Local artists shine as prestigious art exhibit hits Wagga in 125-year first

The official launch of five exhibitions will be held this weekend as the Wagga Art Gallery launches its Autumn Exhibition programs, featuring the 2023 Wynne Prize.

Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand will speak at the launch about the significance of the Wynne Prize, Australia's oldest art prize, as it tours regionally for the first time in its 125-year history.

Gallery director Lee-Anne Hall was excited local audiences would have access to the Wynne Prize without having to travel to Sydney.

"We are excited Wagga and audiences from across the region will have the opportunity to see the best of Australian contemporary landscape painting and sculpture so close to home," Dr Hall said.

She said the exhibit featured themes of rural life in the exhibitions by Julia Roche, Anna Louise Richardson and Sophie Chauncy, and was sure to be something local audiences will feel a connection with.

Local painter Julia Roche is showing her exhibition, When Our Eyes Adjust, a new body of work on canvas and paper, based on nightscapes from her family farm about 25km south of Wagga.

Ms Roche said the aim of the exhibit was to "create a sense of place" as opposed to what she actually sees.

Ms Roche paints outside during the day and the night to create unique and intimate impressions of the land.

While painting outdoors, the wind assisted her, blowing paint across the canvas. She also used elements such as leaves and branches to help create the series of artworks.

The gallery is also currently hosting a thought-provoking exhibit by West Australian artist Anna Louise Richardson.

Entitled, The Good, Ms Richardson's first touring solo exhibit centres around the positive experiences to be found in the everyday scenes of rural life.

Working primarily in charcoal and graphite, her large-scale drawings explore ideas of inter-generational exchange, parenthood and identity based on her experiences of living and working on a multi-generation beef cattle farm in the Peel region of rural Western Australia south of Perth.

"I wanted to find radical optimism, to try and find the good in all the little things," Ms Richardson said.

She started with a pile of pillows, which she sees as a "safe place to land" and ventured beyond to include various other objects such as a cracked egg, a sprouting potato and even a shipping container.

"The shipping container is ... like a rural garage in a way. It's a place where all the good things go and you know your answer is probably in there, but you don't necessarily know where or how to use it if there's no instruction manual."

Darlington Point artist and Wagga Regional Artist Development Residency recipient Sophie Chauncy will also present her exhibition Nurture.

Following an artist residency on a former sheep and cattle station in outback Western Australia, Ms Chauncy's exhibit captures the resilience of the land, native flora and endangered fauna in large-scale mixed-media and watercolour.

Audiences will also have the opportunity to connect with the artists behind these exhibitions, through a series of artist talks.

The National Art Glass Gallery meanwhile features artist Lyndall Phelps exhibit, Science of Common Life, which evokes reflection on women's historical and contemporary use of glass in craft activities.

Ms Phelps will discuss her exhibit at the gallery on Saturday from 11am.

That will be followed by a panel conversation in the gallery during the afternoon which explores the creative collaboration between artists and curators as they develop a new body of work.

The panel will be facilitated by Dr Hall, Ms Roche and Ms Richardson, who will be joined by curators Hayley Megan French and Rachel Arndt, with whom they worked in developing their new exhibits.

This will be followed by the official launch event for the Autumn Exhibition program at 4pm.

All events are free, however bookings are required. For more information and to book visit go to the Wagga Art Gallery website.