Just Because CAO Yu

Just Because CAO Yu

2025-08-06

Wednesday 13 August
12.45 – 1.30pm
Cell Block Theatre

CAO Yu is a pioneering multidisciplinary artist working across diverse media. Renowned for her incisive and bold artistic language, exceptional creativity, and profound international influence, CAO is recognized as one of the most influential emerging artists in Asia: the leading figure of China’s new generation of female artists. She has received numerous domestic and international art awards, with her works exhibited globally at major museums and institutions.

CAO Yu’s works are often known for their strong visual impact and profound thematic thinking. Her artistic exploration involves complex issues such as gender identity, survival status, major historical events, humanity, and interpersonal relationships. In recent years, her works have shown attention and reflection on a wider range of social and cultural issues, while critically contemplating the reality of the world, often challenging propriety and other social conventions.

Her oeuvre has featured in major solo exhibitions across China and Europe, with institutional presentations at leading art museums and institutions sparking critical discourse in Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, the United States, South Korea and Australia. In conversation with Luise Guest she will share professional insights gleaned from nearly a decade of artistic research, examining how the artist through explorations of identity and gender has consistently pushed boundaries.

Luise Guest, an independent researcher, writer and curator is currently a sessional academic teaching in the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership at UNSW in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture. Her research on Chinese contemporary art has been widely published in print and online. She has written widely about Cao Yu’s work, including in Australasian Art Monthly, the 4A Papers, Randian and the TAASA Journal. She is the author of Half the Sky: Conversations with Women Artists in China and Invisible Ink: Feminism and Chinese Identity in Contemporary Art.

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Join our online information session to find out exactly what makes our Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) ideal for emerging artists.

New scholarships will be available to students entering the BFA (Hons), with further details to be shared later this year.

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Oct 10

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Join our online information session to find out exactly what makes our Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) ideal for emerging artists.

New scholarships will be available to students entering the BFA (Hons), with further details to be shared later this year.

...and that`s a wrap! Congratulations to all our Year 11 Visual Arts students who participated in the 2025 HSC Intensive program, Module 2.

We loved welcoming you to our campus for the last five days of creativity and hard work.

Best wishes for all your future endeavours as budding artists. We can`t wait to see what you create next.

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Oct 7

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...and that's a wrap! Congratulations to all our Year 11 Visual Arts students who participated in the 2025 HSC Intensive program, Module 2.

We loved welcoming you to our campus for the last five days of creativity and hard work.

Best wishes for all your future endeavours as budding artists. We can't wait to see what you create next.

Fondly remembered by a generation of TV viewers as the creator of `Mr Squiggle`, Norman Hetherington OAM (1921-2010) was a student at the National Art School from 1937-1941.

Co-scripted by his wife, Margaret, `Mr Squiggle` ran on the ABC for 40 years becoming the longest running children’s TV program in the world.

Norman Hetherington’s daughter Rebecca Hetherington co-hosted Mr Squiggle and in 2002 helped her father with his first solo exhibition (curated by NAS alumna Toni Warburton) at the Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre in the Blue Mountains.

Rebecca donated many of Norman’s works to the NAS Collection, including his poster (designed and painted when he was 17 years old) for the first known film by NAS students. `Love Laughs at Death` screened at NAS from 30 September-5 October 1938, and while the film itself has been lost, a photo and newspaper article about it were kept by actor and NAS alumna Shirley Jones.

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra (@nationalmuseumofaustralia) is showing the free exhibition `Mr Squiggle and Friends` until October 13.

---
Norman Hetherington
(1921-2010)
NAS student 1937-1938; 1939-1941

`Mr Squiggle`, etching, 12 x 9.5 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2023, National Art School Collection

Photographer unknown. Students Jim Swan, Shirley Jones and Jack Edwards from the film `Love Laughs at Death`, made and screened at NAS in 1938. This photograph was displayed on the front page of ‘The Labor Daily’, 3 September 1938. Jim Swan was the producer, Shirley Jones an actor, as was Jack Edwards who played the ‘Crazy Scientist’.

`Love Laughs at Death`, 1938 , gouache on cardboard, 63 x 55 cm , Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2020, National Art School Collection

`Screws`, 1937, ink on card, 11.5 x 12 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

`Man in suit`, 1937, gouache on card, 32 x 14.5 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

`Colour for men`, gouache on paper, 38 x 27 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

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Oct 5

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Fondly remembered by a generation of TV viewers as the creator of 'Mr Squiggle', Norman Hetherington OAM (1921-2010) was a student at the National Art School from 1937-1941.

Co-scripted by his wife, Margaret, 'Mr Squiggle' ran on the ABC for 40 years becoming the longest running children’s TV program in the world.

Norman Hetherington’s daughter Rebecca Hetherington co-hosted Mr Squiggle and in 2002 helped her father with his first solo exhibition (curated by NAS alumna Toni Warburton) at the Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre in the Blue Mountains.

Rebecca donated many of Norman’s works to the NAS Collection, including his poster (designed and painted when he was 17 years old) for the first known film by NAS students. 'Love Laughs at Death' screened at NAS from 30 September-5 October 1938, and while the film itself has been lost, a photo and newspaper article about it were kept by actor and NAS alumna Shirley Jones.

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra (@nationalmuseumofaustralia) is showing the free exhibition 'Mr Squiggle and Friends' until October 13.

---
Norman Hetherington
(1921-2010)
NAS student 1937-1938; 1939-1941

'Mr Squiggle', etching, 12 x 9.5 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2023, National Art School Collection

Photographer unknown. Students Jim Swan, Shirley Jones and Jack Edwards from the film 'Love Laughs at Death', made and screened at NAS in 1938. This photograph was displayed on the front page of ‘The Labor Daily’, 3 September 1938. Jim Swan was the producer, Shirley Jones an actor, as was Jack Edwards who played the ‘Crazy Scientist’.

'Love Laughs at Death', 1938 , gouache on cardboard, 63 x 55 cm , Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2020, National Art School Collection

'Screws', 1937, ink on card, 11.5 x 12 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

'Man in suit', 1937, gouache on card, 32 x 14.5 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

'Colour for men', gouache on paper, 38 x 27 cm, Gift of Rebecca Hetherington, 2022, National Art School Collection

Final weeks to visit The Neighbour at the Gate, closing Saturday 18 October.

Across various mediums and perspectives, The Neighbour at the Gate charts the entangled legacies of exclusion and resilience, drawing vital parallels between the past and present, memory and nationhood.

Learn more about the exhibition and plan your visit at the link in bio.

Please note: the gallery is closed for Labour Day Monday 6 October

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Oct 3

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Final weeks to visit The Neighbour at the Gate, closing Saturday 18 October.

Across various mediums and perspectives, The Neighbour at the Gate charts the entangled legacies of exclusion and resilience, drawing vital parallels between the past and present, memory and nationhood.

Learn more about the exhibition and plan your visit at the link in bio.

Please note: the gallery is closed for Labour Day Monday 6 October

Enjoy 20% off a Summer School Short Course with code FLASHSALE20

Don’t miss this exclusive 20% off flash sale on the National Art School Summer School Short Courses (link in bio). Flash Sale starts right now and ends midnight Monday 6 October.*

*Offer begins midday Friday 3 October and ends midnight Monday 6 October. Terms and conditions apply.

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Oct 3

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Enjoy 20% off a Summer School Short Course with code FLASHSALE20

Don’t miss this exclusive 20% off flash sale on the National Art School Summer School Short Courses (link in bio). Flash Sale starts right now and ends midnight Monday 6 October.*

*Offer begins midday Friday 3 October and ends midnight Monday 6 October. Terms and conditions apply.

We are pleased to share the exciting news that we are introducing a new BFA (Hons) degree at the National Art School in 2026.

The Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) is an intensive one-year program designed for graduates of the BFA who are ready to deepen their studio practice and expand their academic and professional capabilities. This course is ideal for emerging artists who want to refine their practice, build industry connections, and prepare for postgraduate study or professional opportunities in the creative sector.

New scholarships will be available to students entering the BFA (Hons), with further details to be shared later this year. For more information and key dates, visit futurestudents.nas.edu.au (link in bio).

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Oct 2

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Just Because CAO Yu