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| Established | 1881 |
|---|---|
| Location | North Terrace,Adelaide,Australia |
| Coordinates | 34°55′14″S138°36′14″E / 34.92056°S 138.60389°E /-34.92056; 138.60389 |
| Type | Art gallery |
| Visitors | 780,000 (2019)[1] |
| Director | Jason Smith (February 2025 – present) |
| Website | www |
TheArt Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as theNational Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located inAdelaide. It is the most significantvisual arts museum in the Australian state ofSouth Australia. It has a collection of almost 45,000 works of art, making it the second largest state art collection in Australia (after theNational Gallery of Victoria). As part ofNorth Terrace cultural precinct, the gallery is flanked by theSouth Australian Museum to the west and theUniversity of Adelaide to the east.Jason Smith has been director of AGSA since February 2025.
As well as its permanent collection, which is especially renowned for its collection ofAustralian art, AGSA hosts the annual Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art known asTarnanthi, displays a number of visiting exhibitions each year and also contributes travelling exhibitions to regional galleries.European (includingBritish),Asian andNorth American art are also well represented in its collections.
TheSouth Australian Society of Arts, established in 1856 and oldest fine arts society still in existence, held annual exhibitions inSouth Australian Institute rooms and advocated for a public art collection. In 1880 Parliament gave £2,000 to the institute to start acquiring a collection and the National Gallery of South Australia was established in June 1881[2] with 22 works purchased at theMelbourne International Exhibition, together with others lent by Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, the British Government and private collectors.[3] It was opened in two rooms of the public library (now the Mortlock Wing of the State Library), byPrince Albert Victor andPrince George.In 1889 the collection was moved to theJubilee Exhibition Building, where it remained for ten years.On 6 March 1897 SirThomas Elder died, bequeathing £25,000 to the art gallery for the purchase of artworks.[4]The Elder bequest was the first major endowment to any Australian gallery, seven years before theFelton Bequest to theNGV.[3]
In response to theElder Bequest, the Government commissioned a specially designed building (now the Elder Wing)[5] and pushed ahead with all due speed,[6] to provide employment for skilled tradesmen in a time of economic recession.The building was designed byC. E. Owen Smyth inClassical Revival style, built by Trudgen Brothers,[a] and opened by the Governor,Lord Tennyson on 7 April 1900.
Originally built with an enclosedportico, a 1936 refurbishment and enlargement included a newfacade with an openDoric portico.[4]
Major extensions in 1962 (including a three-storey air-conditioned addition on the northern side), 1979 (general refurbishment, in time for itscentenary in 1981) and 1996 (large expansion) increased the gallery's display, administrative and ancillary facilities further.[5][4][9]
The building is listed in theSouth Australian Heritage Register.[4]
As of 2019[update], the building houses 64kWh worth of solar battery storage as part of the Government of South Australia Storage Demonstration project, powered by three 7.5 kW Selectronic inverters. This reduces the consumption of power from the stategrid.[1]
In 1939, anact of parliament, theLibraries and Institutes Act 1939, repealed thePublic library, Museum and Art Gallery and Institutes Act and separated the Gallery from the Public Library (now theState Library), and Museum, established its own board and changed its name to the Art Gallery of South Australia.[10][5]
TheArt Gallery Act 1939 was passed to provide for the control of the library. This has been amended several times since.[11][12]
In 1967 the National Gallery of South Australia changed its name to the Art Gallery of South Australia.[10]
From about 1996 until late 2018Arts SA (later Arts South Australia) had responsibility for this and several otherstatutory bodies such as the Museum and the State Library, after which the functions were transferred to direct oversight by theDepartment of the Premier and Cabinet, Arts and Culture section.[13]
Christopher Menz was director of the gallery until 2010, when he refused to renew his five-year contract because he believed that government funding to the gallery was inadequate.[14]
Nick Mitzevich was appointed as director in July 2010, when he was hardly known in SA.[15] He had grand ambitions and made a big impression in the eight years he ran AGSA. During this time, he acquired and commissioned works that would make an impression on the public, such as projecting anAES+F video work onto the gallery's façade during theAdelaide Fringe in 2012, and buying an entire exhibition of 16 paintings byBen Quilty on the 130th anniversary of AGSA. He also hungWe Are All Flesh, anepoxy resin sculpture of two headless horses by Belgian artistBerlinde De Bruyckere, from the ceiling of the gallery, which attracted much press coverage. His overall approach was to display contemporary works in close proximity to classics. Although he had a few detractors, the general opinion was that he had done a fine job at AGSA.[14][15][16][17] His achievements included curating the highly successful 2014 Adelaide Biennial,[15][17] the purchase ofCamille Pissarro'sPrairie à Eragny, with itsA$4.5 million price raised from donations only. He also oversaw a major internal refurbishment of the gallery, introduced theTarnanthi festival, hosted large-scale exhibitions, and greatly increased the collection of both contemporary Australian and international art. Annual visitor numbers increased from 480,000 in 2010 to 800,000 by the time of his departure. He was the first gallery director in Australia to implement aprovenance project, which investigates old objects which were acquired without historical checks.[17]
After the departure of Mitzevich, who left to lead theNational Gallery of Australia in April 2018, the first female director in the history of AGSA was appointed. On 22 October of that year, Australian-bornRhana DevenportONZM started her appointment[18] after leaving theAuckland Art Gallery, where she had been director since 2013.[19] In March 2024 Devenport announced her departure after her contract ends on 7 July 2024, after serving for six years.[20]
In June 2024,Lisa Slade, who joined the gallery in 2011 as project curator and was appointed assistant director, artistic programs, in 2015, announced her departure from 3 July 2024, after being appointed Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History at theUniversity of Melbourne,[21] a position based in the Art History Program in the School of Culture and Communication.[22]
In February 2025 Jason Smith, former director of theGeelong Gallery,Heide Museum of Modern Art, andMonash Gallery of Art, began his term as director of AGSA.[23]
On 13 June 2025, theGovernor of South Australia,Frances Adamson, and her husband Rod Bunten were named as the inaugural patrons of the gallery. Their main role will be "advocacy on a national and international scale".[24]
As of May 2019[update], the AGSA collection comprises almost 45,000 works of art.[25] Of the state galleries, only the National Gallery of Victoria is larger.[26] It attracts about 512,000 visitors each year.[1]
Lindy Lee's 6-metre (20 ft) sculpture "The Life of Stars" is mounted on the forecourt of the gallery, after being presented for the 2018 Biennial,Divided Worlds.[27] Created in Shanghai in 2015, the sculpture's polished stainless steel surface reflects its surroundings during the day[28] and radiates light at night. Over 30,000 perforated holes individually placed by Lee[29] resemble a map of our galaxy when lit from within. The sculpture was bought by the gallery as a farewell "gift" for and tribute to departing directorNick Mitzevich in April 2018.[30]
The Gallery is renowned for its collections of Australian art, includingIndigenous Australian and colonial art, from about 1800 onwards. The collection is strong in nineteenth-century works (includingsilverware andfurniture) and in particularAustralian Impressionist (often referred to as Heidelberg School) paintings. Its twentieth-centuryModernist art collection includes the work of manyfemale artists, and there is a large collection of South Australian art, which includes 2,000 drawings byHans Heysen and a large collection ofphotographs.[31][32]
Heidelberg school works includeTom Roberts'A break away!,Charles Conder'sA holiday at Mentone, andArthur Streeton'sRoad to Templestowe.[9] The mid-twentieth century is represented by works byRussell Drysdale,Arthur Boyd,Margaret Preston,Bessie Davidson, andSidney Nolan, and South Australian art includes works byJames Ashton andJeffrey Smart.[citation needed]
The Gallery became the first Australian gallery to acquire a work by an Indigenous artist in 1939, although systematic acquisition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art was not realised until the mid-1950s.[33] The Gallery and now holds a large and diverse collection of older and contemporary works, including theKulata Tjuta collaboration created byAṉangu artists working in the north of SA.[31]
European landscape paintings include works byJacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael,Salomon van Ruysdael,Joseph Wright of Derby,[32] andCamille Pissarro.[34] Other European works include paintings byGoya,Francesco Guardi,Pompeo Batoni andCamille Corot.[32]
There is a large collection ofBritish art, including manyPre-Raphaelite works, by artistsEdward Burne-Jones,William Holman Hunt,Dante Gabriel Rossetti andMorris & Co. Other works includeJohn William Waterhouse'sCirce Invidiosa (1892) andThe Favourites of the Emperor Honorius (c.1883);William Holman Hunt'sChrist and the Two Marys (1847) andThe Risen Christ with the Two Marys in the Garden Of Joseph of Aramathea (1897); andJohn Collier'sPriestess of Delphi (1891). Works by Britishportrait painters includeRobert Peake,Anthony van Dyck,Peter Lely andThomas Gainsborough.[32]
Sculpture includes works byRodin,Henry Moore,Barbara Hepworth,Jacob Epstein[32] andThomas Hirschhorn.[31]
TheAsian art collection, begun in 1904, includes work from the whole region, with focuses on the pre-modernJapanese art, art ofSoutheast Asia,India and theMiddle East. The Gallery holds Australia's only permanent display ofIslamic art.[31]
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As well as its permanent collection, AGSA hosts theAdelaide Biennial of Australian Art,[35] displays a number of visiting exhibitions each year[36] and contributes travelling exhibitions to regional galleries.[37]
The Adelaide Biennial is "the only major biennial dedicated solely to presenting contemporary Australian art",[35] and also the longest-running exhibition featuring contemporary Australian art. It is supported by theAustralia Council and other sponsors.[38] It is presented in association with the Adelaide Festival and staged by AGSA and partner gallery theSamstag Museum, as well as other venues such as theAdelaide Botanic Garden,Mercury Cinema andJamFactory.[39]
The Adelaide Biennial was established in 1990, planned to coincide with Artist's Week, which had commenced in 1982 to help counter the poor coverage of visual art in theAdelaide Festival of Arts programme at that time. TheArt Gallery of New South Wales introduced an exhibition of Australian art called Australian Perspecta in 1981, which ran in alternate years with the internationalBiennale of Sydney, in response for the need for more forums focussing on Australian art.[40] In its first iteration in 1990, The Adelaide Biennale set out to emulate theWhitney Biennial of American art inNew York City, and was intended to complement the Sydney Biennale and the Australian Perspecta exhibitions.[41] Then directorDaniel Thomas said that they had introduced the Biennial to keep Australia up to date: the Festival attracts international and interstate visitors and it was a good time to introduce contemporary Australian art to this audience. Artists such asFiona Hall, whose work is now in theNational Gallery of Art, were showcased at the first Biennial. The exhibition today still projects Thomas' vision, with the most noticeable difference being that the current version has a theme and a catchy title.[40]
The 2014 Biennial was titled "Dark Heart", an examination of changing national sensibilities, mounted by director Nick Mitzevitch, with 28 artists exhibiting.[42]
In 2016, the gallery participated in the large "Biennial 2016" art festival with its "Magic Object" exhibitions.[43]
In 2018, the title was "Divided Worlds", which aimed "...to describe the divide between ideas and ideologies, between geographies and localities, between communities and nations, and the subjective and objective view of experience and reality itself". Venues included theMuseum of Economic Botany in the Adelaide Botanic Garden.[44] It drew record crowds, with more than 240,000 people over a 93-day season under curator Erica Green.[45]
Curator for the 2020 Biennial, which was scheduled to run from 29 February to 8 June 2020, was Leigh Robb, inaugural Curator of Contemporary Art appointed in 2016.[45] The title was "Monster Theatres", examining "our relationships with each other, the environment and technology" and featured a lot oflive art. Paintings, photography, sculpture, textiles, film, video, sound art, installation, and performance art by 23 artists were featured, including work byAbdul Abdullah,Stelarc,David Noonan,Garry Stewart andAustralian Dance Theatre,[46][47]Megan Cope,Karla Dickens,Julia Robinson, performance artistMike Parr,Polly Borland,Willoh S. Weiland,Yhonnie Scarce (whose workIn the Dead House was installed in the oldAdelaide Lunatic Asylum morgue building in the Botanic Garden[48][49]) and others.[50] However, AGSA had to temporarily close from 25 March 2020 owing to theCOVID-19 pandemic in Australia, so some of the exhibits were shown online, along with virtual tours of the exhibition.[51] When the gallery reopened on 8 June, it was announced that the exhibition period would be extended to 2 August 2020.[52]
The 2022 event was calledFree/State, and among others featured the work ofHossein Valamanesh, who died in February, and his wifeAngela Valamanesh. It ran from 4 March[53] to 5 June, and was curated bySydney-basedBurramattagal manSebastian Goldspink. The theme was inspired by the history of South Australia as a "free colony", and also had resonances with states of being and psychology, and contrasting ideas of freedom. Other artists featured includeShaun Gladwell,JD Reformer,Tom Polo, Rhoda Tjitayi,Stanislava Pinchuk, and collaborators James Tylor and Rebecca Selleck.[54]
Since 2015, AGSA has hosted and supported events connected withTarnanthi (pronounced tar-nan-dee), the Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. The 2015 exhibition was said to be the "most ambitious exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in its 134-year history".[55] In association with theGovernment of South Australia andBHP, an expansive city-wide festival is staged biennially (in odd-numbered years), alternating with a focus exhibition at the gallery in the years in between.[56]
In 1906, when William Holman Hunt'sThe Light of the World was on display, 18,168 visitors crammed through the gallery in less than two weeks to see it.[5]
Diana Ramsay (7 May 1926 – 2017) and her husband James Ramsay (1923–1996) were art-lovers who gave generously to the art gallery. As of 2021[update] the gallery had acquired over 100 artworks thanks to their generosity, including paintings byVanessa Bell,Clarice Beckett,Angelica Kauffmann andCamille Pissarro. Diana launched the Ramsay Art Prize in 2016, a year before her death, and the couple's legacy lives on in the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation,[57] established in 2008. The bequest was established by James' will in 1994, and upon Diana's death in 2017, James' entire estate and part of Diana's was bequeathed to it. The Foundation supports the children and family programs, whereby more than 300,000 children and families have visited AGSA since the creation of the programs in 2013. In November 2019 it was announced that the couple had made a bequest ofA$38 million} to AGSA, to be used for the purchase of major works. This was one of the largest bequests ever made to an art gallery in Australia. The family's wealth had accrued mainly thanks to James’ uncleWilliam, who was responsible for developingKiwi boot polish, and his artist brotherHugh Ramsay influenced the family's love of thevisual arts. James' father wasSir John Ramsay, noted surgeon.[58][59]
In 2016, a new national $100,000 acquisitive art prize for artists, open to Australian artists under 40 working in any medium, was announced by thePremier of South Australia,Jay Weatherill. Supported by the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation (and launched by Diana on her 90th birthday[58]), it is the country's richest art prize, awarded biennially. Chosen by an international judging panel, all finalists are exhibited in a major exhibition over the winter months at the Gallery.[60] There is also a non-acquisitive Lipman Karas People's Choice Prize based on public vote, worth $15,000.[61][62]
In its inaugural year, over 450 young artists submitted entries. From the 21 finalists selected for the exhibition,Perth-born artistSarah Contos, now based inSydney, won the prize for her entry entitledSarah Contos Presents: The Long Kiss Goodbye.[61][63]Julie Fragar's 2016 paintingGoose Chase: All of Us Together Here and Nowhere, which explores the story of Antonio de Fraga, her first paternal ancestor to emigrate to Australia in the 19th century, won the People's Choice Award.[64]
In 2019, 23 finalists were chosen from a field of 350 submissions.[65][66]Vincent Namatjira won the main prize with his workClose Contact, 2018, a double-sided full-body representation of a man, in acrylic paint onplywood.[67][68] Winner of the People's Choice Prize was 24-year-oldZimbabwean man Pierre Mukeba (the youngest finalist) for his 3 metres (9.8 ft) by 4 metres (13 ft) painting entitledRide to Church, inspired by childhood memories of the whole family perched somewhat precariously on a singlemotorbike to travel to church.[69]
In 2021, 24 finalists were chosen from more than 350 entries. South Australian finalists included the work of musician and painterZaachariaha Fielding (of the duoElectric Fields) andYurndu (Sun), byPort Augusta artist Juanella McKenzie, while Melbourne-based Iranian photographerHoda Afshar's series entitledAgonistes was also selected.[70][71] The prize was won by South Australian artistKate Bohunnis, for her work entitlededge of excess, akinetic sculpture,[72][73][74] whileHoda Afshar won the People's Choice Prize with her photographic work,Agonistes.[75]
In 2023, 26 finalists were chosen from more than 300 entries. The South Australian artistIda Sophia won the prize with hervideo installationwitness.[76]Zaachariaha Fielding won the $15,000 People's Choice prize, with his multi-panel workWonder Drug.[77]
In 2025, there were 22 finalists, announced in April, with the exhibition to run from 31 May to 31 August 2025.[78]Perth-born,Sydney-based artistJack Ball won the prize for his workHeavy Grit, described as "a large-scale mixed media installation partly inspired by historic press coverage oftrans andqueer lives from the 1950s to the 1970s".[79]
The Guildhouse Fellowship is also supported by the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, and presented in partnership with AGSA. Inaugurated in 2019, the fellowship is intended for mid-career artists, to support opportunities to expand their research and further explore their creative potential. It offers $35,000 to support research and development, including the creation of new work, which is then acquired by the gallery.[80]
Past recipients of the fellowship include:[80]
Selected Australian works
Selected international works
There is a stop outside the gallery on North Terrace, on the BTANIC line of theGlenelg tram line, that runs to theAdelaide Entertainment Centre.[82]
| Preceding station | Adelaide Metro | Following station | ||
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| Adelaide | Glenelg tram line | University towardsBotanic Gardens | ||
Mitzevich leaves the Art Gallery of South Australia with a reputation for effecting change.
Media related toArt Gallery of South Australia at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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