Archibald Prize

“I always kind of skip through the Wynne Prize.”, I told my friend Michaela. We were visiting the Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious portraiture award. This year’s competition saw a record number of entries, with over 1000 works.

The unanimous winner was a portrait of singer Jessica Cerro, better known as Montaigne. She represented Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest a few years ago. Critics said Gutman’s painting captured the artist’s energy and charisma, while also conveying a sense of vulnerability.… Read the rest “Archibald Prize”

AGNSW

“It’s the first work you see as you enter the new wing of the Art Gallery of NSW”, I texted my colleague and friend, Lisa. Her partner, Genevieve is the artist responsible for the work which re-imagines historical photographs of Aboriginal people as contemporary videos. “She did that fifteen years or so ago”, Lisa told me, anxious to pass on the news to Genevieve about her work’s prominent role.

Work by Genevieve Grieves at AGNSW

The new Indigenous art space is amazing.… Read the rest “AGNSW”

Tim Minchin and Ben Quilty

In the (probably) fifteen years I’ve been going to Art After Dark at the Art Gallery of NSW, I’ve never seen a crowd like this before. My colleague Jo (who is a big fan of Tim Minchin) and I agreed we needed to leave work a little early today to make sure we could grab a seat. And just as well we did, because it was standing room only for tonight’s conversation between the wonderful composer and performer, Tim, and the amazing artist, Ben Quilty.… Read the rest “Tim Minchin and Ben Quilty”

Concerned Citizen of Newtown

Earlier today I wrote a letter to my local member of the NSW Parliament, the Member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, telling him…

Hi Alex
I just want to put on the record my concerns about the boundaries for the new seat of Newtown, which I discovered this week I’ll be voting in at the forthcoming election.

I was overseas for a number of months in 2013 during the consultation period, and so missed an opportunity to raise my concerns.

Read the rest “Concerned Citizen of Newtown”