Curate Your Own Adventure

I’ve been in Sydney this past week for a University Museums conference. It was an incredible conference and a wonderful opportunity to present on how our museum is engaging with interdisciplinary learning. I’m glad I gave myself a couple of extra days to explore Sydney and visit a few more museums and galleries! Yesterday, I visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the Archibald/Wynne/Sulman Prize and their new North Building. I also visited the Sydney Jewish Museum but I’ll leave that for another post. I’m going to start with the Archibald Prize and then share my thoughts on the new building.

Archibald Prize

It is so strange to think that the last post on this blog about Sydney was the 2019 Archibald Prize. Here we are four years later and back for another Archibald review. I was reading both my posts from 2017 and 2019 (they are linked) and honestly, my opinions haven’t changed that much. I am going to share some new opinions though and my favourite artworks from the exhibition. I also want to share my favourite from both the Wynne and Sulman Prize.

In short, the Archibald Prize is a portrait competition open to anyone in Australia or New Zealand. The winner receives $100 000 so it’s a pretty amazing prize on offer. As well as an overall winner, there is The People’s Choice award (voted on by visitors) and the Packing Room Prize (awarded by those handling the entries). Having worked on a small-scale (by comparison) art award show in the past, I can say that it is a hectic time managing these types of shows so well done to the team. This year, I didn’t feel as though the pieces were as crammed together as they have been in the past. There was a lot more room to breath and it was really thoughtfully curated. The labels additionally contained long artist quotes which I enjoyed reading. They probably have done this in the past but this is the first time it registered. In 2019 I wanted to find all the artworks with dogs in them. I was genuinely excited to do the same thing this year and……there was only one. So instead, here are my top 5 in no particular order.

1. Julia Gutman – Head in the sky, feet on the ground

I’ll start strong with the winning entry. This artwork is spectacular in real life. It’s of singer-songwriter Montaigne and comprises of textiles pieced together and embroidery on canvas. The texture of this artwork is what really drew me to it in the first place. I purposefully didn’t look up who the winner was before visiting and when I saw this work I thought it was very worthy of the title.

2. Charles Mouyat – As below, so above

The colours of this work are stunning. Similar to the previous, this one also stands out on the wall. The individual painted is Michelle Simmons, a quantum physics professor. On a quick glance, I thought she was giving the finger. Instead, she is representing a ‘qubit (quantum bit) neither zero nor one but both’.

3. Eliza Gosse – Breakfast at ours

I loved the shape of this artwork and how it is cut out around the two individuals. The label also speaks a lot about food and breakfast which did just leave me feeling very hungry. This work is comforting and casual.

4. Jaq Grantford – Through the window

I swear I’m not just selecting the ones that won a prize. I grew up watching PlaySchool so I already felt a strong connection to the subject. How her personality has been captured by the artist, is why I’ve placed it in my top 5.

5. Jason Jowett – Alex Greenwich

Greenwich is an independent member for Sydney in the NSW Parliament and was the co-chair of the marriage equality ‘yes’ campaign. The texture of this work is beautiful and similar to my first choice, it’s what drew me over to take a closer look.

The Wynne and Sulman Prizes

Last, but certainly not least, for this section, I want to share one work from the Wynne Prize and one from the Sulman Prize. The Wynne is the longest running prize offered by the Gallery and, according to their terms and conditions, is awarded to ‘the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists’. The Sulman is awarded to the best subject/genre painting or mural.

Louis Pratt’s Wynne Prize entry, A very Dutch ghost, was my favourite in the entire exhibition. It represents the old Dutch memento mori paintings. I was disappointed to see that wasn’t mentioned on the label! Basically, you use the mirror behind the skull to play with how it looks and view it from different perspectives.

The final work I want to discuss here is by Richard Lewer, Richard’s medical disasters. Documenting his ailments over time, this artwork takes something that might usually be seen as a taboo and puts it in the public realm. That taboo being, talking about personal experiences of disease. I want to create something similar documenting my health journey!

North Building

The new addition to the Gallery is just next door and called ‘North Building’. It is certainly an impressive space! Rather than floors going up, visitors start on the ground level and head underground. Each floor has a main gallery space and right down the bottom is The Tank. To me, the building gave very ‘airport vibes’. I’ll share a photograph so you can see what I mean. However, I was really impressed with the scale of the building and the works on display.

The combination of old and new art in the space does provide a more contemporary approach when compared to the original or South Building. After viewing some more modern works I stood looking at this cute little porcelain pond. Literally a piece from the 1300s. How the old and new is curated really adds to the space.

Although they are currently installing a new exhibition in The Tank, I was glad I got to experience this space. It is a cool, dark, easy-to-fall-asleep-in space that has so much potential. I cannot wait to see future exhibitions here.

You could spend hours just in this building, but I was tired so I walked around all floors to get a feel for the space. I would definitely recommend focusing on just the North or South Building if you visit. Both are possible to do on one day if you don’t have time, but gosh, it’s exhausting.

Logistical Information

Both buildings are open daily between 10am and 5pm. On Wednesdays, they actually open until 10pm so if you want an after-work art experience, that day is perfect. They are both accessible and it was great to see the amenities in the new building are so inclusive. If you would like more logistical information, you can follow this link: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/visit/plan-your-visit/.