Shoalhaven Regional Gallery is pleased to announce the winner of the major art commission for the upcoming exhibition The Terra Within, is Illawarra based artist Peter Hewitt.
The Council called out for expressions of interest to create a major work of art for the exhibition - which is a response to the 250th Anniversary of Cook’s voyage to chart the east coast of Australia, and the impacts of this period on local indigenous communities Six proposals where reviewed by the panel, consisting of Chloe Gibbon (philanthropist), Warwick Keen (exhibition curator) and Bronwyn Coulston (Manager Arts and Culture SCC). The panel were impressed with the variety of responses and the detail and consideration given by the artists to the exhibition and themes.
Peter Hewitt’s work stood out as a work of scale and ambition that was clearly contemporary while still grounded in a cultural framework. The panel were impressed with his proposal to reference smoke in the artmaking process. An element the artist describes as ‘integral to Yuin culture because it helps heal our traumas and it is used in ceremony and it is Country’.
Warwick Keen, curator, notes that Hewitt’s work ‘has a strong individual style and is very contemporary while still holding land and nature as integral to the art making process’.
Shoalhaven City Council would like to thank the Gibbon Foundation for providing the funding to support this commission and the acquisition of the work produced for the Shoalhaven City Art Collection.
The Terra Within exhibition will run from 10th October – 5th December 2020. While it is hoped the gallery will be open to the public at that time, should public health restrictions still be in place the exhibition will be available through digital platforms.
Image: Peter Hewitt courtesy University of Wollongong