Exhibitions

New Directions explores the creative responses of Australian women artists to the cultural and socio-political shifts that impacted their lives in the second half of the twentieth century. Several of the artists included in this exhibition were central to the revival of printmaking during the 1960s, which saw the broader participation and acknowledgment of women artists in the production, teaching and promotion of Australian printmaking. These women were also at the forefront of new printing techniques and art movements that included screenprinting, Abstraction and political art that aligned with the feminist and social justice activism of their time. This exhibition, which is drawn from prints held in the Geelong Gallery and Colin Holden collections, celebrates the 50th anniversaries of the United Nations International Women’s Year and Australia’s Women’s Art Register.

Image: Lesley Dumbrell, Azzurum 1987, colour screenprint; edition 20/100, Geelong Gallery, Gift of Guy Abrahams in memory and celebration of the life of Christine Abrahams, 1999, © the artist.