Senior Visual Arts Excursion to AGNSW

Last Thursday 5 February Year 11 and Year 12 Senior Visual Arts students visited the Art Gallery of NSW to view a range of inspiring exhibitions.

Students were excited to see ARTEXPRESS, an annual showcase of exemplary artworks from the previous year’s Higher School Certificate that celebrates the remarkably high standards reached by NSW Visual Arts students.

Next students viewed an impressive showcase of figurative sculptures by Melbourne born artist Ron Mueck. Mueck’s works embody themes such as birth and death, alienation and togetherness, tenderly inviting us to explore our relationship with the world.

After this exhibition, students visited Mike Hewson’s ‘The Key’s Under the Mat’ which reimagines the Tank as a combined park, playground, construction site, and commons. This was a hit with our students as they explored the sculptural neighbourhood where visitors can meet, dwell, play, make, perform, explore and more.

Finally, students visited ‘Dangerously Modern’ which is the first major exhibition of Australian Women Artists in Europe from 1890–1940. The exhibition explored the vital role these Australian women played in the emergence of international modernism. Our Year 11 Visual Arts students found this exhibition particularly inspiring, as it holds strong links with their current unit of work exploring the emergence of Modernism in Europe and America at the turn of the 20th century.

The day was a highly engaging and inspiring experience that enriched students’ understanding of Visual Arts and reinforced the value of learning through direct encounters with art.

– Camille Softley
Visual Arts Teacher

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