This year’s judge, Dr Derek Whitehead, will discuss his responses to the selection and announce the acquisitions for the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawing.

Dr Whitehead has also curated a selection of figurative works from the Kedumba Collection titled ‘On a Human Scale: Portraying the Figure’.

Dr Whitehead’s carefully considered selection of 24 works focuses on a significant aspect of drawing practice in the Kedumba Collection: the human figure.

The exhibition, installed in the gallery’s upstairs space, includes drawing works by some of Australia’s most well-known artists – Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Donald Friend – as well as other, less well-known names.

Various artists who span artistic generations are united on the walls through a shared interest in the human form and desire to express something of the human experience through its depiction.

Dr Whitehead writes in his catalogue essay: “We linger before these works and sense a kind of interdependence between them, each work conversing with its neighbour”.

“We are drawn closer to them to look inwards: into each work and into ourselves. Perhaps we gaze at these drawings and gain some deeper insight into ‘being human’.

“Such is the impetus for this show: to evoke these artists’ personal vision which, in turn, reveals us to ourselves.”

The works selected may elicit emotional responses that are simultaneously unique and common to us all as we move through the inevitable stages of human existence.

Drawings that keenly depict the confronting nature of the human body gripped by physical illness and mental struggle are softened by more peaceful scenes of daily domesticity, recreation and relaxation.

In this way the exhibition may be considered a reassuring reminder of this ever shifting balance of the positive and negative aspects of our own lives.

As the year comes to a close we would like to remind people that the gallery is open from 10am to 4pm daily throughout December and January (closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and that our exhibition spaces offer a cool and contemplative break from the hot summer days.

Families looking for weekend or school holiday activities may be interested in the children’s activity booklet designed to complement the Elisabeth Cummings exhibition ‘Interior Landscapes’.

Created for primary-aged children and their adult family and friends, the activities aim to encourage children and families in their exploration of the gallery.

Booklets are available at the gallery’s front desk.

Everyone is welcome at the gallery and all our exhibitions are free.