Past Exhibitions

• Poesia Visiva: Italian Concrete & Visual Poetry of the 1960s & 1970s
  17 May - 19 July 2009
  Throughout the 1960s and 1970s 'concrete and visual poetry' was one of the most active movements in the visual arts.
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• Resort Nadir: Irene Hanenbergh
  22 March - 10 May 2009
  Netherlands born, Melbourne based artist Irene Hanenbergh's practice consists of painting, printmaking (Zundprints on aluminium) and drawing.
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• Melt
  1 February - 15 March 2009
  This exhibition draws together three female artists and their responses to time spent in the Polar Regions.
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• Foresight
  Until January 2009
  Works from the University of Sydney Union Art Collection
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• New Victorians
  August - 12 October 2008
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• Siri Hayes - Landscapes
  June - 10 August 2008)
• With an eye to the romantic sublime and another on the burgeoning urban sprawl, Siri Hayes' photographic landscapes are at once lyrical and down-at-heel. Drawing on a wide range of influences, from the paintings of Nicolas Poussin to Jeff Wall's photographic tableaux, her theatrical, expansive compositions explore our social and cultural relationship to land and locality. more
• David Sequeira: My Father's Library
  12 May – 22 June 2008
  Working in a range of media, David Sequeira explores notions of language and information through colour and geometry. more.
• Cuts both ways
  23 March - 4 May 2008
  Cuts both ways explores the phenomenon of the worldwide development of woodcuts and linocuts from the 1920s to 1940s
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• Greatest Hits/Previously Unreleased Tracks
  27 January – 6 March 2008
  A selection of videos by Queensland’s leading and emerging artists: Peter Alwast, Christopher Bennie, Daniel McKewen, Tracey Moffatt, Archie Moore, Paul Mumme, Scott Redford, Sandra Selig, Van Sowerwine, Grant Stevens and Jemima Wyman. more
• Morpheus - Mark Hilton
  11 November 2007- 20 January 2008
  During 2007 Hilton has spent time researching the collections of Sydney University Museums and will present new work related to his findings on the Greek god Morpheus, morphine and contemporary drug use. more
• Chartres - Lloyd Rees
  25 August - 4 November 2007
  This stunning exhibition of paintings and drawings showcases works from a series Rees worked on depicting the great Gothic cathedral at Chartres in France. more
• Dreaming Spires and Ivory Towers
  Exhibition dates: 18 June- 5 August 2007
  Founded in 1850, The University of Sydney aimed to create an architectural and intellectual focus for the settlement of Sydney. From early views of the Quadrangle by Conrad Martens through to commissioned photographs by David Moore, this exhibition showcases a selection of works depicting the wide variety of architectural styles at The University of Sydney.
• outpouring- Jan Fieldsend
  Exhibition dates: 30 April- 8 June 2007
  "outpouring" is an installation created by Jan Fieldsend for the almost chapel-like University Art Gallery space. Formerly known as the War Memorial Gallery, it once housed a collection of ribbons and medals- the decorations of war. more
• The last thing I remember...
  Jane Burton
  Lily Hibberd
  Brie Trenerry
  A Monash University Museum of Art exhibition
  Curated by Dr Kyla McFarlane
  Exhibition dates: 12 March- 20 April 2007
  In "The last thing I remember ..." three artists explore the rupture of narrative in the domestic sphere. more
• Strange Matters
  4 December 2006- 4 March 2007
  Showcasing works from the University of Sydney Art Collection, The University of Sydney Union Collection and the University Library Rare Books collection, Strange Matters focused on dark and strange realities. Strange Matters included artists such as Norman Lindsay, Nicholas Nedelkopoulos, Tim Maguire and Tony Tuckson as well as a selection of Japanese prints and rare books on witchcraft and the supernatural.
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• Water Dreaming
  12 July- 4 November 2006
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• Leslie Wilkinson in Europe
  21 April- 31 June 2006
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• Fortuna
  22 February - 13 April 2006
  New gifts and loans to the Art Collection
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• The Phantasmagorical Grid
  24 August- 1 December 2005
  Justin Trendall and the influence of Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
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• Kinetic
  at the University Art Gallery
  9 June- 11 August 2005
  The exhibition Kinetic explored the artwork of Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Rah Fizelle, Margel Hinder and Frank Hinder who came together in Sydney in the 1930s and later pioneered abstract and kinetic art in Australia.
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• Imaging the apple
  at the University Art Gallery
  6 April- 2 June 2005
  Imaging the apple featured works by thirty three contemporary Australian artists. Each artist approached the subject of the apple from a unique point of view. All of the works were created on the same format of a canvas 30 cm square.
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• Friends and lovers
  at the University Art Gallery
  17 February- 24 March 2005
  This exhibition featured the work of one of Australia's most gifted artists Donald Friend, along with works by his friends Jeffrey Smart and Justin O'Brien, all selected from the University of Sydney's Art Collection.
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• Fire Dreaming
  1 September- 9 December 2004
  Fire Dreaming explored the theme of fire in contemporary art from cultural, historical, mythological and spiritual perspectives.
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• Sightseeing from Beijing
  23 June - 22 August 2004
  Sightseeing from Beijing featured some of the latest avant-garde works by China's leading artists including installations, paintings and prints by eleven contemporary artists all of whom teach in the most prestigious art academy in China, the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing.
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• Horses for Courses - Suzanne Archer
  21 April - 10 June 2004
  Artist Suzanne Archer produced an exciting new body of work based on an unusual teaching environment, the animal dissection laboratory in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney.
  
  
• The Way of the Brush – Fairweather, Jackson and Tuckson
  15 October- 27 November 2003
  This exhibition looked at aesthetic connections in the paintings of Ian Fairweather (1891-1974), Tony Tuckson (1921-1973), and Roy Jackson (1944 -). The starting point was Fairweather’s Kalighat, 1950, in the University’s collection. Fairweather is widely acknowledged as one of the most important Australian artists of the 20th century. His sojourns in India, China, the Philippines and Bali were a significant source of inspiration for his art and his particular form of linear abstraction owes much to his fascination with Chinese calligraphy, which he studied in China during the 1930s.
  
  
• Norman and Lionel Lindsay - Prints and Drawings
  16 July - 18 September 2003
  The University Art Collection includes over eighty works by Norman and Lionel Lindsay. This exhibition included the fascinating black and white images made by Norman Lindsay to illustrate the story of Ned Kelly that were used to illustrate Douglas Stewart’s popular story in 1946. Lionel Lindsay’s satirical illustrations of famous men and his series of fine wood engravings of birds were included. The Lindsays were part of the history of black and white illustration and printmaking in the Sydney art world during the first half of the twentieth century. This thematic exhibition featured illustrations, watercolours, woodblock prints and drawings by the two Lindsay brothers.
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• Japanese Prints 1950-1990
  20 May- 26 June 2003
  This travelling exhibition introduced contemporary Japanese prints from 1950 onwards, the period when Japan was beginning it's recovery from the Second World War.
  
  
• Temptation –Sir Charles Nicholson’s collection
  10 April - 14 May 2003
  
  
• Schools of Thought by Lisa Giles
  8 October - 24 October 2002
  Recent photographs that showcased academics and eminent alumni of the University of Sydney. A sesquicentennial event.
  
  
• Beauty and the Beast, the art of James Gleeson
  28 August - 3 October 2002
  James Gleeson is regarded as Australia's leading surrealist painter. This exhibition focused on seven paintings in the collection as well as loans from public galleries and private collections of surrealism. More...
  
  
  
• New Chinese prints
  16 July - 15 August 2002
  A selection of 40 prints and works on paper from leading Chinese printmakers. Contemporary artists included Su Xinping, Liu Li Ping, Ding Yi and Song Guangzhi.
  
  
• John Wardell Power 1881-1943
  8 May - 27 June 2002
  John Wardell Power studied art in Paris in the 1920s and exhibited in London in the 1930s. He was influenced by modern art theories of Cubism and abstraction and developed his own ideas on picture composition based on geometric forms. More...
  
  
• The Midday Movie & the History of Australian Painting
  12 noon Friday 17 May
  A performance by Barbara Campbell as part of her survey exhibition.
  
  
• Botanica
  20 March - 24 April 2002
  This exhibition explored the patterns and beauty of nature through painting and installation. Artists featured were Juliana Bartulin, Elise Benamane, Rose Steedman and Mark Walker, all exciting graduates from Sydney College of the Arts. These artists alternately use botany, plants and biology as a point of departure, as metaphor, as material and as a means of exploring our relationship with nature. More...