Recent NAS graduates exhibit at Australian Galleries

Recent graduates Lauren Murphy and Yori Price, (who both studied printmaking), received the 2007 Australian Galleries Exhibition Award. The fruits of their labour will be on exhibition from Thursday, 19 February to 8 March 2009. Still Lives - Australian Galleries National Art School Award Exhibition will be opened at 6pm on 19 February by the National Art School's Acting Director, Simon Cooper. All are welcome.

Australian Galleries Glenmore Road, 24 Glenmore Road, Paddington NSW 2021. 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 12pm-5pm Sunday.

Future of National Art School secured

The NSW Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Verity Firth MP, has announced that the School is now an independent institution, and will remain at the historic Darlinghurst Gaol site.

The School will be registered as a public company, with a board of directors and the Ministers for Arts and Education as shareholders.

Ms Firth said “This unique institution deserves the opportunity to stand on its own feet and to plan confidently for its future, and this does just that.”

The Minister also announced the appointment of a new Director for the School, Professor Anita Taylor. Professor Taylor is currently Director of the Centre for Drawing at the University of Arts, London. She will take up her appointment shortly.


Link to Minister’s Media Statement: (pdf) http://www.nas.edu.au//pdfs/2009/NAS_Future.pdf

Link to SMH article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/art-institution-welcomes-hardwon-ndependence/2009/01/27/1232818435582.html

Link to ABC News: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/28/2475834.htm

National Art School Thanks Sydney Harbour Foreshore Trust

Bernard Ollis, Director, and Lynne Eastaway, Head of Drawing, present a drawing to thank the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Trust for their support of the National Art School's Drawing Week, held at the start of the academic year on Cockatoo Island.

Free Drawing Sessions

Once again this year, the National Art School is holding free drawing sessions for anyone interested in trying their hand at life drawing, as part of the City of Sydney’s Art & About Festival.

Dates:
Wednesday, 15 October, Taylor Square North - 12noon-2.30pm
Friday, 17 October, Circular Quay, AMP Forecourt - 11am-2.00pm.

No bookings required, just turn up and join in!
Materials supplied.

National Art School Open Day Saturday

As part of the City of Sydney’s Art & About Festival, the National Art School will be open to the public on Saturday 25th October, 10am-4pm.
Come in and see the works of our Honours students at the NAS Gallery, hear them talk about their work and experience at the School (1pm), visit open studios, or take a History Tour of the campus that was once Darlinghurst Gaol.
Tours run at 11am and 2pm.

Job Opportunity

The National Art School Drawing Department is seeking to appoint an outstanding and innovative lecturer with an extensive knowledge of the Drawing discipline, both contemporary and historical, and a distinguished exhibitions record. Experience in art education and relevant tertiary qualifications are also essential.


Applications will be accepted up to 24 October 2008

For further information and to apply click on link below

https://jobs.nsw.gov.au/JobDetails.asp?JobAdvertId=76281

Rodney Pople wins The King's School Art Prize

Rodney Pople, Lecturer with the NAS Painting Department, has won The King’s School 2008 Art Prize, valued at $15,000.

This acquisitive prize was established in 1994 and is held annually with The King’s School Art Show. Past winners include Aida Tomescu, Lyndal Brown and Charles Green, John Olsen, Peter Churcher, Ben Quilty and Geoffrey De Groen.

In presenting the award, guest judge Anthony Bond, Director of Curatorial Services at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, likened Rodney’s work Crystal Clear II to that of Yves Klein, one of his most revered artists, who “spent his life trying to picture the void”. “…Rodney is capturing something like what I imagine this immaterial sensibility could feel like” said Bond. “In this exhibition Rodney in particular stands apart from the fast food aesthetic of fashion and there is every chance that his unusual, sometimes incomprehensible, illuminations will survive the vagaries of history”.

Rodney Pople has an exhibition coming up at Australian Galleries, Glenmore Road, Paddington from 4 September 2008. Opening night is 5 September.

New NAS Drawing blog

Lynne Eastaway, Head of Drawing, has been busily developing a new Drawing blog for NAS students - but the links and news would be useful to anyone with an interest in the subject. Soon to be accessible via a link from the National Art School's website, you can go there right now: http://nasdrawing.blogspot.com Contributions welcome!

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.