Exhibitions and Events
Agatha Gothe-Snape, Trying to Find Comfort in An Uncomfortable Chair, studio view, 2019, courtesy the artist and The Commercial Gallery, Sydney.
July – October @ PICA
Trying to Find Comfort in an Uncomfortable Chair: 27 July – 6 October 2019 In 1995, before the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art was gifted to UWA, works selected from the Cruthers family’s collection of Australian art were exhibited at PICA as part of the National Women’s Art Exhibition project. In the Company of Women […]
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Tania Ferrier, Self Portrait, c. 1985
May – December @ Lawrence Wilson Gallery
The Artist and her Work: 25 May – 7 December 2019 Lady Sheila Cruthers took an immediate shine to women’s self-portraiture when she began collecting art in the mid-1970s. This interest expanded into a collection strategy she referred to as ‘the artist and her work’ – Lady Cruthers would collect an artist’s work in addition […]
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Ongoing @ Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery
For more information on current exhibitions and events, please click the links below: Exhibitions Events
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Salote Tawale
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 awarded the inaugural fellowship, an opportunity that will allow her to create a body of new work for her forthcoming solo exhibition I don’t see colour at […]
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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 2019. RTR FM 92.1: Making Art Equal. Listen to the interview.
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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 narrative, then that story needs to be rewritten.” The Saturday Paper’s Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios looks in detail the gender imbalance of women representation […]
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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 think it’s time some women got a chance.” Following The Countess Report 2019 publication, the Guardian’s […]
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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 gender inequality for female representation, particularly in state galleries, as highlighted in The Countess Report 2019. ABC Arts: Gender representation in Australian contemporary art sector reaches […]
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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 and exhibited, and through success came money and more lucrative commissions. Women were invisible….” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Editorial regarding […]
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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 galleries, biennales, commercial galleries and contemporary art organisations. But it also warned that there has been about a 3% decline at state galleries and museums.” The Arts Hub’s Gina Fairley explores […]
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In the Press: National Association for the 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 artists across 184 organisations were counted.” The National Association for the Visual Arts’ Esther Anatolitis explores key highlights in The Countess Report 2019. The National Association for the Visual Arts: New […]
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In the Press: The 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 state galleries have gone backwards in their representation of women artists.” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Linda Morris writes about the findings in The Countess Report […]
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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 been able to before. These artists – Elvis Richardson, Amy Prcevich and Miranda Samuels – are ‘The Countesses’, and their motto is “Women count in the art […]
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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 reappropriated – in this case, for the name of the newly formed Sheila Foundation, which seeks to address the historical and continuing gender bias against women […]
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Janet Dawson, Over the Rainbow, 1968, acrylic on board, 93.5 x 214.0cm. Courtesy the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.
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 exhibition for the new National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) building on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, in 1968. It marked the first comprehensive look at colour field painting […]
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Liz Ann Macgregor and John Cruthers. Image: Emma Pegrum
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 launch of a new organisation seeking to address issues of gender inequality in visual arts.” Fabric Quarterly’s Emma Pegrum talks to John Cruthers of the […]
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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 Sheila Chair John Cruthers and his mother Sheila Cruthers came to collecting art that celebrates women artists. POST Newspaper: A discerning eye. […]
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Business News_3 June 2019_John Cruthers and Michela Fini
In the press: Business News
“Donors … agree that if we raise sufficient funds to carry out our programs, we can improve gender balance in the visual art sector” – John Cruthers. Business News Madeline Stephens talks to Sheila Chair John Cruthers and Board Member Michela Fini. Business News: New art foundation tackles gender bias. Read the article.
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Sheila in The West Australian_25-5-19
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 Herald and The Guardian demonstrated the national interest in the story of Sheila and women’s art. The West Australian: An affair of the art. Read the article. The Guardian: Can […]
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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 Foundation. ArtsHub: A new foundation for Australian women’s art. Read the article
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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 talks to Sheila Chair, John Cruthers about the launch of Sheila Foundation. The Guardian: Can you name five female artists? How the art world is rewriting history. Read the article
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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 inspiration behind the Sheila Foundation. The West Australian: An affair of the art. Read the article below.
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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 women artists”. Sydney Morning Herald’s Jenna Price writes about Sheila Cruthers and how the Sheila Foundation came to launch The Sydney Morning Herald: […]
Read morePhoto gallery
Sheila Foundation Launch - Liz Ann Macgregor and John Cruthers. Image: Emma Pegrum
Sheila Foundation Launch - Liz Ann Macgregor, John Cruthers, Katrina Burton. Image: Emma Pegrum
Sheila Foundation Launch. Image: Emma Pegrum
Sheila Foundation Launch - Self Portrait by Elise Blumann (left). Image: Emma Pegrum
Sheila Foundation Launch - Artworks by Julie Dowling. Image: Emma Pegrum
Sheila Foundation Launch. Image: Emma Pegrum
Blog
Erica McGilchrist, Specialist with hobby 1962, oil and collage on paper on hardboard, 92 x 129 cm. Into the Light Collection, Sheila Foundation
Into the Light: Donor Circle Acquisitions 2019/2020
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 professionally in Australia whose work may have slipped from view. The data will be made available to researchers, art historians, curators, artists and collectors via an online portal. We hope this will lead […]
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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 presents the second incarnation of the exhibition entitled Embedded, in celebration of International Women’s Day 2020. The exhibition is on display at Flux Gallery, Perth until 18 July 2020, […]
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Elaine Coghlan, Self portrait at easel, c1917. Photo Jenny Carter.
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 Sydney-based Elaine Coghlan, whose self portrait was recently purchased for the Into the Light acquisition fund. In this blog Bella Chidlow writes about the work of conservator Anne Gaulton […]
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Sherry Paddon, The Weight of Things, glossy 310 gsm. Photo Aimee Dodds
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 contemporary photography by eight women in the early stages of their practices. Works by Chloe Bartram, Anaïs Bellini, Yabini Kickett, Millie Murfit, Sherry Paddon, Ebony Talijancich, […]
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Sera Waters, Survivalist Sampler, 2019-2020 Cotton, glow-in-the-dark thread, found materials on repurposed linen, 45 x 42 cm, Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide
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 of the artworks under consideration is Sera Waters’ Survivalist Sampler 2019-20. Sera Waters is an Adelaide based artist, arts writer and academic. Since being awarded […]
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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 in governance at an organisational level. My dear friend Helen Cook, who was then Chair of the Chamber of Arts and Culture […]
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Sera Waters, Survivalist Sampler, 2019-2020 Cotton, glow-in-the-dark thread, found materials on repurposed linen, 45 x 42 cm, Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide
EXHIBITION REVIEW: New Woman, Museum of Brisbane, until 15 March 2020
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 Australian art history exclusively through the work of women artists. By Louise R Mayhew. A self-styled “new woman” of the Gilded Age positions herself […]
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Janet Dawson, Over the Rainbow, 1968, acrylic on board, 93.5 x 214.0cm. Courtesy the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.
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 to contribute to The Field, an exhibition of abstract works at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. In 1973 Janet […]
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Nora Heyson - A Portrait by Anne-Louise WIlloughby
NORA HEYSEN: 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 Victoria allow a reconsideration of the life and work of this key Australian artist. By Juliette Peers Nora Heysen is a singular figure in Australian art. Barely […]
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Danielle Freakley, Everywhere I look, 2007, jeweller’s wax, glass coat, wood, 17 x 90 x 40cm, CCWA 887.
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 – Performance Art Biennial of New York and various other biennials, triennials, national galleries, state galleries, contemporary art spaces, kitchen floors, snake temples, theme parks, clothes, bins, beaches, conversations, train-station toilets and graves. Born […]
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Nora Heysen, Self Portrait 1939, oil on canvas on board, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art. Harold Cazneaux, Nora Heysen 1939, gelatin silver photograph, Art Gallery of South Australia.
Sheila Meets Nora: 19 November 2019
Sheila Meets Nora Tuesday 19 November 2019, 6 – 7.30 pm Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia Nora Heysen was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize and Australia’s first female official war artist. Despite these successes, her artistic career was interrupted by negative feedback from the establishment and by expectations of […]
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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 been able to before. These artists – Elvis Richardson, Amy Prcevich and Miranda Samuels – are ‘The Countesses’, and their motto is “Women count in the art […]
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Rima Zabaneh, Street directory, 2005.
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 building a new life for ourselves and very young family in a country that I hardly knew and had never even visited before. Technology has […]
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Amie Kingston, The model in Thea’s chair 1927-1928, linocut
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 collection and the second a group of contemporary artists engaged in discourse via podcast conversations with their colleague and artist Tai Snaith. Becoming Modern: Australian Women Artists 1920-1950 […]
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Kathleen O’Connor of Paris, Amanda Curtin, Fremantle Press, 2018
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 art BOOK REVIEW: Kathleen O’Connor of Paris, by Amanda Curtin, Fremantle Press, Fremantle, 2018 By Juliette Peers “Can you name five women artists?” This question has been a popular grassroots campaign organised for some years by the National Museum of […]
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Janet Dawson, Over the Rainbow, 1968, acrylic on board, 93.5 x 214.0cm. Courtesy the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.
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 exhibition for the new National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) building on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, in 1968. It marked the first comprehensive look at colour field painting […]
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Francesca Woodman, From Eel Series, Venice, Italy 1978, Gelatin silver estate print, 20.3 x 25.4 cm, © Charles Woodman, Courtesy Charles Woodman, and Victoria Miro, London/Venice
#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 she talks about her experiences, her work and the central role of social media for young artists – viewed through the life and work of an artist who inspires her, American photographer Francesca Woodman.
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Cynthia Nolan: A Biography, M. E. McGuire, Melbourne Books, October 2016
VANGUARDIST OR VAMPIRE? Rethinking Cynthia Reed Nolan’s contribution to Australian culture
For too many years Cynthia Reed Nolan (1909-1976) was barely mention…
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The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, photo: R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia
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 publ
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Pure Contemplation Without Knowledge 9 exhibition installation photograph, looking through Jane Braddock, Without words, 2017, scissors, nylon string, steel and wood, dimensions variable, photograph by Ron Nyisztor
FIERCE WOMEN IN PERTH
Pure contemplation without knowledge 9, exhibition installation phot
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Jenny Watson, Flower child 1992-93, oil on corduroy with found bowler hat. Collection of the artist. Photograph by Carl Warner
JENNY WATSON: LEGITIMISING THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE
Jenny Watson is a significant Australian artist who has spent much…
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Helen Grey-Smith, Forestry Dam, 1985, acrylic, 67 x 47 cm. Collection of Bankwest / Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Perth. Photograph by Simon Cowling. Courtesy Grey-Smith Estate.
BOOK REVIEW: HELEN GREY-SMITH
As part of the broad mission of promoting women’s art, the focus of t
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Gemma Weston (photo: Art Collector)
Michelle Nikou, No vacancy 2011, powder-coated ceramic, neon, Parker table, electrical components, dimensions variable, Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Courtesy the artist, photo Christian Capurro
LOVELY FACES BUT DANGEROUS IDEAS
Whilst known to art curators, academics and art professionals since th
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DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET
In the months and years ahead, we hope to inform, entertain, educate, shock,
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