6 women artists over 60 having survey exhibitions

Six women artists are presenting major exhibitions – the key here is that they are all over 60, and several of them are presenting their first institutional solo exhibitions. ArtsHub salutes their long careers, and place in Australian art history.

Lesley Dumbrell: Thrum

Dumbrell is aged 82 (b.1941), and this is the first state art museum survey to celebrate the painter’s work. One might say, ‘It’s time to right some wrongs and give this incredible artist her moment.’

Curated by Anne Ryan, and presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), the exhibition maps out five decades of Dumbrell’s meticulous studio practice, across more than 90 key works drawn from major Australian public and private collections.

Dumbrell is known for her mastery of colour, movement and rhythm, which visitors can witness from 1969 – when she first started making her hard-edged and optical paintings, through to her recent foray into laser-cut metal sculpture.

She is one of Australia most respected Abstractionists, and visitors can see landmark paintings such as Foehn 1975, Tramontana 1984 and early-career works such as Red shift 1968 and Promontories 1969. What this exhibition does, is reveal Dumbrell’s development as an assured and ambitious painter with a distinctive voice, in times that were often dominated by a male-led art scene. Showing in AGNSW’s Naala Nura, south building, until 13 October.

Julie Rrap: Past Continuous

Past Continuous is a major survey exhibition that tracks the 40-year career of Julie Rrap (b. 1950, aged 74) – who has been a major figure in Australian contemporary art since the mid-1970s.

Rrap has used photography, video, performance, sculpture, and drawing to examine representations of the female body in art and popular culture, often using her own body as the subject. 

The exhibition curated by Lucy Latella for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia), centers around her landmark piece, the installation Disclosures: A Photographic Construct (1982), which comprises over 70 self-portraits taken in the artist’s studio and are suspended in rows of opposing perspectives. It was a key work in the feminist movement of the day.

There are also new and recent works on show, many using the artist’s body 42 years later in a dialogue about the invisibility of the aging female body, its strengths and vulnerabilities.  Julie Rrap: Past Continuous is currently showing, until 16 February 2025. 

Lindy Lee

In October, 70-year-old Lindy Lee’s (b.1954) much anticipated sculptural commission, Ouroboros, will be unveiled in the grounds of the National Gallery of Australia, in Canberra. To coincide with this significant $14 million artwork, the Gallery will stage a survey exhibition of Lee’s work to place it in context. It will be her first solo exhibition at the Gallery,

A highlight of the exhibition will be the new work, Charred forest, comprising camphor laurel trees that have been treated using the Japanese preservation technique of Shou Sugi Ban, which blackens the logs, before they are pierced with holes to reveal the natural colour of the timber underneath.

The remainder of the exhibition will explore similar themes of the cyclical notions of ancestry, spirituality, the environment and the cosmos across her four-decade career. It will also delve into Lee’s Chinese ancestry and her long-held questions around identity and belonging.

The exhibition continues to build on the National Gallery’s Know My Name initiative celebrating women artists in Australia. Catch Lindy Lee from 25 October 2024 to June 2025.

Anne Zahalka: ZAHALKAWORLD

The National Art School (NAS) Gallery in Sydney is presenting ZAHALKAWORLD, the major survey exhibition of Anne Zahalka’s photographs, which was first presented at the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) in 2023. The Sydney version of the show builds on the 100-plus works  presented from different photographic series, with six artworks held in the NAS collection, alongside five new works created between 2023 and 2024.

Sixty-seven-year-old Zahalka’s (b.1957) 40-year career as a photomedia artist has been defined by images that deconstruct and re-represent familiar scenes, including references to art history. They offer alternatives to dominant narratives, and reflect upon cultural diversity within Australian society, and often the impact of the global climate crisis. 

The exhibition also includes collected ephemera from Zahalka’s studio and archive and a 1:1 scale replica of her studio inside the gallery space, titled Kunstkammer, which won the Bowness Photography Prize 2023.

Following the NAS iteration (16 August – 19 October), ZAHALKAWORLD will commence a national tour.

Read: Counting Gender: The Countess Report’s urgent call for action

Julie Blyfield: Chasing a Passion

At 67, Julie Blyfield (b. 1957) is being celebrated as the 2024 JamFactory ICON. As a leading South Australian jeweller and metalsmith, Blyfield’s practice spans over 35 years, and her solo exhibition is accompanied by a major publication and national tour.  

She is best known for the handcrafted, and sculptural quality of her objects, which capture the essence of the Australian landscape. Across her career she has often been inspired by her research into collected botanical specimens and forms, interpreting their motifs and patterns in silver and copper.

While this exhibition is not a survey per se, presenting new work from a recent visit to the Great Barrier Reef, it draws on her distinctive language honed over her long career to reflect upon the concept of “life and loss”, which has been a constant.

Julie Blyfield: Chasing a Passion is showing at JamFactory Adelaide until 15 September, followed by a national tour.

Wendy Sharpe: Spellbound

Born in 1960 (age 64), Wendy Sharpe’s career hit a spike in 1996 when she won the Archibald Prize at the age of 36 – the first time a self-portrait by a woman took out the award. Host of the Prize, the Art Gallery of NSW is currently presenting a survey of her expressive paintings and works on paper.

Over the four decades since these beginnings, Sharpe has held over 70 solo exhibitions and won numerous other prizes, including the Portia Geach Memorial Award. And continuing to trail blaze, she became the first woman since World War II to be appointed an official war artist by the Australian War Memorial in 1999.

Her exhibition Spellbound includes her sketchbooks, artist-made books, paintings, ceramics, sculptural forms and site-specific wall murals that all celebrate the human condition. A highlight of the exhibition is a reconstruction of her Sydney studio within the Gallery, where she has been in residence. Showing until 11 August.