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.