Building on the success of the first Clifton School of Arts (CSA) Art Fair, held in 2022 as the community emerged from the Covid pandemic, the event is back for 2025. Organisers artist Vyvian Wilson and CSA president David Roach have tweaked the event to make it bigger and better.
“This time, we decided it was important for us not to be seen as gatekeepers when it came to who was invited to take part,” says Vyvian, “so we appointed an independent professional curator.”
That curator, Sheona White, played a major role in curating the hugely successful Ian Gentle retrospective in 2023. Sheona, who has lived in the Illawarra and worked at Wollongong Art Gallery, has extensive knowledge and contacts within the arts community across NSW.
“Having a theme has given artists a focus. We’ve called the show Escarpment – Living on the Edge and there are many different ways of interpreting that,” Sheona said. “I’ve invited artists whose work has a distinctive South Coast flavour and sense of place – which goes from the big rainforest images of Riste Andrievski to the house portraits of Nicci Bedson. All of them capture something about what it means to live here.”
Vyvian says, “We’ve chosen to go for a salon-style hang (layering works on the walls rather than presenting them in a single line around the space). It means we can fit in more artists. In 2022 we had 12, but this year we are aiming for 18, and we are including small sculptural works and ceramics, alongside photography, works on paper, textiles and oils.”
Artists include internationally acclaimed photographers Anne Zahalka (fresh from a major retrospective at the National Art School in Sydney) and Stephen Dupont as well as favourites like Paul Ryan and Ash Frost alongside Liz Jeneid, Hal Pratt and Ivor Fabok. First Nations printmaker Val West is also participating.
The next generation gets equal space alongside more seasoned names, thanks to LEAP (Local Emerging Artists Program), a CSA initiative to showcase talent from UOW’s fine arts graduates: this year there are three, all of them showing for the first time in a commercial group show.
Funds raised will go towards the much-needed extension to the CSA’s heritage building.
There will be an early bird preview at 5pm on Friday, January 17. At 6:30pm, broadcaster, author and artist Richard Morecroft will open the fair.
There will be an opportunity to mingle over late afternoon cocktails with the artists at the Imperial at Clifton on January 23, from 5 to 7pm.
