WASH Group Exhibition at Woolloongabba Art Gallery

Featuring the work of the lovely Caitlin Sheedy who works at artisan's (m)art design store! Exhibition on display from 15th April - 28th May. Artist talks followed by closing drinks: Saturday 28 May 4:00pm - 8:00pm. 

Along with needlework and other ‘drawing room’ occupations, watercolour painting was once considered elemental to the education of upper class colonial women. The women artists and their efforts were considered trivial in comparison to the scientific and documentary purposes to which men employed watercolour, as explorers, botanical illustrators, mapmakers and so on. In the early 1900’s Una and Violet Teague, travelled to
Hermannsburg in order to teach useful crafts such as watercolour, pokerwork and embroidery to Indigenous women and children at the outback mission so that they might raise funds. Rex Batterbee later instructed Western Arrernte man Albert Namatjira in watercolour painting at Hermannsburg. Although once delegated to the realm of ‘kitsch’, Namatjira is now accredited as a founder of the contemporary indigenous art movement.
This exhibition traces the legacy of otherness and the imprint of early watercolourists through to artworks by contemporary women artists, including the potters at Hermannsburg. The artworks acknowledge the unique qualities, significance and influence of watercolour.


Artists: Bianca Beetson, Megan Cope, Haley Coultard, Irene Mbitjana Entata, Clara Ngala Inkamala, Svenja Kratz, Sonja Peters, Dawn Ngala Wheeler, Zoe Porter, Penca Rafiqi, Lindy Panangka Rontji, Luisa Rossitto, Rona Panagka Rontji, Caitlin Sheedy, Rahel Kngwarria Ungwanaka and Carolyn V Watson.