Artist Spotlight: Virginia Ward – Sheila Foundation

Artist Spotlight: Virginia Ward

Virginia Ward focuses upon her face in her multifaceted sculptural work as seen above.

Repurposing off cuts of wood used in the making of ukuleles, mandolins and guitars by luthier, Ward has created a highly conceptual and multifaceted self portrait that defines herself by what she is not.

“I use the offcuts and discards from human industry, to create apparent patterns. I draw around the shapes then paint them in water colour, delving into the multi-layered geometry, exploring all the visual possibilities of language formation through illusion using space, shape, colour, and the significance of application and materials.”

Image: Virginia Ward I WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU. ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NO THING. NOT INSTRUMENTS) IWABWY. OTSON. NI. Self Portrait As A Not Instrument With Bow Tie 2018.

Artwork donated to the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art by Sheila Foundation supporters.

Categories

Tags

Read more

Artist Spotlight: Erica McGilchrist (1926–2014)

Erica McGilchrist was an artist as well as a dancer, designer, curator, teacher, activist, feminist and humanist. She was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia to Stevenson George

Lovely faces but dangerous ideas

What is the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art? Whilst known to art curators, academics and art professionals since the later 1980s, the Cruthers Collection was first presented i

Black Binocular on Round Device

Articles

Links to articles related to women’s art.

In the Press: Sydney Morning Herald

“The National Gallery of Australia has become the first major art institution in the country to commit to full gender parity in its artistic program, after a new report found sta

Into The Light 2023 Call Out

Into The Light tranche 5, 2023 expressions of interest are now open! We are on the look out for early stage and under-employed art historians, curators, researchers to join us in b

NewsPublications

The Countess Report 2022

The Countess Report is a comprehensive report on gender representation in the Australian arts sector. It is compiled every four years and has become the most influential data set d

In the press: Sydney Morning Herald

“Sheila Cruthers never finished school, but by the time she died in 2011, aged 86, the former shop girl from regional Western Australia had made a major impact on the lives of wo

Artist Spotlight: Elvis Richardson

The Countess Report was founded by Elvis Richardson as a blog in 2008. In collaboration with Amy Prcevich and Miranda Samuels, Elvis has grown The Countess Report into a regular, c

Artist Spotlight: Virginia Ward

Virginia Ward focuses upon her face in her multifaceted sculptural work as seen above. Repurposing off cuts of wood used in the making of ukuleles, mandolins and guitars by luthier

Book Review: Women Count in The Artworld

Louise Mayhew reviews a new book by Melinda Rackham and Elvis Richardson that tells the story of CoUNTess, how it morphed into The Countess Report and how it continues to challenge

Artist Spotlight: Aline Cusack (1867-1949)

Aline Cusack, born in 1867 in New Zealand and brought up in Newcastle and Sydney, was a prominent professional Sydney-based artist who worked from the 1890s to the 1930s. Her siste

Meet the Into the Light 2023 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 work

LOOK. LOOK AGAIN 2012 exhibition brochure

Held in 2012, LOOK. LOOK AGAIN was the first major exhibition of the Collection after it was gifted to The University of Western Australia in 2007. This brochure was produced to ac

The Absence of the Anthropocentric Ego

Found and Gathered: Rosalie Gascoigne and Lorraine Connelly-Northey The idea of anthropocentrism is at the forefront of the Australian art world, becoming something of the buzzword

Exhibition Review: New Woman, Museum of Brisbane

New Woman gathers 111 works by more than 80 artists to celebrate Brisbane women artists from the past 100 years. It joins a suite of shows dedicated to re/covering and re/telling

Sheila Foundation Announces the 2023 Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Artist Alana Hunt has been awarded the Foundation’s third Fini Fellowship, an opportunity that will allow her to create a body of new work for her forthcoming solo exhibition

Meet the Board: Catherine McMahon

Why did you join the Sheila Board? I joined the Sheila Foundation Board in April 2018. I was a recent graduate of the AICD Company Directors’ Course and was keen to get involved

to be continued sigange

In the Press: RTR FM 92.1

Curator and Board member Helen Carroll spoke to RTRFM 92.1 Jorja Key about the Sheila Foundation and the visual arts gender parity statistics highlighted in The Countess Report 201

Two exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

Eliza Burton reviews two exhibitions by women running concurrently at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, the first an ambitious survey of Australian modernism from the Gallery’s own co

Vanguardist or vampire? Rethinking Cynthia Reed Nolan’s contribution to Australian Culture

Cynthia Nolan: A BiographyM. E. McGuireMelbourne Books, October 2016Hardcover $34.95Available from http://www.melbournebooks.com.au/ The last few years have witnessed a new tranch

Exhibitions and Events

The Sheila Network Inaugural Event

25 July 2019

In the Press: ArtsHub

“The latest report (30 October 2019) found that there has been ‘significant gender equity gains across public galleries, artist-run initiatives, major museums and university ga

In the press: Sheila has launched

Sheila Foundation Limited launched on May 28 at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia. Feature articles in The West Australian, the Sydney Morning Hera

Exhibition Review: Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment

Celebrating the known, honouring the intangible Clarice Beckett: The Present MomentArt Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 27 February – 16 May 2021 By Juliette Peers Altho

turned on LED projector on table

Films

Open House: The Cruthers Collection in its original home.

Sheila Impact Report 2019-2020

It is a year since Sheila Foundation was officially launched by Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE. What a wonderful night it was, and how things have changed for all of us in this time.

Artist Spotlight: Danielle Freakley

Danielle Freakley is a Seychellois-Australian artist, a first selection finalist of the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice Arsenale), exhibited at Tate (Liverpool Biennial), Performa –

Untold Stories: Janet Dawson, Over the Rainbow

Janet Dawson (b. 1935) trained as a printmaker and worked in the lithography workshop at Gallery A in Sydney in the 1960s. She was one of only three women out of 40 artists invited

human face wall art

In the Press: Vault

“The Australian slang term ‘sheila’, a derogatory term for a woman, is a relic of another, more sexist time. But, like other contested words, it has been reclaimed and reappr

painting lot

In the Press: The Guardian

“I’ve seen a lot of art. Two things are inherent in this statement: I’ve seen a lot of bad art, and a lot of art by men. Ergo: I have seen a lot of bad art by men. I thin

Kelly Gellatly to Chair Sheila Fondation

Longstanding Sheila Foundation Chairperson John Cruthers this week announced the appointment of preeminent arts industry leader Kelly Gellatly as his replacement as head of the org

Do not adjust your set

By Juliette Peers You are reading the first posting for the Cruthers Art Foundation blog. In the months and years ahead, we hope to inform, entertain, educate, shock, irritate, del

Angela Brennan Work Gifted to The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

In 2021 Angela Brennan’s painting Self portrait 1998 entered the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art as a gift from the artist’s husband Will Barrett. Angela BrennanSelf portr

In the press: The Guardian

“The Australian Cruthers family are among a global movement of galleries and philanthropists putting the spotlight back on women”. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore from The Guardian t

In the Press: Fabric Quarterly

In May, three significant examples of colour field paintings by women artists – two of which were omitted from The Field – hung in the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery to mark the l

Artist Spotlight: Deborah Prior

Deborah Prior is an Adelaide-based artist who uses knitting, stitching and embroidery to transforms recycled textiles into art works, soft sculptures and installations that explore

Affirmative Actions: The Activist Essay and the Cruthers Collection

By Julia Anderson, Sidonie Hall-Jordan, Sunday Jemmott, Michael Louttit, Samantha Wallis and Louise R Mayhew In 2019, students at the Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith Un

Kelly Gellatly joins Sheila Foundation board

Foundation chair John Cruthers is delighted to announce that highly regarded arts industry professional Kelly Gellatly has joined the board of directors. Kelly has over 25 years’

person using laptop computer

Related Websites

Links to websites related to women’s art.

In The Press: Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald

“In the history of art, or more pointedly the history of the industry of art, those who rose to the top were men. They ran the art schools, they won the patrons, they were feted

lighted we are all made of stories red neon wall signage inside room

In the press: The Saturday Paper

“If we value women’s art less than we do men’s, then we need to rethink what it is that we value in art. If women’s art doesn’t slot neatly into the art historical narrat

In the Press: National Association for Visual Arts

“The latest Countess Report, Australia’s premier reference point on gender representation in the contemporary visual arts, has been released today…A total of over 13,000 arti

From Perth to Paris: Recovering one of the true innovators of early twentieth century Australian art

FROM PERTH TO PARIS: Recovering one of the true innovators of early twentieth century Australian artBOOK REVIEW: Kathleen O’Connor of Paris, by Amanda Curtin, Fremantle Press, F

In the press: The West Australian

“A new foundation to be launched next week will honour the art-loving legacy of Lady Sheila Cruthers.” The West Australian writes about Lady Sheila Cruthers and the inspir

Sheila Foundation announces inaugural Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila – A Foundation for Women in Visual Art has announced the inaugural Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship valued at $20,000. Sydney-based artist Salote Tawale has been

Book Review: Helen Grey-Smith

As part of the broad mission of promoting women’s art, the focus of the Foundation’s blog entries will sometimes shift away from material directly based on the Cruthers Collect

Artist Spotlight: Rhonda Sharpe

Born in 1977, Rhonda Sharpe is an Luritja artist who works for the art centre Yarrenyty Arltere in Alice Springs. The centre has a focus on soft sculpture made with recycled blanke

Exhibition Review: Embedded

‘THE POSITION OF ART IN THE WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT IS THE POSITION OF WOMAN IN THE ART’S MOVEMENT’ (1) Embedded review by Madeline Sarich Curator Sandra Murray present

Exhibitions and Events

Sheila meets Nora

19 November 2019

Exhibitions and Events

Trying to find comfort in an uncomfortable chair

26 July - 6 October 2019

In the Press: POST Newspaper

It was a unique and beautiful thing for a mother and son to share, and it was the beginning of Sheila’s love and support of women artists.” The POST Sarah McNeil writes how She

Jenny Watson: legitimising the Female Experience

Sheila Cruthers was drawn to self-portraits painted by women artists, and much of her early collecting included purchasing or commissioning a self-portrait of the artist, which wou

Into the Light: Elaine Coghlan (1897-1989)

Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s lost women artists 1870-1960 is Sheila’s national research project to collect data about women artists in Australia. One such artist was

Colleague Spotlight: Lainie Edwards

As part of our ambition to share our passion for the work of Australian women artists, Sheila would like to introduce current projects by colleagues – curators, art historians, r

Colleague Spotlight: Rodney James

Rodney James is a curator, art consultant and writer specialising in 19th and 20th century art writing and research, collection management, exhibitions, visual art projects and mus

NewsPublications

The Countess Report 2019

For years, three dedicated Australian artists, with the support of Sheila Foundation, have been quietly working to change the face of Australian contemporary art in ways no-one has

Book review: Interesting artists for interesting times

By Juliette Peers Art historian Juliette Peers reviews two books on women artists, the recently published Odd Roads to be Walking: 156 Women who Shaped Australian Art and Throug

In the Press: ABC Arts

“Try naming five male artists, contemporary and historic … easy? And now five women. For most people this is much more difficult.” ABC Arts’ Eloise Fuss writes about the ge

In the press: Business News

“Donors … agree that if we raise sufficient funds to carry out our programs, we can improve genderbalance in the visual art sector” – John Cruthers. Business News Madeline

NewsPublications

Into the Light: Donor Circle Acquisitions: 2020

Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s lost women artists 1870- 1960 is Sheila’s national research project to collect data about women artists working professionally in Austral

Book Review: Celebrating women who defied the odds

Writer Nina Levy from See Saw Magazine has written a thoughtful review on ‘Odd Roads to be walking: 156 Women Who Shaped Australian Art’. Providing a well-rounded critique

Love never dies: the private collector’s passion and its impact on the public gallery

With the Cruthers Art Foundation transitioning from a private to a public entity, it is timely to continue the discussion around private collections entering the public realm start

Sheila Fellowship Exhibition Opens in Darwin

Recipient of Sheila’s 2023 Michela and Adrian Fini Fellowship, Alana Hunt, recently opened her solo exhibition Surveilling a Crime Scene at the Northern Centre for Contemporary A

#seen

What’s it like for a young woman artist trying to make her way in the artworld of today? Bella Chidlow is a recent art school graduate interning with the SHEILA Foundation. Here

Artist Spotlight: Gladys Laycock (1882-1959)

Why is a women’s art foundation acquiring a portrait of a Scotsman in a kilt? Because it was painted by little known Sydney artist Gladys Laycock. From 1908, Gladys ma

Nora Heyson: book and exhibition review

A new biography, Nora Heysen: A Portrait by Anne-Louise Willoughby, and the recent exhibition Hans and Nora Heysen: Two generations of Australian art at the National Gallery of

Celebrating Carol Rudyard

In this section we profile West Australian artist Carol Rudyard who recently passed away. One of her important works, Untitled 1970, is held by the Cruthers Collecti

Exhibition Review: Days of Their Lives

Now is life very solid, or very shifting?– Virginia Woolf, Diary III.[1] Days of Their Lives Exhibition Review by Aimee Dodds. Days of Their Lives presents a sample of contempo

In the press: ArtsHub

“Busting gender disparity in the visual arts wide open, Sheila is a new foundation aimed at building collections, and awareness.” ArtsHub writes about the need for Sheila Foun

Sheila Foundation announces second Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship

Sheila Foundation – A Foundation for Women in Visual Art has announced the awarding of the 2022 Michela and Adrian Fini Artist Fellowship. Brisbane-based artist Natalya Hughes ha

3 important works unveiled at Sheila launch

To celebrate its launch, the Sheila Foundation has secured three important colour field paintings made by Australian women artists in the late 1960s. The Field was the opening exhi

NewsPublications

Into the Light: Donor Circle Acquisitions 2019

Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s lost women artists 1870–1960 is Sheila Foundation’s national research project to collect data about women artists working professionall

Fierce Women in Perth

My mother Sheila Cruthers had a soft spot for young women artists and rarely missed an exhibition showcasing a new artist. If she responded to the artist and her work, a purchase

NewsPublications

Into the Light: Donor Circle Acquisitions: 2021

Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s lost women artists 1870- 1960 is Sheila’s national research project to collect data about women artists working professionally in Austral

Exhibition Review: Zahalkaworld – An Artist’s Archive

History Afresh, Zahalka Style ZAHALKAWORLD – an artist’s archive Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne, 10 June – 10 September 2023 By Andonis Piperoglou. Anne ZAHALKA,

Artist Spotlight: Gemma Ben-Ary

A recent acquisition by Perth-based artist Gemma Ben-Ary is included in the current exhibition From the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Per

In the Company of Women: 100 years of Australian women’s art from the Cruthers Collection

In the Company of Women was the first public exhibition of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art and represented the Collection after 21 years of collecting. It was developed by

What have women ever done anyway?

A cautionary tale of selective memory and the West Australian women painters, Elizabeth Ford and Dorothy Newland, in focus. Written by Lynda Newland. West Australian women who pain

Juliette Peers interviews Gemma Weston

Gemma Weston has been Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at the University of Western Australia since April 2013, and also maintains a independent practice, curati

Artist Spotlight: Sera Waters

Sheila’s Champions Donor Circle provides funds for the purchase of new works by younger and mid-career artists to be added to the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at UWA. One

Artist Spotlight: Rima Zabaneh

Artist Rima Zabaneh writes the inspiration behind her work Street Directory. “In late 1990, I emigrated to Perth from Jordan with my partner and three children, in the hope of b

Into the Light – The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art

The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art is one of Australia’s most fascinating specialist art collections. Assembled since 1974 by collector and patron Lady Sheila Cruthers, the