ArtExpress – Celebrating Fresh Creativity!

26 May 2023

ArtExpress – Celebrating Fresh Creativity

16 June – 13 August 2023

Opening Friday, 16 June at 6pm. Free. All Welcome!

Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Deerubbin Centre (Top Floor), 300 George Street, Windsor

Open Monday, Wednesday-Friday 10am-4pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-3pm Closed Tuesdays and public holidays www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/gallery

ArtExpress returns to the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in June 2023, celebrating the artistic creativity of students from across New South Wales.

The selected exhibition includes the work of 40 students from across NSW, including two from the Hawkesbury region, Zoe Capel formerly of Richmond High School and Maddison Garton, formerly of Arndell Anglican College. The diverse selection of artwork includes painting, drawing, printmaking, documented forms, photo media, ceramics, sculpture, collection of work, graphic design, and time-based forms.

For Zoe Capel (Richmond High School) the 2022 Hawkesbury floods provided inspiration for her HSC body of work titled The Usurpation in the expressive form area of Graphic Design. Of her work Zoe says:

“Stuck at home as the Hawkesbury area flooded, I noticed the prevalence of insects. This inspired me to represent how wild creatures, specifically insects, have been forced out of their natural environment and into urban areas. I have always been fascinated by insects, by something so small and delicate making such a huge impact on the world. My work expresses their hidden beauty, the fine and minute details that contribute to each insect’s overall fragility. My installation creates contrast within the work, photographing it in red light to create a horror or nightmare effect”.

Childhood experience and memory were the subject of Maddison Garton’s (Arndell Anglican College) creative exploration for her body of work Oma’s garden in the medium of Painting. For Maddison her Oma’s (grandmothers) garden and her experiences of time spent there symbolise her development as a child and young person. Of her work Maddison says:

“My work explores personal experiences and memories I accumulated throughout my childhood, specifically those formed in my Oma’s garden, a place I hold dear to my heart. Her garden is a place I spent so much of my time in, whether picking irises or watering succulents with my Oma. Each painting represents a different plant or scene, and each connects directly to a memory or emotion experienced in the garden. In painting this work, my intent is to invite others to reminisce on memories they too hold close, just as I have done”.

ARTEXPRESS is a showcase of NSW Higher School Certificate Bodies of Work as a high-quality teaching and learning resource representing best practice in visual arts education celebrating student achievement and connecting communities through the visual arts. Exhibitions aim to reflect the HSC Visual Arts candidature of government and non-government schools, gender, regional representation and expressive form.

ARTEXPRESS is a series of exhibitions that take place over an eleven-month period in the year following the HSC examinations. The exhibitions are selected by representatives from each of the venues including curatorial and education staff in association with ARTEXPRESS officers, from works nominated by Higher School Certificate markers that are deemed excellent examples suitable for exhibition. With the final exhibitions approved by NESA, the New South Wales Education Standards Authority.

ARTEXPRESS is truly a collaborative project that comes together through the efforts of many people.

Bodies of work from the majority of schools across NSW are sent to the Visual Arts Marking Centre at Homebush Bay to be marked. Additionally, bodies of work from the remaining metropolitan schools and many country regions are marked remotely, in each school by visiting teams of markers.

Nomination for ARTEXPRESS occurs after the marking of the Higher School Certificate Visual Arts bodies of work.

Bodies of work nominated for ARTEXPRESS include all the expressive forms described in the Visual Arts syllabus - drawing, graphic design, painting, printmaking, photo media, designed objects, textiles and fibre, sculpture, documented forms, ceramics, time-based forms and collection of works.

Venues exhibit the students' bodies of work as submitted for examination, in part or as a complete submission depending on gallery space. The bodies of work in ARTEXPRESS exhibitions may be exhibited at one or more galleries and each venue exhibits a unique selection of work.

Hawkesbury Regional Gallery staff will be conducting educational visits for primary and secondary schools throughout ART EXPRESS. Please direct all enquires to creative@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au or call the Gallery on 4560 4441 for further information.

IMAGES + Credits

Zoe Capel, Richmond High School, The usurpation (detail), 2022. Expressive form, Graphic Design

Maddison Garton, Arndell Anglican College, Oma’s garden (detail), 2022. Expressive form, Painting

Stella Janssens, Castle Hill High School, Reflections (detail), 2022. Expressive form, Collection of work

Seth de Leon, Penrith Anglican College, Kimochi (detail), 2022. Expressive form, Painting

Genevieve Rose Hockey, Loreto Kirribilli, She is (untitled) (detail), 2022. Expressive form, Photo media