“. . . what painting in the south looks like,
and who creates it.”
New South, curated by Director Sebastian Goldspink, provides a snapshot into contemporary Australian painting by artists living in the southern parts of Australia. Forming as a biennale, the show will be allowed to develop into a growing record of the connections, diversity, and challenging sense of identity from both location and mediums.
The curatorial rationale is wide and open – much like the geographical location that artists reside within. The artists come from radically different communities and traditions, drawn across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and the southern expanse of Western Australia. Some names are obvious choices, but there are a few surprises. Again, to challenge these notions of what painting in the south looks like, and who creates it.
“This exhibition plays with these ideas through the geographic locations of the artists but also the type of painting that they undertake,” says Goldspink.
This first edition of New South includes Abdul Abdullah, Clara Adolphs, Karen Black, Catherine Clayton-Smith, Nick Collerson, Yvette Coppersmith, Dean Cross, Shaun Gladwell, Nadia Hernández, Laura Jones, Jasper Knight, Fiona Lowry, Guido Maestri, Julian Meagher, Nell, Thea Anamara Perkins, Tom Polo, Ben Quilty, Reko Rennie, Huseyin Sami, Sally Scales, David Serisier, Kansas Smeaton, Jelena Telecki, Rhoda Tjitayi, Julia Trybala, Oliver Watts, and Justin Williams.

Clara Adolphs, Cumulus (Mungo) I, 2023, oil on linen, 203 × 298cm. Courtesy the artist and Chalk Horse, Sydney
“There are 28 artists in the exhibition – many of whom I have a history of working with and some who I am working with for the first time. I was interested in showing works that had significance to the artists,” says the director.
Goldspink reflects that the works may represent a change in style or feature a person or place that is significant to them. Like the memory-like cloudy sky remembering a summer’s day road trip in Clara Adolphs’ Cumulus (Mungo I), 2013, or Rhoda Tjitayi’s Piltati, 2024, a mark-making masterpiece in shades of purple and green which tells the stories her grandmother told her, to be told to her own grandchildren.

Rhoda Tjitayi, Piltati, 2024, acrylic on linen, 180 × 180cm. Courtesy the artist and APY Art Centre Collective
Waiting to present this idea for over a decade, Goldspinks’ new tenure as Director of Hazelhurst Arts Centre provides the perfect opportunity to delve into this nuanced concept. “I knew it would be a perfect place for the show given its beautiful expansive gallery and its storied history of painting exhibitions,” he says.
Layering narratives to weave connections, the curator centres back to the abstract concept of ‘Southern Australia’. “[It comes] from ongoing explorations I’ve undertaken looking at our colonial history and borders and states,” says Goldspink. “This seemingly contradictory idea of the things that divide us and unites us.”
Australia is not bound by its geographical markers (other than for colonialist ideologies about land control). And New South reveals just that. South Australia is ambiguous in its terminology – “a concept of unity . . . based on geographical rather than political boundaries.” It allows for an interpretation, redefining notions of Australianness and identity.
Goldspink wishes that New South will come to represent hope. “A view to the future, informed by the past but not burdened by it,” he muses. “A generative concept that I hope will inspire artists into the future.”

Julian Meagher, Triple Rainbow over Green Ray Kialla, 2023, oil on linen. Photograph: Silversalt Photography. Courtesy the artist and Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sydney

Installation view, New South: Recent painting from Southern Australia, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, 2024. Photograph: Silversalt Photography. Courtesy Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sydney
Emma-Kate Wilson is an art and design writer and editor based on Gumbaynggirr Country (Bellingen, New South Wales).
Hazelhurst Arts Centre
6 July to 8 September 2024
Sydney