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Please join us on Thursday November 21 to celebrate this wonderful exhibition. The evening will include light refreshments and a private viewing of Artbank’s collection. Artbank Open encourages everyone to get curious, get involved and get up close to incredible artworks by some of the most exciting Australian contemporary artists. Challenge, excite, inspire and surprise yourself as you create your own journey through this uniquely Australian art collection.
When: Thursday November 21, 2024
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Where: Artbank Sydney, 222 Young Street Waterloo
RSVP via EVENTBRITE LINK or rsvps@artbank.gov.au
Artbank Open encourages everyone to get curious, get involved and get up close to incredible artworks by some of the most exciting Australian contemporary artists. Challenge, excite, inspire and surprise yourself as you create your own journey through this uniquely Australian art collection.
Robyn Djunginy, Marian Drew, Brian Dunlop, Max Dupain, Honor Freeman, Guy Gilmour, Sarah Goffman, Elizabeth Gower, Margaret Olley, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Onrie Radovic, Jude Rae, Michael Shannon, Tim Silver, Ebony Truscott, Bryan Westwood, Anne Zahalka, Michael Zavros
Historically, ‘still life’ has sought to depict that which is ephemeral – flowers, fruit, vegetables, game, feasts – and alluded to natural cycles of life and decay which further reveal prescient ideas of life and death, abundance and sustenance. Here these universal symbols are trafficked for subject matter that will outlive humanity. Butane canisters, oil jugs, Tupperware ® and punctured rock’n’roll drums become a new iconography of contemporaneity.
The tradition of artists depicting everyday objects in thoughtful arrangements has existed since the earliest of recorded eras. From depictions of material culture in ancient cities such as Pompei and Herculaneum to the walls of Egyptian tombs artists have continued to build on this practice with each successive generation. The term ‘still life’ itself emerged in 17th century Europe to describe a genre of painting denoting seemingly ordinary objects that usually carried with them layers of hidden meaning cloaked in a rich language of symbolism for those willing to dig a little deeper.
So, what does the ‘still life genre tell us today? Are we living in a time where art should be concerned with being human rather than manufactured or digital, or does it reflect our trajectory through the looking glass that we exist in a state beyond nature? (De)Nature Morte: Still Life from the Artbank Collection interrogates the significance of this persistent genre and its standing in a post-digital / post-human age.
