Women (seen)

Drawn from Western Sydney University’s Art Collection and loans from artists or their estate, Women (seen) celebrates 20 women artists connected to Western Sydney through work, study, family, or home.

With 10 percent of the nation’s population calling Western Sydney home, Western Sydney is Australia’s most culturally diverse region, providing fertile ground for creativity, rich with authentic storytelling, experimentation, and expression.

From 1986 – 2009 Western Sydney University, or as it was then known as the University Western Sydney played a critical role in the advancement of visual arts literacy and training in the region through the art school on the Nepean campus.

The legacy of the art school still resonates widely throughout the art sector today with an impressive list of student and staff alumnae working as professional artists, lecturers, and curators.

15 of the exhibiting artists in Women (seen) are part of the cohort of Western Sydney University’s alumnae across the study areas of visual arts, electronic arts, visual communications, and education.

As with legacy, lineage also features strongly within the exhibition. Ideas and processes connect artists to each other, with their influences and antecedents, permeating the artworks on display.

Women (seen) speaks of identity, community, and belonging. It celebrates what once was, and what is now.

Artists: Marian Abboud, Eddie Abd, Janice Bruny, Fiona Davies Helen Grace, Cassandra Hard-Lawrie, Kirtika Kain, Debra Keenahan, Margo Lewers, Audrey Newton, Mylyn Nguyen, Raquel Ormella, Debra Porch, Leanne Tobin, Catherine Rogers, Robyn Stacey, Justene Williams, Vicki Van Hout, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn and Anastasia Zaravinos aka Adonis

This exhibition was developed by a curatorium: Dr Christine Dean, Hannah Donnelly, Julie Ewington, Margaret Hancock and Shivanjani Lal.

This online collection includes essays written for this project:
Complex Patterns: Art and Legacy in Western Sydney – Julie Ewington   
Running towards somewhere else – Shivanjani Lal
We acknowledge and thank the artists whose artwork are not in the Western Sydney University Art Collection for the generous use of their artwork images here.