First Nations women from the Collection of ARTBANK

Recollections

30 April to 4 June 2022

Recollections: brings together a selection of works by First Nations artists from the Artbank collection. With a focus on women artists, these artworks trace generational experiences across time and place, linking traditional and contemporary expressions of artistic practice.

Curated by Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist, curator and educator Dennis Golding, Recollections draws connections from artists from across Australia’s vast landscape and through generations of lived experience. In this selection of artworks we see landscapes and experiences change from desert to city to saltwater and beyond, yet each artwork shares the memories of the women who came before it and the knowledge, strength and responsibility they knowingly passed down.

Artbank is an Australian Government program that has directly supported living Australian artists for more than four decades of operation. Since opening in 1980 Artbank has grown to be one of the largest and most diverse collections of contemporary Australian art in the world. The unique leasing scheme brings Australian contemporary artworks to the public in boardrooms, foyers and homes across the country. The Artbank collection is especially proud to include some of the best examples of contemporary Indigenous art in Australia. Artbank endeavours to continue to support First Nations artists to tell important stories through their art. Artbank is privileged to play a small part in sharing these stories with Australia and the world.

The Grace Cossington Smith Gallery presents this exhibition to further embed Abbotsleigh’s commitment to diversity within the school environment. Abbotsleigh highly values its partnerships with Yalari and the AISNSW Waratah Project. Yalari is a not-for-profit organisation that offers quality, secondary education scholarships at leading Australian boarding schools for Indigenous children from regional, rural and remote communities. The Waratah Project has laid foundations of how plans of change can be put into practice to better support our First Nations students. Recollections provides a unique opportunity for conversation around the issues and narratives

Karla Dickens Pound-for-pound #8, 2019 (detail) Aluminium, vintage mattock handle, waxed linen thread, cotton string, steel pulleys, emu feathers (image above)

Images courtesy and © the artists

Installation photography Richard Glover