The Gippsland Art Gallery, formerly Sale Regional Art Centre, is a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

Regional Public Gallery based in Sale, east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The gallery is operated by the

Shire of Wellington The Shire of Wellington is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the eastern part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 44,019. It includes the towns of Heyfield, Rosedale, Maffra, Sale ...

, and has a focus on the natural environment and artists based in Gippsland.

History

The gallery was opened on 25 September 1965 by Rupert Hamer, as the Sale Regional Art Centre. It was built above the Sale Library at 82 Macalister Street, Sale. Construction of the gallery was funded by a

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

grant of £20,000, with the Sale City Council contributing a further £10,000. An intensive program of temporary exhibitions was organised, complete with educational materials, and the institution soon became an important resource centre for schools, arts and crafts groups and the public, covering the whole area of Central and East Gippsland. In 1989 the gallery was relocated after

blue asbestos Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals, chemical formula Na2(Fe2+3Fe3+2)Si8O22(OH)2. It forms a solid solution series with magnesioriebeckite. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, usually as long prism ...

was found in the ceiling. It occupied several temporary locations before settling at 288 Raymond Street for some time. In 1995 the gallery relocated to its current location at 70 Foster Street and changed its name to the Gippsland Art Gallery. Between 2015 and 2017 the building underwent a major redevelopment to improve facilities and increase exhibition space. The new fit-out was designed by FJMT Architects, Melbourne, and opened to the public on 6 January 2018. In 2018, the

ExxonMobil Australia ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of ExxonMobil, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait, south east of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a gas processing fac ...

Collection of Australian Art, a significant collection of artworks spanning the breadth of the twentieth century, was donated to the gallery. In 2020 the Gippsland Art Gallery Foundation was launched, a charitable fund to support acquisitions of major artworks and projects into the future.

Past exhibitions

The gallery has presented a number of significant exhibitions throughout its history. Important exhibitions include 'From

Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...

to Charles McCubbin' (2008), which explored the creative legacy of the McCubbin Family; 'Lost Highways' (2009), the first major survey exhibition of work by Melbourne artist

Tony Lloyd Sir Anthony Joseph Lloyd (born 25 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who has discontinuously served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, currently as the MP for Rochdale since 2017. He was MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1 ...

; and 'Disappearers' (2009), which explored the absent figure in the work of eight contemporary Australian photographers. The Gallery has also presented major exhibitions of work by William Delafield Cook,

Robbie Rowlands Robbie Rowlands (born 1968) is a visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. His work explores notions of stability and vulnerability through the manipulation of objects and environments. His repetitious and precise cuts and the resulting disto ...

, Kylie Stillman, Sam Jinks, Charles McCubbin,

Annemieke Mein Annemieke Mein (born in 1944 at Haarlem) is a Dutch-born Australian textile artist who specialises in depicting wildlife. She was the first textile artist to be member of ''Wildlife Art Society of Australasia'' and the ''Australian Guild o ...

, Jane Burton, and Bill Henson. In 2011 the Gallery presented the first ever comprehensive survey of work by Russian-born Swiss artist

Nicholas Chevalier Nicholas Chevalier (9 May 1828 – 15 March 1902) was a Russian-born artist who worked in Australia and New Zealand. Early life Chevalier was born in St Petersburg, Russia, the son of Louis Chevalier, who came from Vaud, Switzerland, and was ove ...

(1828–1902). The exhibition coincided with the release of a major publication by Curator Simon Gregg, which includes a detailed catalogue raisonne of Chevalier's Australian works. The exhibition later toured to

Geelong Art Gallery The Geelong Art Gallery, currently known as Geelong Gallery, is a major regional art gallery, gallery in the city of Geelong, Victoria, Geelong in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The gallery has over 6,000 works of art in its collectio ...

. In 2021 the Gallery hosted the prestigious

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

for portraiture.

Governance and description

The gallery is operated by the

. Its director since 2018 is Simon Gregg. It is located at the Port of Sale, 70 Foster Street, Sale. It exhibits art of all media, styles and periods, but has a focus on the natural environment and artists based in Gippsland. The gallery has six exhibition spaces over , including a space dedicated to Sale-based textile artist

, which rotates displays twice times annually.

Permanent collection

Gippsland Art Gallery is home to a permanent collection of over 3,000 items, consisting of paintings, works on paper, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, woodwork and metalwork. The collection has a focus on the natural environment, and specifically Gippsland artists and Gippsland themes. The collection includes works by

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genr ...

Jan Hendrik Scheltema Jan Hendrik Scheltema (23 August 1861, in The Hague – 9 December 1941, in Brisbane), was a Dutch and later Australian painter who had a prolific, often strenuous, and arguably impressive career in Australia considering he was a non-British mi ...

Portia Geach Portia Stranston Geach (24 December 1873, Melbourne – 5 October 1959, Sydney) was an Australian artist and feminist. She was a founder and a president of the New South Wales Housewives' Association, as well as a president of the Federal Assoc ...

, Fred Willliams,

Peter Booth Peter Booth (born 2 November 1940) is an Australian figurative and a surrealist painter, and one of the key late-20th-century Australian artists. His work is characterised by an intense emotional power of often dark narratives, and esoteric sy ...

, Rodney Forbes, Victor Majzner, Rosemary Laing,

Polixeni Papapetrou Polixeni Papapetrou (21 November 1960 – 11 April 2018) was an Australian photographer noted for her themed photo series about people's identities. Photo series she has made include Elvis Presley fans, Marilyn Monroe impersonators, drag queens ...

, Charles Rolando, Bill Henson,

Ann Greenwood Ann Greenwood (born 1939) is an Australian textile artist and art teacher. Her work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, the art collections of Glen Eira and Monash councils in Melbourne, the Gippsland Art Galle ...

, Andrew Browne, and Sam Leach. It is also home to the Esso Australia Collection of Australian Art, a significant collection of 20th century artworks.

John Leslie Art Prize

The gallery hosts the biennial John Leslie Art Prize for landscape painting, which is presented every even year. The award is named after John Leslie

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(1919—2016), former Patron of the gallery. the main prize is a $20,000 acquisitive award, and there is also a $1,000 non-acquisitive prize for the "Best Gippsland Work". Past winners include David Keeling (2000), Vera Möller (2002), Mark McCarthy (2004), Brigid Cole-Adams (2006), Andrew Mezei (2008), Jason Cordero (2010),

(2012), Shannon Smiley (2014), Amelda Read-Forsythe (2016), Vanessa Kelly (2018), and Sarah Tomasetti (2020). .

Publications

To mark its 50th birthday, in 2015 the Gallery published ''Hindsight: Gippsland Art Gallery History & Collections, 1965–2015''. Written and compiled by Simon Gregg, the 446-page book chronicles the history of the Gallery, collection highlights, and a complete collection catalogue.

Past directors

Past directors include: *Gwen Webb OAM (1976–1990) *Giacomina Pradolin (1990–1991) *Anthony Dahlitz (1992) *Judy Miles (1993–1994) *Michael Young (1994–2005) *Anton Vardy (2005–2017)

References

{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Victoria (Australia) Art galleries established in 1965 1965 establishments in Australia Sale, Victoria