Exhibitions and Events – Sheila Foundation

Exhibitions and Events

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COLLEAGUE SPOTLIGHT: Rodney James Rodney is a cur

COLLEAGUE SPOTLIGHT: Rodney James

Rodney is a curator, art consultant and writer specialising in 19th and 20th century art writing and research, collection management, exhibitions, visual art projects and museum policy and strategy.

His most recent publications include Una Deerbon: Australian potter 1882–1972 (2019), the first monograph on the art and life of this pioneering mid-century artist, and Letters to a Critic: Alan McCulloch’s World of Art (Melbourne University Press, 2023).

Rodney James has recently been honing his research on 20th century Australian women artists, including Roma Thompson, Mary Cecil Allen and Mary Cockburn Mercer.
Through his research on Mary Cockburn Mercer, Rodney has compiled a list of over 100 artworks and many more photographs. MCM’s innovative French Salon and Cubist inspired paintings produced between 1911 and 1929, dreamy Tahitian landscapes from the 1930s, and elaborate allegories, portraits of friends and art colleagues and of course her racy (female) figure studies from the 1940s, paint a complex story of a neglected but multi-layered artist.

Find out more about Rodney’s research on Mary Cockburn Mercer via Sheila’s blog linked in bio.

Images:
1. Mary Cockburn Mercer as a young woman
2. Mary Cockburn Mercer, Kathleen Schlitt: a Romantic Portrait [1942 or earlier], oil on canvas on board, 82 x 53.5 cm, Private collection, Melbourne.
3. Rodney James portrait. Photography by Mark Ashkanasy.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Deborah Prior An Adelaide-based

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Deborah Prior

An Adelaide-based artist who uses knitting, stitching and embroidery to transforms recycled textiles into art works, soft sculptures and installations that explore the body and the personal and social histories of domestic work.

Priors work ‘Grandmothers remembering Acacia blossoms falling after the rain’, 2022, was acquired by the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at UWA.

The work is currently being exhibited as part of Stuffed, Bolstered & Upholstered at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery until the 7th December.

Image: Installation image from the Stuffed, Bolstered and Upholstered exhibition of Deborah Prior, Grandmothers remembering Acacia blossoms falling after the rain, 2022. Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia. Purchased through the Sheila Foundation Champions Circle, 2023. Photograph by Ilkka K Photography

Meet the 2023 Into the Light Researchers! Sheila

Meet the 2023 Into the Light Researchers!

Sheila is proud to announce the launch of Into the Light 2023, the fifth annual tranche of this project to locate and acquire artworks by little known Australian women artists working professionally from 1870-1960. After their acquisition in 2023, the works and artists will now be researched and essays written by a cohort of early-stage curators, art historians and writers, mentored by senior art historian Dr Juliette Peers. Simultaneously the artworks will undergo conservation treatment and in many cases reframing.

Following Sheila’s recent callout for researchers/writers for the 2023 tranche of Into the Light acquisitions, we are delighted to introduce you to the six successful recipients, who will each receive a $500 honorarium for their involvement and contribution.

Find out more about the ITL researchers on Sheila’s blog - linked in bio.

Images of ITL Researchers:
1. Gloria Strzelecki
2. Elizabeth Burns-Dans
3. Stephanie Cusick Markerink
4. Bianca Arthur-Hull
5. Felicity Andrews
6. Ingrid Goetz

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Past EVENTS

The Sheila Network Inaugural Event

25 July 2019

Sheila meets Nora

19 November 2019

Trying to find comfort in an uncomfortable chair

26 July – 6 October 2019