Bundanon Visit for Wilder Times Show Opening and Artist Talk /  by Helen Grace

For the opening of Wilder Times, on July 6th, we were accommodated in the Glenn Murcutt-designed Boyd Education Centre. Beautifully austere little pods, very Japanese-inspired.

And the night before our artist talk, telescopes arrived in the forecourt of the Boyd Education Centre and we went star-gazing in the cold, Scorpio striding across the sky in the middle of the Milky Way - and the Dark Emu!

Serious Undertakings in 'Wilder Times ... Bundanon from July 6th /  by Helen Grace

I’m happy to announce that the remastered Serious Undertakings (1983) will be shown in the forthcoming WILDER TIMES: Arthur Boyd and the mid-1980s landscape at Bundanon, July 6 – October 13, 2024.

I’m thrilled to be in this show, amongst the tradition of landscape painting with which Serious Undertakings was engaging at the time. The work will be shown in its own ‘screening room’ within the show.

Press release here

Poster Design: Jan Mackay, 1983

ARTWORK LEAVES FOR NEW HOME /  by Helen Grace

I’m very happy to say that my At the House composition (1981/2021) has moved out and found a new home – the Museum of Contemporary Art collection.

At the House, 1981/2021, 220 x 320cm

Work in new exhibition – Woman (seen) - Margaret Whitlam Galleries /  by Helen Grace

I have work in this new exhibition which has just opened.

Drawn from Western Sydney University’s Art Collection and loans from artists or their estate, Women (seen) celebrates 20 women artists connected to Western Sydney through work, study, family, or home.

Exhibiting Artists: Marian Abboud, Eddie Abd, Janice Bruny, Fiona Davies Helen Grace, Cassandra Hard-Lawrie, Kirtika Kain, Debra Keenahan, Margo Lewers, Audrey Newton, Mylyn Nguyen, Raquel Ormella, Debra Porch, Leanne Tobin, Catherine Rogers, Robyn Stacey, Justene Williams, Vicki Van Hout, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Anastasia Zaravinos aka Adonis.

With 10 percent of the nation’s population calling Western Sydney home, Western Sydney is Australia’s most culturally diverse region, providing fertile ground for creativity, rich with authentic storytelling, experimentation, and expression.  

Janice Bruny - Freshwater Mermaid Hunting with Digging Stick and Dilly Bag, 2013. Pencil, acrylic paint, acid free gelpen on paper, 55 x 75 cm.

From 1986 – 2009 Western Sydney University, or as it was then known as the University Western Sydney played a critical role in the advancement of visual arts literacy and training in the region through the art school on the Nepean campus. 

The legacy of the art school still resonates widely throughout the art sector today with an impressive list of student and staff alumnae working as professional artists, lecturers, and curators.

15 of the exhibiting artists in Women (seen) are part of the cohort of Western Sydney University’s alumnae across the study areas of visual arts, electronic arts, visual communications, and education. 

As with legacy, lineage also features strongly within the exhibition. Ideas and processes connect artists to each other, with their influences and antecedents, permeating the artworks on display. 

Women (seen) speaks of identity, community, and belonging. It celebrates what once was, and what is now

The Womanifesto Way – Artist Talks, Saturday, Nov 18, 2023 /  by Helen Grace

Hoping to see lots of you at this upcoming event.

Adapting, gathering, connecting—these are just some of the relational approaches of women artists. The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers explores the ethos of this women-centred arts collective through collaborative exchanges between Womanifesto artists based in Sydney, and by embarking on open process of visual and digital art–history making that reveals nearly three decades of collaborative reinvention.

Womanifesto began in 1997 with the first feminist Southeast Asia-based international biennial, and has since brought together more than 150 contemporary artists across 45 countries. A uniquely collective approach facilitated by key members Varsha Nair, Phaptawan Suwannakudt and Nitaya Ueareeworakul and others, has guided every Womanifesto initiative from biennial exhibitions and community-based workshops, through to artist-led publications and online collaborative art projects. The collective’s unique longevity and diversity suggests there is much we could learn from women- and artist-led approaches to intergenerational and cross-cultural exchange. And here such exchanges range from the intimacy of one-on-one conversation and local gatherings during lockdown, through to multilingual children’s book projects and an expansive, ongoing digital art history project.

Join the organisers and artists behind the exhibition as they share and discuss their art and projects whilst reminiscing on their connections with Womanifesto. We invite everyone to an afternoon of convivial and casual exchange at 4A on 18 Nov 2023, 1-3PM.

Organisers Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Marni Williams, and Yvonne Low will kick off the event at 4A Lab at 1:00 pm, followed by the artists:

Helen Grace
Virginia Hilyard
Sue Pedley
Kyati Suharto
Shuxia Chen

This event begins at 4A Lab, located next to the main entrance of 4A. Our front-of-house staff will guide attendees.

Please RSVP to secure your place at this event. Light refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to welcoming you!

4A is a fully accessible venue.

The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers – 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art /  by Helen Grace

I’m very happy to be participating in this new exhibition with an incredible group of global artists, opening in Sydney on Nov 4th, 2023 and running until Dec 17th, 2023 at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay St, Haymarket, Sydney

The Womanifesto Way: Sydney Gathers

“The Womanifesto Way is a hybrid digital and in-person exhibition and publication project exploring the histories and collective ethos of Womanifesto. Presented in partnership with Power Publications, this project examines this ‘Womanifesto Way’, its importance for often-overlooked women artists, and follows its lead, putting a multivocal form of art-history making alongside in-person and digital presentations of collaborative art practices.”

The exhibition takes place simultaneously with Womanifesto: Flowing Connections, an exhibition currently showing at Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre.

still from: As it Was in the Beginning … (Helen Grace, 2023, UHD video, 4.08m)

still from: Towards Empyrean Grove, Helen Grace and Toby Huynh, 2021 (UHD video, 4.20m)