A glimpse into the creative journey of a much-admired, award-winning Australian artist, the Art Gallery of New South Wales presents the work of Wendy Sharpe in Spellbound.
Wendy Sharpe: Spellbound is a sumptuous aesthetic journey into the nature of creativity. Composed of drawings, sketchbooks, artist-made books, paintings, ceramics, sculptural forms and site-specific wall murals, it creates a complete artistic creation or gesamtkunstwerk (a German word meaning ‘total work of art’).
Wendy Sharpe is celebrated for her expressive works that observe and celebrate the human condition. Her career catapulted when, in 1996, she won the Archibald Prize – the first time a self-portrait by a woman took out the award.
In 1999, she became the first woman since the Second World War to be appointed an official war artist by the Australian War Memorial, when she was posted to East Timor.
Over the past four decades, Sharpe has held over 70 solo exhibitions and won numerous other prizes, including the Portia Geach Memorial Award. Through her passionate approach to art, she has also highlighted critical social issues, from women’s health to the rights of asylum seekers.
The artist herself will also regularly be in residence, creating art within a special space in the gallery that partially reconstructs her own Sydney studio.
Wendy Sharpe: Spellbound
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney
Exhibition continues to 11 August 2024
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au for details.
Image: Wendy Sharpe in her studio (2024) – photo by John Fotiadis