ZAHALKAWORLD: an artist’s archive is a major survey exhibition that brings together key bodies of work from Anne Zahalka’s photographic practice, presented alongside collected ephemera from her studio and archive. Zahalka is one of Australia’s most highly regarded photo-media artists who has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas for over 40 years. Her work explores cultural and environmental points of tension through a humorous and critical lens. She is known for images that deconstruct and re-present familiar scenes, allowing for alternative narratives.
First presented at the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) in 2023, this iteration of ZAHALKAWORLD at the National Art School will contain over 100 artworks from 15 different photographic series, including the iconic Resemblance series, Bondi: Playground of the Pacific and the more recent Wild Life series. Also on display will be the Kunstkammer – a life-size recreation of Zahalka’s house-studio within the gallery space, for which she won the Bowness Prize in 2023. Imaginative, immersive and playful, the installation invites audiences into the artist’s working life and creative process to explore the illusionary worlds for which she is renowned.
Anne Zahalka studied at the National Art School (then East Sydney Technical College), completing an Art Certificate in 1978. She has held over 40 solo exhibitions and her work has been curated into over 140 group exhibitions across the world, including at the GEM/Fotomuseum, Den Haag; the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; and the Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid. Zahalka’s work is held by all major museums in Australia. The exhibition is accompanied by an award-winning publication proudly supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation.
“I’m excited to be presenting a major survey of my work at the National Art School in Sydney in my hometown. Curated around my key photographic series and the archive that supports it, this immersive exhibition will offer a first-hand experience of how I develop artworks, the research and material processes that are involved, and the context the works are made in.”
– Anne Zahalka, artist
