Is our state gallery doing enough for South Australia’s living artists?
The Art Gallery of South Australia’s charter includes a call to ‘especially comprehensively’ collect South Australian art. But as another SALA Festival draws to a close, does the presence of living South Australian artists across its walls and collections live up to that promise?
Since SALA’s inception in 1998 as the brainchild of art dealer and gallerist Paul Greenaway OAM, the festival has had an arm’s length relationship with South Australia’s flagship art museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia. This is not surprising as SALA is an inclusive, open access, feel-good event, that embraces all comers irrespective of their level of accomplishment. In contrast, AGSA sets the bar far higher, aiming in its charter “to collect and display works of art of outstanding aesthetic quality, art-historical importance and regional significance”.
Ron Radford AM was AGSA’s director at that time of SALA’s inauguration and he endorsed the fledgling festival to the extent of hosting the festival’s launch in the Gallery’s courtyard and authorising its then-public programs manager to sit on the inaugural SALA committee. Over the years, and under different AGSA directors, there has been vacillating support and involvement by the Gallery. A lingering issue has been perceptions of AGSA’s reluctance to recognise the SALA feature artist with an exhibition, instead usually allocating limited wall space or display cases. Two exceptions were the exhibitions for Nicholas Folland in 2014, and Catherine Truman in 2016.
This year AGSA presented a small collection display by SALA feature artist Sue Kneebone. This comprised three of the artist’s remarkable mixed media and photographic assemblages which had been acquired by AGSA over a decade earlier. These pieces have been on frequent display over the years since then and while it is always interesting to see this work again, it may have left regular visitors to AGSA underwhelmed at the Gallery’s effort for SALA – to see new work by Kneebone required an additional excursion to Adelaide Central School of Art.
Elsewhere in the Gallery during the SALA Festival living South Australian artists were almost entirely absent from the collection displays, with the notable exception being the decorative arts. While there were works on display by 13 South Australian craft practitioners in the fields of glass, ceramics and jewellery/metal, the only works by living South Australian visual artists were Ida Sophia’s video performance piece Witness, and two paintings by Indulkana-based Vincent Namatjira (both Witness and Namatjira’s Close Contact were acquired automatically as winners of the gallery’s nationwide Ramsay Art Prize in 2019 and 2023).
The predominance of the decorative arts/crafts is arguably justified, as South Australia is acclaimed in these areas, thanks in no small measure to the role of JamFactory over the years in fostering high levels of excellence and innovation. Equally, a major factor in AGSA’s collection display strategy is almost certainly that these free-standing craft objects have a relatively small footprint, and do not require hotly contested wall space. This is at a premium in the Melrose Wing and in those galleries devoted to Australian art since the Second World War.
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At the tail-end of SALA, some redemption of AGSA’s tokenistic programming came with the opening of an exhibition of the highest calibre by Japanese-born South Australian artist, Kyoko Hashimoto, who is the 2025 Guildhouse Fellow. It is perplexing that this exhibition was not scheduled as part of the SALA program, as it would have raised the bar both overall and in terms of AGSA’s participation.
It is impossible not to sympathise with AGSA’s dire situation in terms of the woefully inadequate space for display of its nationally and internationally important permanent collection. But does this really excuse the low visibility of living South Australian artists that extends not only to the works on display but also to the digital collection and annual report?
Part of AGSA’s core role as specified in its charter is “to collect South Australian art especially comprehensively, not only as suitable for display but also as an art and social history research resource”. From the Gallery’s formation in 1939 until 2016-17 its annual report provided a full list of annual acquisitions. This was the principal means for outside observers to keep track of what was being acquired and to hold the Gallery to account, not least in respect to its acquisition of new art, including works by living South Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists.
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"Part of AGSA’s core role as specified in its charter is “to collect South Australian art especially comprehensively, not only as suitable for display but also as an art and social history research resource”."
Surely it is a failure of the transparency one would expect from our public art museum that, sadly, there is no longer such a list provided in the version of the annual report published on the web? The only information for 2023-24 is that AGSA acquired works by four South Australian artists, with just two, Ida Sophia’s Witness and Vincent Namatjira’s 2022 painting Albert Namatjira, Slim Dusty and Archie Roach on Country, being for the period post-2000.
More broadly, AGSA’s online presence offers limited insight into its holdings of living South Australian artists. A recent search for paintings, sculptures moving image and works on paper made in Adelaide in the quarter century since 2000 yielded 190 works. A wider search for art made in South Australia during that period resulted in a different set of 226 works of art, with the majority being First Nations artists from the APY Lands — unsurprising given the Gallery’s promotion of the region across this entire period, and the stimulus to acquisitions of the BHP-supported Tarnanthi festival since 2015. Just over 50 of the listed works were acquired this way. Sadly, many of these First Nations artists have since passed away, as have non-Indigenous artists Annabelle Collett, Khai Liew, Milton Moon, Ann Newmarch, Hossein Valamanesh and Geoff Wilson. Fiona Hall, meanwhile, now resides in Tasmania.
These searches provide at best incomplete information, but nevertheless they highlight the difficulties of getting a collection overview, and provoke questions about why the full list of acquisitions is no longer part of the annual report. They reinforce an impression that the gallery’s online resources fail to provide an easy, accessible way for curious visitors to discover more about art being made by South Australian living artists.
As a first step, AGSA could elevate its contribution to the SALA Festival with a dedicated, transparent, user-friendly online collection of contemporary South Australian art, to be available all year not just during SALA. At the very least there should also be closer collaboration between AGSA and SALA to identify the points of alignment in the visions of each organisation in respect to raising the bar for South Australia’s living artists.
As South Australia’s flagship art institution AGSA has an important role, indeed a responsibility, to set the highest benchmarks for contemporary South Australian art, in its displays, its collections and its digital presence. The Gallery’s low-key participation in SALA is a missed opportunity to set an example, to both inspire the public and recognise our best artists at a time when South Australian art is the focus of attention.
Editor’s note: In response to questions from InReview, the Art Gallery of South Australia provided the following statement:
The current format of AGSA’s annual report is proscribed by the State Government to meet statutory reporting obligations.
AGSA has a legislated responsibility to collect and display works of artistic excellence and acquire works in its three established collecting areas of Australian art, International art and Asian art. While AGSA’s charter does not identify the collection of South Australian art as a legislated responsibility, AGSA has developed an acquisitions policy, last reviewed in October 2023, which outlines its commitment to collecting the work of South Australian artists. From 2022-2025, 30% of new acquisitions were of works by South Australian artists (192 works by South Australian artists from a total of 633 acquisitions).
AGSA has a robust history of collaboration with South Australian artists through exhibitions, public programs, and artist development opportunities. Annually, AGSA works with SALA to present a display of works by the SALA feature artist of the year, AGSA collaborates with Guildhouse to co-present the $50,000 Guildhouse Fellowship for a mid-career South Australian artist to support research and development of new work and the presentation of a new work at AGSA. AGSA also regularly works with South Australian artists to present exhibitions as part of our exhibition program, including Vincent Namatjira: Australia in Colour, Bridget Currie: each one a world, and most recently, working with 38 SA living artists as part of the major exhibition Radical Textiles. Along with many public programs opportunities for SA artists, AGSA also frequently engages with SA artists to program its activity space, The Studio. Recently featured SA artists in The Studio include Sue Kneebone, Frida Las Vegas, Emmaline Zanelli, George Cooley, Vincent Namatjira and Alice Lindstrom.
Kyoko Hashimoto: Eight Million Deities (Yaoyorozu no Kami) continues at the Art Gallery of South Australia until November 2