award for photography! This award was won in both 2005 and 2006 by another NAS Honours graduate Josh Heath. Find out more about Joan's win here.

Congratulations also to Honours graduate Mitch Cairns, who was highly commended in the Visual Arts category. See the SOYA website for details.

National Art School awarded federal Community Heritage Grant

The National Art School has been awarded a $14,410 federal Community Heritage Grant to fund a Significance Assessment and Preservation Survey of the National Art School and Darlinghurst Gaol Collection and Archive, and to rehouse some of the collection in archival storage.

The grant was announced at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, on Tuesday 13 November. Deborah Beck accepted the grant on behalf of NAS from Jan Fullerton, National Library Director-General.

In addition, Deborah Beck, lecturer and archivist at the National Art School, attended a three-day intensive preservation and collection management workshop held at the National Library, the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Deborah said the grant was important in supporting the effort to preserve the National Art School Archive at the grassroots level. “The grant provides the funds and the workshop the expertise to help us protect our collection and make it accessible while it remains in the local context,” she said. “Over the next year it will be possible to employ an historian and conservator to assess the collection and provide advice on the preservation of the documents, photographs and art works in the archive. We will also be purchasing painting racks, plan drawers and display cabinets for the collection.”

In announcing the awards, National Library Director-General Jan Fullerton said the program, which began in 1994, had surpassed expectations. “It has been taken up by groups throughout Australia, ensuring the longevity of nationally significant collections and that the collections stay in the community where they belong.

The program is managed by the National Library. It is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, the National Archives, the National Film and Sound Archive, the National Museum and the Library.

DEGREE SHOW 07

Bernard Ollis, Director of the National Art School
invites you to the opening of the DEGREE SHOW 07

Celebrating the experience of 3 years of intensive studio practice by final year students majoring in ceramics, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

To be opened by acclaimed artist, alumnus and former lecturer Tim Maguire
on Thursday 29 November 6-9pm in the Cell Block.

The event includes the presentation of end of year prizes.
Exhibition continues until Tuesday 11 December
Monday - Saturday 10am-4pm

Open studios Thursday 29 November 6-9pm
continuing through to 1 December 10am-4pm daily.

David Horton wins Sculpture by the Sea

National Art School staff and students continue to win Australia's major art prizes.

Congratulations to David Horton!

David Horton, currently undertaking his Master of Fine Arts at the National Art School, has today been awarded the 2007 Sculpture by the Sea Prize.

David has been awarded $30,000 for the acquisitive prize. His winning work Yesternight will be placed on permanent public view after the exhibition's conclusion.

David is also currently lecturing in the Sculpture Department at the National Art School.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/31/2077109.htm?section=entertainment

HONOURS SHOW 07

Bernard Ollis, Director of the National Art School
invites you to the opening of the
HONOURS SHOW 07

Featuring works by 22 National Art School Honours students majoring in ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

To be opened by John Firth-Smith
on Thursday 1 November 6-8pm
National Art School Gallery

Exhibition continues until Tuesday 13 November
Monday - Saturday 10am-4pm

Gallery talk, 2 November, 1pm FREE
Join National Art School Honours students as they discuss their work and the process of undertaking this rigorous program of study.

Nathan Hawkes wins 2007 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship

Winner of the 2007 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Nathan Hawkes, Icebergs 2007 oil on canvas, 42 x 76cm .

National Art School student Nathan Hawkes is the winner of the ninth Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship for his work Icebergs 2007, oil on canvas.

One hundred and four entries were received from around Australia, of which 21 are included in the finalists’ exhibition at the Brett Whiteley Studio.

Twenty-six year-old Hawkes is currently completing his third and final year at the National Art School in Darlinghurst, where he is studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in painting. He was included in the National Art School Drawing Week show in 2006, and earlier this year was awarded the St Vincent Xavier Art Space Prize.

In 2004 Mrs Beryl Whiteley was awarded an OAM for the creation and endowment of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship. The inspiration for this annual scholarship was the profound effect of international travel and study experienced by her son, Brett Whiteley, as a result of winning the Italian Travelling Art Scholarship at the age of 20. Nathan has been awarded $25,000 and a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, which is administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The judges this year were artist, Aida Tomescu, Art Gallery of New South Wales Director, Edmund Capon and Barry Pearce, the Gallery’s Head Curator of Australian Art. Aida Tomescu said that Nathan’s work showed a very considered and thoughtful approach to his subject and she was interested in the way each image changed as it evolved into a new identity.

Finalists’ paintings will be exhibited at the Brett Whiteley Studio from Saturday 15 September to 25 November 2007.

Information courtesy press release, Art Gallery of New South Wales

56th Blake Prize for Religious Art

Shirley Purdie, Stations of the Cross, winner, 56th Blake Prize for Religious Art.

Jumaadi, Whisper, John Coburn Emerging Professional Artists Award.

Rodney Pople, The Last Supper, Highly Commended, 56th Blake Prize for Religious Art.

The National Art School is proud to be the hosting partner of The Blake Prize for Religious Art for the second year. Since it’s inception in 1949, The Blake Prize has stimulated a fascinating dialogue between art and religion. Named after the British artist and poet William Blake (1757-1827), the Prize aims to present perspectives from all religious backgrounds, encouraging artists to explore concepts of belief and truth.

The Blake Prize recognises entries related to any faith or artistic style. The work must be made within two years of the submission date and unlike many other prizes there is no restriction on media. This combination generates a dynamic exhibition in which myriad styles, ideas and values sit parallel, and where conservative religious art forms are challenged. This year also saw the awarding of the inaugural John Coburn Emerging Professional Artists Award which honours the memory of the late Australian artist, John Coburn, long associated with the Blake.

The Blake Prize and John Coburn Emerging Professional Artists Award were judged by a panel comprising of Tongan born religious writer and critic Rev. Dr Jione Havea, author and curator Jennifer Isaacs AM well known for her work with indigenous art, and the nationally and internationally renowned artist Lindy Lee, whose Chinese background informs her practice.

The winner of the Blake Prize for Religious Art 2007 is Shirley Purdie, an indigenous artsist for her painting Stations of the Cross. According to the judges: “The winning work by Shirley Purdie is simply delicious in colour, texture and feeling. It is a marvellously realised painterly journey that recreates the stories told to the artist in childhood of the Stations of the Cross in Warmun country using a breathtakingly beautiful natural ochre pallette made from the earths eroded from the very Kimberley rocks whose mobile shapes enclose and frame the vignettes of story. A solidly honest, confident, and true painting it becomes a meditation on travelling within the artists country following a remembered and cherished biblical journey of suffering and pain towards redemption, and perhaps as well asks us to reflect on loss, pain and the journeys we all need to make towards each other.”

National Art School lecturer Rodney Pople was Highly Commended for his work The Last Supper. The judges commented that, “Pople is a great painter of luminosity – energised light. This painting burns slowly and gathers intensity the longer the viewer stays with it.”

Whisper by Indonesian artist Jumaadi was awarded the Inaugural John Coburn Award for Emerging Artists. For the judges, Jumaadi's work was “like a broken- up and laid out manuscript. Evoking the multiplicity of experiences and giving vignettes in the confusing lives of its actors, it references much in art as it does in life which causes one to pause, consider, and yet enjoy its street -wise comic -book illustrations, as well as its deft intelligence. Viewing this work, like judging the Blake prize itself, was like sitting in a gallery of restless stories.” Jumaadi is a Masters of Fine Arts candidate at the National Art School.


Further information on the exhibition is available from the Blake Society at http://www.blakeprize.com.au/

The 56th Blake Prize for Religious Art is on display at the NAS Gallery 30 August – 29 September 2007, Monday – Saturday 10am - 4pm. Please note the NAS Gallery is closed Friday 7th and Saturday 8th September.

Paul Thomas discusses Drawing Breath

In this video from the British Council Paul Thomas discusses works from the exhibition "Drawing Breath: 10 years of the Jerwood Drawing Prize /A Survey Exhibition of Contemporary British Drawing" held at the National Art School Gallery 22 Feb - 13 Apr 2007.

Picasso said, “You should put out the eyes of painters as they do chaffinches so that they can sing more sweetly.” Artist and Jerwood Prize co-founder and judge Paul Thomas explores how great British artists represent the world through drawing and asks, “Why do we all draw so much as children and so little as adults?”

http://podcastuk.org/node/48

NAS students win Dymocks Art Prize

Congratulations to Elizabeth Eastland and Fiona Edmeades, who both won prizes in the recent Dymocks Art Prize.

Elizabeth Eastland came first in the painting section with Little Farmers Cay (below). Fiona Edmeades came second in the drawing section with her work Old Friend. Both had their works displayed in the windows of the Dymocks stationery store, George St, Sydney.

Image: Little Farmers Cay by Elizabeth Eastland

NAS and Darlinghurst Gaol on ABC Radio

ABC Radio National's social history program ‘Hindsight’ is doing a one hour documentary on Darlinghurst Gaol and the National Art School called ‘Penned in Sandstone’(Henry Lawson’s words).

This program will air on ABC Radio National AM576 on Sunday 29th July at 2pm. It will be repeated on Thursday 2nd August at 1pm. It will also be available on CD from NAS Library.

The program includes interviews with Margaret Olley, Norman Hetherington ( Mr Squiggle), Deborah Beck, Christopher Allen, Colin Lanceley and others.

To subscribe to the podcast or download the audio, go to http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/default.htm

Thankyou to Deborah Beck for passing on this information.

Congratulations to Emily Portmann and Joan Cameron-Smith

NAS Honours graduate Emily Portmann has won the John & Margaret Baker Memorial Fellowship. This is an award for an emerging artist of less than five years experience and part of the 2007 NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE, CONSTRUCTED REALMS: Photography as Theatre

Emily 's work will become part of the Albury City Collection and the work of recent Honours Photography graduate Joan Cameron-Smith was also collected.

If you're in Albury, the exhibition continues until July 8.