Sydney WorldPride 2023
The National Art School presents Queer Contemporary, the visual arts program for Sydney WorldPride 2023 and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Join us for the exhibitions Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia, Fulgora and Luke Thurgate: Adore You, a suite of public activities, key community partnerships, and site activations.
Director and CEO Steven Alderton says: “Building on the success of previous years participating in Mardi Gras, Queer Contemporary 2023 at NAS will be our most ambitious offering to date. The vibrant and varied program champions the diversity of our communities and celebrates LGBTQIA+ strength and resilience.
NAS’ Forbes Street entrance is a short, two-minute walk from Taylor Square on Oxford Street, and conveniently located near bus routes 311, 333, 352, 373, 389, 392N, 396, and 440. Limited paid street parking is available along Forbes Street as well as Darlinghurst Road and surrounds; we advise visitors to walk, cycle or take public transport where possible.
EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition Image Design Charlie Cummings
Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia
Richard Perram OAM
3 February – 18 March 2023
NAS Galleries
Monday to Saturday
11am – 5pm
Free admission
Braving time is a queer exhibition that celebrates the work of artists who identify as part of the Australian LGBTIQA+ community. This significant exhibition has been curated by Richard Perram OAM for the National Art School in celebration of Sydney WorldPride in 2023. The artists represented in the exhibition celebrate the diverse voices of LGBTIQA+ people in contemporary Australia society, reflecting the breath of genders and sexualities within the community, including artists who identify as lesbian, gay, transgender, inter-sex, asexual and non-binary.
Exhibition Image Design Charlie Cummings
Fulgora
Curated by EO Gill
3 February – 5 March 2023
The Rayner Hoff Project Space
Monday to Saturday
11am – 5pm
Free admission
Fulgora presents a suite of commissioned video works by 5 Australian-based artists that are punctuated by a selection of films programmed in collaboration with LA-based collective Dirty Looks Inc. The exhibition speaks to luxuriant video practices that disrupt conventional acts of looking and force us to ask where our pleasure begins.
Image: Luke Thurgate, Let me down gently, 2022, charcoal on gallery wall, Photo: Peter Morgan
Luke Thurgate: Adore You
3 February – 18 March 2023
The Drawing Gallery
Monday to Saturday
11am – 5pm
Free admission
The artist will be on site making this work on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 2-5pm.
The National Art School is proud to present Adore You, a major mural drawing by artist Luke Thurgate commissioned for The Drawing Gallery. This project is programmed in parallel with the Sydney WorldPride 2023 and The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Adore You takes inspiration from one of the world’s treasures, the major, 15th Century polyptych Ghent Altarpiece created by painters and brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyk. Thurgate’s work Adore You transforms the altarpiece format to create a contemporary, ephemeral artwork exploring notions of desire, hero-worship and queer subjectivity. Spanning three walls of The Drawing Gallery, the mural will be made onsite over a six-week period to coincide with Sydney WorldPride programs at the National Art School.
Installation view. Photo: Lea Simpson
Visions of QueerNAS
6 February – 5 March 2023
Opening Celebrations in conjunction with the Block Party 16 February 6–9pm
Library Stairwell Gallery
Monday to Friday
10am – 3pm
Free admission
Quinn Chen, Henry Xiang, Cadmium Mellow, Giacomo Crosilla, Christian Bonett, Dani King, Beanie Fleming, Darcy Eliza, Kate Riley
PROGRAM
Photo by: Renata Dominik
It’s Complicated: Valentine’s Day Workshop with EJ Son
14 February 2023
National Art School
156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
6pm – 8pm
Tickets: $40 (Tickets limited)
This Hallmark Holiday, join multidisciplinary artist EJ Son and their two Cupid assistants to make your very own ~musical Valentine’s Day card~
Image: NAS NEO 2022. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Block Party
16 February 2023
National Art School
156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
6pm – 10pm
Some of Sydney’s finest queer artists to celebrate the launch of Queer Contemporary 2023.
Line up to be announced.
Image: UNSW Galleries/the artist.
Macon Reed: Eulogy for the Dyke Bar
17 February – 4 March 2023
NAS Cafe
Monday to Saturday
Installation open: 9am–5pm Monday – Friday
Bar open: 5–10pm Tuesday – Friday
Free admission
The National Art School, UNSW Galleries and Sydney WorldPride present Eulogy for the Dyke Bar, an installation by American artist Macon Reed with accompanying programs and events.
Image: Bunny Hop – Easter egg donations at St Vincents, 1994 (c) MazzImages
Qtopia – Ward 17 South
17 February – 18 March 2023
Building 11
Monday to Saturday
11am – 5pm
Free admission
Qtopia Sydney and NAS are proud to announce a partnership to realise a restaging of St Vincent’s Hospital’s Ward 17 South.
Image: 2022 Queer Contemporary Workshop
Queer Contemporary Life Drawing Workshop with Tango Conway
Wednesday 15 March 2023, 6pm – 9pm
National Art School
156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
Tickets: $85 each session
Join us for an evening of Life Drawing inspired by the 2023 Queer Contemporary exhibitions at the National Art School. The workshop is part gallery tour and part studio life drawing class. NAS drawing lecturer Tango Conway demonstrates and guides you to draw the human figure in relation to works on display in the Queer Contemporary exhibitions:
Braving Time, Fulgora and Luke Thurgate: Adore You.
This workshop is designed for participants over the age of 18 and for all levels of experience. It is a LGBTQI+ friendly event.
Image: Supplied
Art Phoenix Opening and Fundraiser
3 March 2023
Cell Block Theatre
National Art School
156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst
6pm – 8pm
In partnership with NAS, Bobby Goldsmith Foundation (BGF) presents Art Phoenix. The exhibition is the culmination of a series of drawing workshops led by acclaimed artist Luke Thurgate for members of the BGF community living with HIV.
EDUCATION RESOURCE
BRAVING TIME: CONTEMPORARY ART IN QUEER AUSTRALIA: Education Kit
This resource has been written in line with the Years 7-10 Visual arts Syllabus and the Higher School Certificate Visual arts Syllabus, as a guide to exploring the exhibition or as a pre- or post-visit resource. Tertiary students and the general public may also find the resource useful.
Teachers will be able to use this resource in conjunction with the works in the exhibition to engage in a critical and historical study of the art world and to investigate artists, artworks, worlds, and audiences from a range of cultural, political, historical and social perspectives and use these to inform their own artmaking practices.
In examining the works showcased in the exhibition as part of a collection, the students will gain an understanding of the value of the audience as a body of critical consumers and will appreciate their own role, as well as those of the critic, as audience members. The students’ investigation of the range of expressive forms, themes, and genres which the works encompass, will also serve to inform their artmaking.
Thank you to everyone who has come through to see the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize for its first week. The exhibition is now open until Saturday 21 June 2025. Please note we are open this Saturday and closed for the observed Easter holidays.
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Good Friday CLOSED 18 April 2025
Easter Saturday OPEN Sat 19 April 2025, 11am – 5pm
Easter Sunday CLOSED Sun 20 April 2025
Easter Monday CLOSED Mon 21 April 2025
Anzac Day CLOSED Fri 25 April 2025
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Installation view, 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, 2025, image courtesy the artists and National Art School © the artists, photograph: Peter Morgan
Apr 17
Art Club is our high school student program for 15-17 year olds, designed to enhance and extend students’ technical, conceptual, and intellectual skills, through intensive practical study in the disciplines offered at NAS as well as engaging in an experience of our studios and campus, under the expert direction of experienced artists.
Set your child on a creative path with Art Club.
Learn more at the link in bio.
Apr 15
Thank you to everyone who attended the opening night of the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize and congratulations again to the prize winner NAS alumna Rosemary Lee.
The 24th Dobell Drawing Prize is now open until Saturday 21 June 2025
11am – 5pm Monday to Saturday
NAS Gallery
Free admission, all welcome
Learn more about the exhibition at the link in bio.
Apr 11
We are delighted to announce NAS alumna Rosemary Lee as the winner of the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, Australia’s leading prize for drawing, worth $30,000.
Selected from 56 nationwide finalists, and 965 entries, Rosemary’s work will become part of the National Art School’s significant collection, built over the past 120 years. Rosemary, in her winning work 24-1 (2024), observes tonal and compositional profundity in everyday life.
The judging panel comprising acclaimed First Nations artist Vernon Ah Kee, Paula Latos-Valier AM, Trustee and Art Director of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, and Dr Yolunda Hickman, Head of Postgraduate Studies, National Art School, commented of Rosemary’s work: “The decision to award the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize to Rosemary Lee for the work ‘24-1’ was unanimous. We were most impressed by the level of visual intensity the artist has achieved in this work both through its vibrant colour and in the extraordinary detail of the composition. The artwork’s exploration of the urban landscape and gentrification of the Sydney suburbs of Ashfield and Summer Hill, has produced an image capturing a broader sense of transience and the omnipresence of construction sites in our cities today. It questions the cultural and historical value of place, through the lens of the artist’s personal connection.”
See Lee’s work alongside the work of the other finalists in the 24th Dobell Drawing Prize, 11 April – 21 June 2025, NAS Gallery
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Left to right: NAS Director and CEO, Dr Kristen Sharp with artist Rosemary Lee, featuring winning artwork 24–1, 2024, pencil on paper, image courtesy the artist and National Art School Gallery © the artist, photograph: Peter Morgan
Apr 10
Introducing the National Art School Short Courses Program from July–December 2025
Whether you’re a beginner, rediscovering a past passion, refining your skills, or considering our Fine Arts degree, the short courses offer a stimulating and rewarding experience for all levels.
Our 2025 program begins in July with Winter School, followed by Term Three, Spring Weekend Workshops in September, and Term Four in October.
Learn more and enrol at the link in bio.
Apr 10
Making Sound is a performance event featuring four artists who make devices that make sound, including Gary Warner, Pia van Gelder, Ben Denham and Sean O’Connell, presented following Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025, Saturday 12 April 5-6pm.
Gary Warner creates an improvised soundfield with his ‘aleatoric ensemble’ autonomous sound machines, a collection of modified turntables that spin ad-hoc bric-a-brac assemblages.
Pia van Gelder (pictured) amplifies an electronic circuit as it is built in real-time. Under the moniker of “PvG sans PCB,” in these performances, van Gelder works on a breadboard with electronic components and additional found objects to demonstrate the electronic variabilities produced in the material world.
Ben Denham and Sean O’Connell perform together with handmade synthesizer systems that sense and sonify barometric pressure and the flow of electrons through matter.
Purchase your tickets to the symposium at the link in bio.
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Pia van Gelder, `sans PCB`, 2021, performance, Collings Creative, image courtesy and © the artist
Apr 6
