Drill Hall Gallery

26/08/2026

Lunchtime Art Bite: Bruce Hall – Bill Packard Ceramic Collection

Thursday 3 September, 1:15pm
Bruce Hall, ANU
Daley Road, Acton
Free to attend, no bookings required

For our next Art Bite we'll be viewing ceramics from the Bill Packard Ceramic Collection. Made during the 1960s and 70s, the collection includes pieces by nationally and internationally significant artists including Les Blakebrough, Henri Le Grand, Hiroe Swen and Mirek Smisek. Bill Packard was the founding Warden of Bruce Hall and instrumental in shaping the Hall’s culture during his 25 years as Warden. For this Art Bite we will be joined by Dr Kate Hill, artist-researcher and head of Ceramics at the School of Art and Design, and SoA&D visiting artist, Japanese artist Utako Shindo.

Our discussion may stray to other prominent works of art at Bruce Hall including Leonard French’s 'The Seven Days of Creation', Pamela Macfarlane’s dragon painting 'Uroborus', 1963 and the welded copper and mosaic fountain 'Untitled', 1966–67, by renowned Australian artist Bert Flugelman, affectionately referred to as the eggbeaters.

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The ANU is peppered with remarkable and nationally significant artworks managed by the ANU Art Collection. We invite you to get to know the artworks and their locations on campus through Lunchtime Art Bites. Held fortnightly during semesters Art Bites are facilitated by Drill Hall Gallery staff and co-hosted by artists, academics, and students. Expect a short informative introduction on the artworks followed by questions and an open conversation. Get to know your campus, learn to talk about art, build your cultural community, join the conversation.



Image: Hiroe Swen, 'Play with me', 1983, slab built box, oxidised stoneware with milky feldspathic glaze, painted black pigment decoration with sgraffito over white clay slip, 18 × 10.5 × 11 cm

20/08/2026

For today’s Art Bite we were excited to welcome artist Michael Snape to discuss his work ‘Pictures at an exhibition’, 1998–2002, a commissioned sculptural facade in steel, running the length of Graduate House.

Our next Art Bite is Thursday 3 September, 1:15 at Bruce Hall. We will be viewing ceramics from the Bill Packard Ceramic Collection, including works by artists Les Blakebrough, Henri Le Grand, Hiroe Swen and Mirek Smisek. All welcome.

Drill Hall Gallery ANU School of Art & Design Australian National University ANU Student Life Study ANU ANU Alumni ANUSA ANU Students' Assocation Lodge Residents’ Committee ANU Residential Experience University House ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences ANU Printmedia & Drawing ANU SOA&D Ceramics Workshop

19/08/2026

Art of its own moment: ANU artists’ work finds a new home at University House

Read more: https://reporter.anu.edu.au/all-stories/art-of-its-own-moment-anu-artists-work-finds-a-new-home-at-university-house

13/08/2026

LECTURE 6: Representational Painting and 'The flesh of the world'
Jude Rae

Sunday 6 September, 2pm
Coombs Lecture Theatre
$10 or free for Friends/students
Tickets via link in bio or visit dhg.anu.edu.au

Jude Rae has painted within the representational tradition for four decades, often at odds with the prevailing discourse of contemporary art. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's account of perception as an intertwining of the seen and the sensing body, Jude will discuss the ideas and artworks that have shaped her practice: how she has tried, and sometimes failed, to hold representation and material sensitivity together in the act of painting.

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Jude Rae is a Sydney based artist known for her still life paintings, portraits and architectural interiors. Over the last forty years Jude has held over 60 solo exhibitions of her work in Australia, New Zealand Germany and the USA, and been awarded residencies in France, Italy and New Zealand.

In 2005 and 2008 Jude won the Portia Geach Memorial Award for Portraiture and was Highly Commended in the Archibald Prize in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and in 2025 she was awarded the Wynne Prize for landscape.

Her other awards include the prestigious Bulgari Award presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW and significant portrait commissions including Parliament House and the High Court of Australia.

In 2017 a survey of her work was held at the Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery. Her work is held in major public and private collections in Australia and New Zealand.

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Image: Jude Rae, 'SL529', 2026, oil on linen, 112 × 137 cm. Courtesy the artist

13/08/2026

Lunchtime Art Bite: Michael Snape and Anton Sing Wai P**n at Graduate House

For our upcoming Art Bite outside Graduate House we are excited to welcome artist Michael Snape to discuss his work 'Pictures at an exhibition', 1998–2002, a commissioned sculptural facade in steel, running the length of Graduate House. We are very pleased that Drill Hall Gallery retired director Terence Maloon will also join the conversation, discussing both 'Pictures at an exhibition' and the adjacent steel sculpture 'Synergy', 2016, by ANU School of Art alumnus Anton Sing Wai P**n.

Thursday 20 August, 1:15pm
Graduate House, ANU
118, Garran Rd, Acton
Free to attend, no bookings required

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The ANU is peppered with remarkable and nationally significant artworks managed by the ANU Art Collection. We invite you to get to know the artworks and their locations on campus through Lunchtime Art Bites. Held fortnightly during semesters Art Bites are facilitated by Drill Hall Gallery staff and co-hosted by artists, academics, and students. Expect a short informative introduction on the artworks followed by questions and an open conversation. Get to know your campus, learn to talk about art, build your cultural community, join the conversation.



Image 1: Anton Sing Wai P**n, 'Synergy' 2016

Image 2: Michael Snape, 'Pictures at an exhibition' (detail) 1998–2002

12/08/2026

Congratulations to Quentin Sprague, ANU Drill Hall Gallery Hassell Writers Fellow, who has been shortlisted for the 2026 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Sprague, winner of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, for his book 'The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting', has been shortlisted for his collection of essays 'What Artists See', published in 2025.

Judges' comments

'What Artists See' is as meticulously researched and keenly analytical as it is formally playful. There is a sense that each essay in this collection takes the shape that its material demands of it, and that Sprague's approach displays the kind of artistry that he interrogates within his subjects. Some of these essays are biographical, while others are relational; some are strikingly intimate, while others are dispassionate in their telling.

The twelve essays in 'What Artists See' discuss the lives, works, practices and enduring obsessions of twelve contemporary artists, as well as their relationships to place, to the art world and its institutions and to each other. They are guided always by Sprague's sustained curiosity and driven by writing that is richly textured and beautifully lyrical. It takes great skill to translate visual art into language in a way that is evocative and energetic enough to capture something of the movement and impact of the artwork, and 'What Artists See' displays this in spades. Sprague's essays, moreover, are as engaging as they are intellectually rigorous. This is a work of great heart, beautiful craftsmanship and big ideas.

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Under Drill Hall Gallery Publishing, the Hassall Writers Fellowship aims to produce monographs of significant Australian artists, not currently recognised by major institutions — works which Hassall Fellow Quentin Sprague says fill a crucial gap in the recognition of mid to late career practice, meeting a rare opportunity in Australia by placing the artist’s work in its historic context through long-form writing.

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12/08/2026

Don’t miss out on a Morning Tea at The Gardener’s Bar: in conversation with Tamara Henderson. ☀️

This special partnership event invites Members of Canberra Contemporary, Friends of Drill Hall Gallery and the public to step inside ‘The Gardener’s Bar’ by Tamara Henderson.

Hear from Henderson in conversation with Hester Lyon (Curator + Program Manager, Canberra Contemporary) and Tony Oates (Director, Drill Hall Gallery), as they explore the ideas and processes behind her latest exhibition.

Connecting the exhibition with Henderson’s studio at Strathnairn Arts, this event is catered by Stepping Stone ().

Saturday 15 August
9:30am – 11:30am
Canberra Contemporary
Tickets in bio : https://events.humanitix.com/morning-tea-at-the-gardener-s-bar-artist-tamara-henderson-in-conversation-with-curators-hester-lyon-and-tony-oates



Image: Tamara Henderson, ‘Rotting to Learn’, 2024, Oil on board, clay, iron oxide, 89 x 89 x 3 cm. Photography Brenton McGeachie.

12/08/2026

12/08/2026

THIS SATURDAY: As part of the ANU's 80th Anniversary celebraions, these two guided tours offer a closer look at remarkable works from the ANU Art Collection. At 12:45pm, join curators Oscar Capezio and Hetty Gascoigne, to explore large-scale Western Desert paintings by Naata Nungurrayi, Dorothy Napangardi Robertson, Angelina Pwerle Ngala and Tommy Watson. They will be joined by Professor Howard Morphy to view Yolŋu bark paintings by Narritjin Maymaru and Banapana Maymaru, the inaugural First Nations H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellows at ANU.

Saturday 15 August
Western Desert tour: 12:45–1:30pm
Arnhem Land tour: 2:00–2:45pm

Tours start at the Information Desk at the top of University Avenue

Registration is essential

Join guided tours of striking Western Desert and Northeast Arnhem Land paintings from the ANU Art Collection at 12.45pm and 2pm.

06/08/2026

Thanks to everyone who attended our lunchtime Art Bite today in the Great Hall at University House featuring Leonard French’s 18-panel mural ‘Regeneration’ (1972) and the ‘Journey Series’ (1966–70).

Our next Art Bite is Thursday 20 August at 1:15pm. Stay tuned for more details.

Drill Hall Gallery ANU School of Art & Design ANU Student Life Study ANU ANU Alumni Australian National University ANUSA ANU Students' Assocation Lodge Residents’ Committee ANU Residential Experience University House