Artwork to Tapestry

This exhibition celebrates a new place for tapestry in the 21st century. Since the inception of the Australian Tapestry Workshop (ATW) in 1976, contemporary artists have come together with the Workshop’s artist-weavers to create unique artworks. The Museum has worked with the ATW to create an exhibition that tells the tale of the journey taken from original artwork to woven tapestry, featuring a selection of contemporary art which has been translated via the skilled and talented hands of the weavers of the ATW into a new form in cotton and wool.

Artwork to Tapestry features nine original artworks by artists GW Bot, Angela Brennan, John Coburn, Song Ling, John Olsen, Geoffrey Ricardo, Gareth Sansom, Yvonne Todd and John Wolseley, and their corresponding tapestry versions. Visitors have a rare opportunity to contemplate the works together in order to fathom the lengthy process of interpretation and collaboration involved in the creation of these large-scale tapestries.

Each tapestry in this exhibition is the result of a unique interaction between the artist, the weaver and the commissioner of the project. The textile versions of original works by Bot, Brennan, Ling, Ricardo, Sansom and Todd are interpretations of previously completed artworks. However, in the case of Coburn, Olsen and Wolseley, the artists created studies or sketches specifically for the artist-weavers to translate into vibrant, large scale tapestries. As the astounding works in this exhibition attest, the vibrant colours, powerful imagery, detailed textures, and meticulous attention to detail, make tapestry a rich, dynamic and contemporary artistic medium.