ARTIST TALK // Luke Sciberras | Wonderful Wonderful

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) dives deep into the permanent collection to present new exhibition, Wonderful Wonderful: Scenes from the Collection.

Exuberant, humorous, and deadly serious, the exhibition moves across time, place, histories and artistic genre to offer fresh ways of experiencing an extravaganza of artistic riches – the BRAG Collection.

Roaming cultural, social and political history, the exhibition comprises a suite of monumental ‘collage’ scenes, where disparate artworks are juxtaposed to form conversational tableaux. What might seem random and unrelated, becomes coherent, incisive and intriguing. Variously, each scene offers whispers to your thoughts, a laugh in your belly, and the occasional slap in the face.

Presenting nearly 200 artworks collected over the last seventy years, Wonderful Wonderful: Scenes from the Collection features a rollcall of celebrated Australian artists, including Harold Cazneaux, John Coburn, Peter Cooley, Grace Cossington Smith, Reg Campbell, Karla Dickens, Leonard French, Marea Gazzard, Frank Hinder, Margel Hinder, Locust Jones, Graham Lupp, Francis Lymburner, Roy de Maistre, Mandy Martin, Lloyd Rees, Joan Ross, Eugenie Solonov and Roland Wakelin.

Opinionated, iconoclastic, sometimes slightly bonkers, the exhibition works the Collection in magical ways to illuminate the past, to assess the present, and to get ready for what the future might well bring. A multisensory experience, the exhibition is animated with music and a series of public programs, talks, and workshops.

Image: Luke Sciberras, Bridle Track, Hill End (detail), 2019, textile, cotton and wool, 160 x 160 cm. Commissioned by BRAG and BRAGS Inc. Artist and designer Luke Sciberras. Weavers Chris Cochius, Sue Batten, Amy Cornall, Pamela Joyce and Karlie Hawking.