During September through to November this year the Macquarie University Art Gallery will be the home of a collection of works by Dobell Prize-winning artist Suzanne Archer in a major survey exhibition spanning three decades: Suzanne Archer: the alchemy of the studio.
Curated by Sioux Garside, the exhibition commences on 9 September and is open to the wider community until 7 November 2016 at the Macquarie University Art Gallery.
“Suzanne’s work is renowned within the art establishment. The afterlife is a reoccurring theme that draws emotional and intellectual responses about the mortality of our lives,” explains Rhonda Davis, Senior Curator at the Macquarie University Art Gallery.
Suzanne Archer was born in UK and trained at the Sutton School of Art, before moving to Australia in 1965 where she took inspiration from the local flora and fauna. Her works have been regularly exhibited since the late 1960s.
“Taking an array of forms including painting, sculpting and printmaking, Archer’s art embraces elements of animal anatomy and mortality,” explains Ms Davis.
“Her art speaks to her time at the Veterinary Science laboratories at Sydney University and the bones she collected near her bush studio, exemplifying her regard for these animals and how this relationship reflects her understanding of her own mortality.”
“Rather than finding inspiration from the theological idea of a soul, Archer negotiates the skeletal remains of her subjects in a graceful, lamenting arrangement that causes them to appear still imprinted with life, positioned in ways that call out to the experiences of the living. Viewers are left thinking of their own existence,” concludes Ms Davis.
The Macquarie University Art Gallery is located within Building E11A, 19 Eastern Rd, Macquarie University (North Ryde campus). The Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday (except public holidays) from 10am–5 pm. Please see the 2016 Art Gallery Program for guided tour times. Entrance to the exhibition is free.
Curated by Sioux Garside, the exhibition commences on 9 September and is open to the wider community until 7 November 2016 at the Macquarie University Art Gallery.
“Suzanne’s work is renowned within the art establishment. The afterlife is a reoccurring theme that draws emotional and intellectual responses about the mortality of our lives,” explains Rhonda Davis, Senior Curator at the Macquarie University Art Gallery.
Suzanne Archer was born in UK and trained at the Sutton School of Art, before moving to Australia in 1965 where she took inspiration from the local flora and fauna. Her works have been regularly exhibited since the late 1960s.
“Taking an array of forms including painting, sculpting and printmaking, Archer’s art embraces elements of animal anatomy and mortality,” explains Ms Davis.
“Her art speaks to her time at the Veterinary Science laboratories at Sydney University and the bones she collected near her bush studio, exemplifying her regard for these animals and how this relationship reflects her understanding of her own mortality.”
“Rather than finding inspiration from the theological idea of a soul, Archer negotiates the skeletal remains of her subjects in a graceful, lamenting arrangement that causes them to appear still imprinted with life, positioned in ways that call out to the experiences of the living. Viewers are left thinking of their own existence,” concludes Ms Davis.
The Macquarie University Art Gallery is located within Building E11A, 19 Eastern Rd, Macquarie University (North Ryde campus). The Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday (except public holidays) from 10am–5 pm. Please see the 2016 Art Gallery Program for guided tour times. Entrance to the exhibition is free.
