Nature
5 Oct 2024 – Aug 2025
Lower Ground, Galleries 16 & 18
Free

Rosalie Gascoigne, Wheat belt, 1989, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Pauline Hunter 2005 © Rosalie Gascoigne/Copyright Agency
About
The natural world is a constant inspiration for artists, who explore the myriad forms of nature as a means of expression, a way to understand the cosmos and to explore their personal relationship with their environment.
Featuring works by AES+F, Inge King, Yayoi Kusama, Eko Nugroho and Brett Whiteley, this display includes art by twenty-five artists, drawn from the national collection. Their diverse responses to nature reflect their engagement with materials and natural structures, environmental issues, the symbolisms of natural forms, and the artist’s spiritual affinity with nature.
The works are cast, carved, painted, assembled and woven explorations of nature across cultures, materials, time and traditions.
Curator: Carol Cains, Senior Curator, Asian and Pacific Art.
Works of Art
Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin, 2016, mirror polished bronze. On loan from the Gwinnett Family, Tarntanya/Adelaide, South Australia. Image courtesy of Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Photographer: Saul Steed.

Anselm Kiefer, The secret life of plants [La Vie secrète des plantes], 2002, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 2003
AES+F, Last riot, 2007, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 2024 © AES+F

Brett Whiteley, The last emu., (1978-79), National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, gift of Robin Gibson and Brett Whiteley, 1979 This work appears on the screen courtesy of the estate of Brett Whiteley