Just Because CAO Yu

Just Because CAO Yu

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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Due to the overwhelming interest in The Neighbour at the Gate, we are excited to announce that the NAS Gallery is now open on Sunday, for the duration of the exhibition. 

Head to the link in bio to plan your visit.
Ever wondered what it’s like studying at the National Art School?

Find out at our Open Day on Saturday 6 September, 10am to 4pm.

Considering art as a career or simply curious about what happens behind the school’s historic sandstone walls? Save the date on Eventbrite (link in bio) to see what life is like for students at NAS by participating in studio demonstrations, chatting to our academic staff and visiting the NAS Gallery and student exhibition spaces across our campus.
The National Art School was saddened to hear of the recent death of artist and NAS alumnus Bruce Goold (1948-2025).

Born in Newcastle in 1948, from 1961- 65 Bruce attended Sydney Grammar School, where he studied art with ceramicist and potter Gordon McCausland. This was followed by a year at the National Art School, Newcastle. Here he experimented with various mediums and made his first linocut. He then studied at the National Art School, c. 1967-68. 

Bruce was a member of the artist collective Yellow House between 1970-72. The former Clune Gallery in Kings Cross was transformed by Martin Sharp and a group of fellow artists, who painted the exterior bright yellow and covered its internal walls with murals, portraits and decoration. Artists such as Brett Whiteley, Peter Wright, Bruce Goold, Greg Weight and Peter Kingston turned the building into an artwork, while visiting bands and celebrities made it a regular fixture of the Sydney scene.

Known principally as a printmaker, Goold created coloured linocuts and woodblocks including many images of Australian flora and fauna, as well as South Pacific inspired esoteric and symbolic subjects. He held solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and internationally in London and Ireland. He received major commissions for poster, logo and interior design and worked as a designer for Mambo from 1992. 

A retrospective exhibition, Bruce Goold, Artist, Designer, Printmaker, curated by Therese Kenyon, was held at Manly Art Gallery & Museum in 2008.
The National Art School extends its sympathies to Bruce’s family and many friends.
—
Greg Weight, 'Bruce Goold', 1998, NAS Collection
Got a young artist at home?

Art Club Term 3 is now open for enrolment — and we’ve got an exciting painting program lined up. This term, kids will explore styles like Expressive Acrylics and Contemporary Watercolour, all while building their confidence and creativity.

Monday afternoons, led by artist and educator Grant Bellamy. 

Visit the link in bio to learn more and enrol.
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