The vibrant works by Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, printed on smooth Japanese gampi papers from 1927 to 1950, demanded special consideration during conservation preparation from the Spowers & Syme exhibition. Andrea Wise, Senior Conservator, Paper, explains the process and details the green pigment with the toxic backstory. The conservator…

Oscar-nominated filmmaker BRUCE BERESFORD remembers his lifelong mentor JEFFREY SMART and their friendship, which began at a Sydney high school. I was 15 years old when I first met Jeffrey Smart. It was 1955 and he was the art master at The King’s School in Parramatta (New South Wales). I…

Mparntwe/Alice Springs-based filmmaker and Kaytetye man DYLAN RIVER comes from a long line of First Nations storytellers, writes curator Kelli Cole, Warumungu/Luritja peoples. Storytelling is at the core of First Nations’ existence. Just as Country is essential to our identities, so is telling a story. In fact, story is inseparable…

HETTI KEMARRE PERKINS, Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, the National Gallery’s Senior Curator-at-Large and curator of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, talks with Artonview Editor Sophie Tedmanson. Hetti Kemarre Perkins was born in 1965, the year of the Freedom Ride, when her activist father, Charles Perkins AO, famously led…

By Hetti Perkins, Arrernte/Kalkadoon peoples, Senior Curator-at-Large and curator of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, which opens in 2022. The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony will open on Ngambri and Ngunnawal land with a ceremonial act. Paul Girrawah House, under the guidance of his mother, respected Elder…

Five decades after they met, JENNY KEE AO and LINDA JACKSON AO — the instantly recognisable creative queens of Australian fashion whose couture outfits feature in the Know My Name exhibition — are enjoying renewed interest in their lives, including a new documentary, writes Georgina Safe. Jenny Kee was at…

Brisbane-based contemporary artist JUSTENE WILLIAMS speaks with Yvette Dal Pozzo about her installation ‘Given that/You put a spell on mine/Uterus’, which features in Part Two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now. YVETTE DAL POZZO (YDP): Tell us about the genesis of the idea for this work? …

A new exhibition celebrates the centenary of Jeffrey Smart, his legacy and the ideas that emerge from his work, write Deborah Hart and Rebecca Edwards. Jeffrey Smart’s potent images of empty streets populated by solitary figures have become emblematic of 20th- and 21st-century urban experience — particularly in this pandemic…

This annual program is always a powerful experience, but for the 13 young people who travelled to Canberra in April 2021 it was a particularly significant journey, writes Adriane Boag. After a year in which the world changed, the annual Summer Scholarship — delayed and adapted to include a digital…