Tuesday 27 July 2021

Article by Elizabeth Fortescue. Artist Jeffrey Smart was born 100 years ago this week on July 26, 1921. The Daily Telegraph dedicated their History page to Jeffrey, who taught at the National Art School in the 1960s. It covers his upbringing in Adelaide, his travels to Europe, living in Italy, and his answer to the question of what his paintings were about. Geometry was his chief concern, he sa…

Friday 23 July 2021

Feature by Lissa Christopher. Each week, SMH asks someone to tell them about the upside of a bad experience or rough patch. This week features NAS student Lesley Wengembo. Artist Lesley Wengembo had never been outside Papua New Guinea when, in 2018, he was invited to attend an art symposium in Paris and won a scholarship to attend an art school in Florence, Italy. His first stop was Sydney, wh…

Thursday 22 July 2021

Article by Gina Fairley Every tertiary learning institution offers an Open Day, but few offer one like National Art School (NAS), located in a 200-year old gaol in the inner Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. Steven Alderton, NAS Director and CEO, said Open Days are important because they ‘provide an opportunity for prospective students to see where they could spend the next three to five years – t…

Friday 16 July 2021

Hennessy, the inaugural winner of the Tweed Regional Gallery – National Art School MFA Residency Award, explores the possibilities and politics of concealment in her most recent suite of paintings. She spent much of her time on the residency riffling through the Gallery’s recreation of Margaret Olley’s home studio, considering the way that the space itself acts as a portrait of Olley. Hennessy w…

Thursday 15 July 2021

Article by Elli Walsh Having recently graduated from the National Art School, majoring in ceramics, Parker is searching for her own frames of beauty. As a young artist of Australian and African American heritage, she re-examines the ostensible ‘primitivity’ of the ceramic mode – one of humanity’s oldest artforms. Experimenting with textures and patterns on functional forms, Parker playfully prod…