WILMA TABACCO | AQUA ALTA
2 AUGUST - 10 SEPTEMBER 2023
The Nancy Sever Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by leading contemporary artist Wilma Tabacco.
Wilma Tabacco was born in Italy and has lived in Australia since childhood. She received a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University in 1972 and Diploma of Education in 1973. In 1979 she undertook a Diploma of Fine Art at Phillip Institute, Melbourne and, while lecturing in painting and drawing at the University of Melbourne, continued studies at RMIT University where she completed a Master of Arts in 1995 and a PhD in 2006. Wilma has lectured variously in painting, drawing and printmaking at the University of Melbourne, the Canberra School of Art and at RMIT as part of their international program in Hong Kong and in Melbourne. She has contributed significantly to arts education through her academic work in various Australian and overseas Universities, working in research, painting and drawing and with national and overseas postgraduate supervisions at PhD level.
Aqua Alta is on show from 2 August until 10 September 2023. Gallery hours: 11am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday. For further information please contact nancy.sever@iinet.net.au or 0416 249 102.
Artist statement
Aqua Alta
Coloured abstract forms (or sometimes lines) on tinted fields are my equivalents for words that express ideas I cannot articulate in logical or rational ways.
My thoughts float on turbulent seas, traverse well-trodden historical ground and glide over geographical sites searching for evidence that might link the past with the here and now to which I always return. Constructive clues steeped within ambiguity are my preferred means for giving substance to what can only be imagined and not witnessed.
The works in this Aqua Alta exhibition are colourful explorations of places to which I am personally and emotionally connected: places that have been endlessly shaped and re-shaped by humans and by nature’s forces in ways yet to be fully understood.
Wilma Tabacco
2023
Artworks included in the exhibition.
(To view captions of the works on a desktop, please hold cursor over the image. On mobile or tablet, please click on the image and then tap the dot in the bottom right corner on your device)
Vittorio didn’t say…
Like Jan Morris I too wonder why the monks of St. Jerome monastery in Carpaccio’s painting, ‘…run in comical terror from the mildest of all possible lions;’[1] Vittorio Carpaccio didn’t say - or if he did, his words are now lost and no commentary seems available on the painting St. Jerome and the Lion that, after hundreds of years, still remains as part of a narrative sequence of Carpaccio’s works in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The painting depicts a teasingly enigmatic narration that leaves much to the imagination.
Jacobus de Voragine in his book Legenda Sanctorum[2] (written in the late 13th century known as Golden Legend) recounts how St. Jerome removed the thorns from a limping lion’s paw and healed the wounds. The monks were terrified of the lion but Jerome treated it like a friend and guest.
Carpaccio’s painted lion looks old, worn out, confused and forlorn. Maybe the wound (or the memory of it) from the thorns is still troubling it or maybe the thorn is yet to be removed and the lion is pleading for St Jerome’s help. This seems likely. Or if they are escaping an ‘off-stage’ catastrophe then it might be begging to go with them –‘wait, I’m coming with you’! The lion in medieval paintings often symbolises prophecy and wisdom. It is also the symbol of Carpaccio’s home: Venice.
The Aqua Alta is loved and hated – out come the gumboots again to wade through the deluge of water. Loved because it clears the canals of refuse but mostly hated because the high tides that bring the Adriatic Sea smashing into the lagoon cause havoc and destruction in the archipelago and the city.
It is November 2022 and another of those dreaded inundations arrives to corrode stone, marble, paving, to discolour artworks, to flood piazzas and buildings. The newly completed MOSE (Moses) - barriers between the Adriatic and the Venice lagoon were raised on November 7 and again on November 21 during a storm surge of 185cm, the second highest since the great flood of 1966. The low lying areas around St Mark’s basilica floods at 85cm but the authorities had decided to raise MOSE only when the level reaches 120cm. Transparent glass barriers have now been erected around the basilica: a barrier within a barrier.
We are on more solid ground (or are we?) in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) on ancient Rome’s Palatine Hill. Once military exercise and training ground for the Roman army and place of senatorial elections, it is still there, albeit unrecognisable as the honoured site of Mars, Roman god of war and agriculture. No trace of its original function now exists. Just as there is no, or little physical trace, of the many monasteries perched on so many of the tiny islands in the Venetian lagoon – ruins now, with some of the islands themselves under water.
I like to think that Carpaccio’s painting is prophetic: the monks and lion just part of the mass exodus of 70% of the Venetian population over the last 70 years (now at a mere 50,000 from a peak of 367,832 in 1968), fleeing the 30 million visitors who swarmed into the city to trample on their islands, calle and bridges in 2022.
I am happy to be able to enjoy Carpaccio’s painting, the fleeing monks, the limping lion, without any words to instruct and direct my understanding.
Wilma Tabacco
June 2023
[1] J. Morris, Venice, Faber & Faber, 1960, 3rd edition, 1993, p. 220
[2] J de Voragine, The Golden Legend, Latin translation by G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, Arno Press, New York, 1969, pp. 587-592.
WILMA TABACCO | SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
9 MARCH - 3 APRIL 2016
The Nancy Sever Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by Wilma Tabacco.
Wilma Tabacco is a committed artist with an extensive and diverse exhibiting history, both in Australia and internationally, who strives to create a world without ordinariness, encouraging students and artists to step out of their comfort zone, to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar and to swap the easy for the difficult.
She was born in Italy and has lived in Australia since childhood. She received a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University in 1972 and Diploma of Education in 1973. In 1979 she undertook a Diploma of Fine Art at Phillip Institute, Melbourne and, while lecturing in painting and drawing at the University of Melbourne, continued studies at RMIT University where she completed a Master of Arts in 1995 and a PhD in 2006. Wilma has lectured variously in painting, drawing and printmaking at the University of Melbourne, the Canberra School of Art and at RMIT as part of their international program in Hong Kong and in Melbourne. She has contributed significantly to arts education through her academic work in various Australian and overseas Universities, working in research, painting and drawing and with national and overseas postgraduate supervisions at PhD level.
She has received several grants from the Australia Council Visual Arts and Craft Board, including a studio residency in Italy, and has also worked and exhibited in Seoul as the recipient of an Asialink residency in Korea. In 2011 she, together with Dr Irene Barberis, established Langford120, a contemporary gallery space in Melbourne, which she currently co-directs.
Referring to John Kantor’s catalogue essay for Frank Stella's retrospective exhibition which recently concluded at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and which reads:
“Making work that is at once critical and personal is one of the central challenges facing any artist worthy of the name… In their extremes, both options are undesirable. Being an artist today entails navigating these twin perils by seeking to know what you are doing and simultaneously always trying to unknown it. It means recognising the terms of an ongoing conversation, while also giving it a personal inflection…To recall Barnett Newman's famous quip, it can feel like having to be both ornithologist and bird at the same time.”
Wilma Tabacco explains that “there are other perils to negotiate, of course, but these are usually masked by a work’s physical and pictorial resolution. The selection of these particular works (or more accurately, suites of works) assembled especially for this exhibition reflects my negotiation of these “twin perils” through the exploration and articulation of a pictorial vocabulary rooted in abstraction”.
Available works:
(for details of the works, please hold cursor over the image)
Views of the exhibition:
WILMA TABACCO | BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Wilma Tabacco was born in the province of L’Aquila, Italy and has lived in Australia since childhood. She received a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University in 1972 and Diploma of Education in 1973. In 1979 she undertook a Diploma of Fine Art at Phillip Institute, Melbourne and whilst lecturing in painting and drawing at the University of Melbourne, continued studies at RMIT University where she completed a Master of Arts in 1995 and a PhD in 2006. Wilma has lectured variously in painting, drawing and printmaking at the University of Melbourne, Canberra School of Arts and at RMIT as part of the international programme in Hong Kong and in Melbourne. She has received several grants from the Australia Council Visual Arts and Craft Board including a studio residency in Italy, and has also worked and exhibited in Seoul as the recipient of an Asialink residency in Korea.
In 2011 she, together with Dr Irene Barberis, established Langford120, a contemporary gallery space which she currently co-directs.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Scylla and Charybdis, Nancy Sever Gallery, Canberra
2015 Cycladic, Langford120, Melbourne
2014 Gilded Lies, Langford120, Melbourne
2013 Gilt Edge, Langford120, Melbourne
2012 Zaffiro, Langford120, Melbourne
2011 Who’s afraid of greenpinkpurpleblue? with Irene Barberis, Langford120,
Melbourne
2009 Picture This…, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Flights of Fantasy, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2007 In The Blinking of An Eye, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2006 Ave atque Vale (for now), Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2005 A Brush with Colour, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2004 Slipstream, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Tease, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Agrodolce Bliss Bomb, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2000 Up Down In Out, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
1999 Ghostbusting, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Saying it with Flowers, with Irene Barberis, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria; The University Gallery, Tasmania; Albury Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales; RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
1998 Cherry Blossom Time, aGOG, Canberra
Saying it with Flowers, with Irene Barberis, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide
1997 Cuts, with Irene Barberis, Victoria University Gallery, Melbourne
Conversations, with Jan Murray, Westspace Gallery, Melbourne
Primavera, Kookmin University Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Pot-Pourri, Savina Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Pageant, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1996 Tripping, Photospace, Canberra School of Art, ACT
1995 Relocations, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
Fabrications, aGOG, Canberra
Les Fleurs, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1994 Florilegia, Chiesa di S. Massimo, Opi di Fagnano Alto, Italy
1993 La Nouvelle Constellation, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1991 Continental Crossings, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1989 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1988 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Holdsworth Contemporary Gallery, Sydney
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Artpeace, Sagra, Melbourne
Neo-0-10, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
After 65: The Legacy of OP, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria
2014 National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Dark: More than Black, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
Blue on Blue, Langford120, Melbourne
Reconfigurings, Langford120, Melbourne
2013 Abstraction 12, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Squaring Up, Langford120, Melbourne
Thirteen, Langford120, Melbourne
Contemporary Australian Drawing 3, New York Studio School, New York
2012 Room; A Series of Schemes, Scheme Four: Laundry/Bathroom, Langford120, Melbourne
A Selection from Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East, Langford120, Melbourne
Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East, Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai
NONOBJECTIVE – present, Curator, Stephen Wickham, Langford120, Melbourne
Contemporary Australian Drawing 2, Wimbledon SPACE, London & Langford120, Melbourne
2011 Fun with Colour, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, NSW
100 Project, Blackartprojects, Langford120, Melbourne
2010 Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Ballarat Gallery, Victoria.
Colour Tone and Tint, Drawingspace, RMIT, Melbourne.
More, The Arts Gallery, University of Southern Queensland, Queensland.
Magnetic Islands, Project Space, RMIT, Melbourne.
Contemporary Australian Drawings 1, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.
2009 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 09, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria.
Reductive, ACGA Gallery @ Fed Square, Melbourne.
Drawing of the World/World of Drawing, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Korea.
Surveying the Field, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Melbourne.
Books crossing, from the Deakin University Artists Book Collection, Geelong Gallery, Victoria.
Regards Croises: Australie – France, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, France
2008 Transcentric, Lethaby Gallery, Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London
Secondary Sources, School of Art Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne
From Mao to Now, Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales
2007 Room: A Series of Schemes – Scheme Three: Living Room, Counihan Gallery In Brunswick, Melbourne
Room: A Series of Schemes – Scheme Two: Kitchen Dining, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne, Innovators 3, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2006 Fletcher Jones Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Victoria
If You Were to Collect… Elements of Abstraction, Deloitte Corporate Offices, Melbourne
X Marks the Spot, RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Wilma Tabacco and Noël Skrzypczak in Collaboration, Dudespace, Melbourne
Room: A Series of Schemes, Forty-five Downstairs, Melbourne
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
2004 Disorientate: Colour, Geometry and the Body, Plimsol Gallery, Hobart
National Works on Paper Award, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Seeing Red, Maroondah Art Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Return Nature II: Pastoral, Nanjing Shenghua Arts Centre, Nanjing, China
Embark/Disembark: An Exploration of Cultural Dislocation, Immigration Museum, Melbourne
The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2003, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
The Robert Jacks Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
In the Presence of Passion, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Paris Art Fair, The Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Four, holmes à court Gallery, Perth
North: Art from the Other Side of the Yarra, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
Mystic Medusa on Art, New Contemporaries Gallery, Sydney
Reunion, The Art of 16 Graduates, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne University
Odd, Faculty Gallery, RMIT University, School of Art and Culture
Season’s Greetings, Post Master Gallery, Melbourne
2002 Good Vibrations, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
Kiss My Art, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Sydney Road, Brunswick, Melbourne
Geelong Contemporary Art Award, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
2001 Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
The Hutchins Art Prize, The Long Gallery, Hobart
Nillumbik Invitational Art Award, Monsalvatt, Victoria
Painted Spaces, Rice Talbert Museum, Edinburgh, UK
Little Treasures, RMIT Gallery, Storey Hall, Melbourne
2000 Korea-Australia Print Exchange Exhibition, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
Liberty, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
Not the Done Thing, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
On the Brink: Abstraction of the 90s, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
Printed Proof, Canberra Contemporary Artspace, Canberra
Artists Books Day, Grahame Galleries, Brisbane
A Matter of Distance, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
Triptych Show, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Painted Spaces, ACCA, Melbourne; New Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
We are Australian, Volvo Gallery, Sydney and touring Australia
1999 A Letter to Picasso: The Stamp in Contemporary Art, Post Master Gallery, Melbourne
Grands et jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Espace Eiffel-Branly, Paris, France
Bernheim Invite L’Australie, French National Library Festival, Noumea, New Caledonia
Real Abstraction, Victoria University Gallery, Melbourne (curated by Wilma Tabacco)
Works on Paper, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
1998 People of Australia-Richness in Diversity: Identity Art, Australian Museum, Sydney and touring The Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea
The Art Files, Gallery Art-O-Mat installation, curated by Wilma Tabacco and Stephen Spurrier, Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
RMIT Fine Art, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
The Cask, VicHealth Access Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Korea/Australia Exchange Exhibition of Prints, The Contemporary Museum of Seoul, Korea
Propositions Australiennes, Galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris
The Autumn Show, La Trobe Street Gallery, Melbourne
Mask Auction, The Jewish Museum of Australia at Distelfink Gallery, Melbourne
Nature: Traditional & Contemporary, Cooloola Shire Public Gallery, Queensland
Werther School, Span Galleries, Melbourne
1997 Patterning, curated by Merryn Gates, touring Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manila; Regional centres, Philippines; Jakarta, Indonesia; Canberra School of Art Australia; Silpakorn University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Notations, Victoria University Gallery, Melbourne
Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
The Central Queensland Art Purchase, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland
Re:search, Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania
1996 The Art Game, Gallery Art-O-Mat installation, curated by Wilma Tabacco and Stephen Spurrier, at the Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
1995 12th Biennial Spring Festival of Drawing, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Blundstone Contemporary Art Prize, Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania and touring
Our Parents’ Children, curated by G Pradolin, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
City of Hobart Art Prize, The Carnegie Gallery, Hobart
Group Masters Exhibition, RMIT Faculty Gallery, Melbourne
The Situation Now: A Survey of Local Non-Objective Art, curated by Christopher Heathcote, La Trobe University Art Museum, Melbourne
Recent Acquisitions: Deakin University Art Collection, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
1994 Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Artomatch, Gallery Art–O–Mat installation, at the Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
James McCaughey Memorial Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
RMIT / LICT Exhibition, Australian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The House, Lighthouse Foundation Art Auction, Sotheby’s, Melbourne
Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland
1993 Contemporary Australian Paintings - Works from the Allen, Allen & Hemsley Collection, at the Melbourne International Festival, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne
‘VITEA: A.I.P.#7’, Fifth Sculpture Triennial, RMIT Faculty Gallery, Melbourne
Margaret Stewart Endowment B, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Recent Acquisitions, Waverley City Gallery, Melbourne
Margaret Stewart Endowment, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1992 C.D. Art, Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
Rediscovery: Australian Artists in Europe 1982-1992, Australian Pavillion, World Expo, Seville, Spain; Australian Embassy, Paris, France
Small Works – Wide Vision, Downlands Art Exhibition, Queensland
Third Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Gallery Art–O–Mat, automatic vending machine installation at the Third Australian Contemporary
Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Il Disegno Ritrovato, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Salone San Francesco, Como, Italy
1991 Freedom of Choice, curated by Maudie Palmer, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne
Art and Architecture, Atrium, Architecture and Planning Dept., University of Melbourne
1990 Niagara Galleries at Hill-Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Second Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Art From Elsewhere, The University of Tasmania, Hobart
Niagara Print Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
1989 Niagara at Watters, Watters Gallery, Sydney
Eight Women Printmakers, Stuart Gerstman Gallery, Melbourne
Lloyd Rees Memorial 9’ x 5’ Exhibition, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
1988 New Art Three, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Diamond Valley Art Award, Victoria
Print in Context, Print Council of Australia, Melbourne
Art of the Unique Print, Festival of Perth and touring Western Australia and USA
100 x 100, Print Portfolio Exhibition, Print Council of Australia; 70 Arden St, Melbourne
Diamond Valley Art Award Exhibition, Victoria
First Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Watercolour Australia, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre Acquisitive Prints Exhibition, Victoria
Goldfields Print Award Inaugural Exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
1987 Box Hill Invitational Print Exhibition, Melbourne
Fremantle Print Award Exhibition, Western Australia
Spring Festival of Drawing, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, Victoria
Swan Hill Print & Drawing Exhibition, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
1986 Invitational Print Exhibition, Reconnaissance, Melbourne
1986 St. Kilda Arts Festival Exhibition, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
1982 Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Niagara Lane Galleries, Melbourne
Pitspace, Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne
COMMISSIONS
2000 Christmas Stamp Design Commission, Australia Post
1998 The Stamp Collection, Ugg Boot Press, Victoria
1997 Print Council of Australia, Limited Edition Print, Victoria
1990 Banner Project, Arts Building, Institute of Education, University of Melbourne, Victoria
1988 100 x 100 Print Portfolio, Dr. M. Lefevbre, Print Council of Australia, Victoria
GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
1999 Arts Victoria, Artists Development Grant
1998 Nets Victoria, Exhibition Development Fund Grant
1996 Australia Council, Visual Arts Craft Fund, Project Grant, New Works
Artist-in-Residence, Canberra School of Art, ACT
Asialink Residency, Seoul, Korea
1992 Australia Council, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Artists Development Grant
1990 Australia Council, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Overseas Residency in Italy
COLLECTIONS
Anglican Church Grammar, Queensland
Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Artbank, NSW
Australian National University, Canberra
Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
Bendigo Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Canberra University Collection, ACT
Canson Australia Pty Ltd
Deakin University Collection, Melbourne
Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Italy
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, NSW
Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, Melbourne
Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Victoria
Latrobe University Gallery, Melbourne
Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria
Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Print Council of Australia, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Tasmania
RMIT University Collection, Melbourne
University of Southern Queensland, Queensland
University of Tasmania, Hobart
Warrnambool Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Waverley City Gallery, Melbourne
Private Collections in Australia, USA, France and Italy
PUBLICATIONS
CATALOGUES AND BOOKS
Cycladic, Catalogue text, Sophia Errey, Wilma Tabacco
After 65: The Legacy of OP, Latrobe Regional Gallery, essay J. Miller, 2015
2014 National Works on Paper, MPRG
The Drawn Word, S. Farthing, Dr J McKenzie (eds.) Studio International & Studio Trust, 2014
Abstraction 12, Charles Nodrum Gallery, 2013
Gilt Edge, Catalogue essay, Sophia Errey, 2013
Janet Mckenzie, Contemporary Australian Drawing, Volume 1, Palgrave Macmillan, Melbourne, 2012,
Soo-Hong Jhang, Drawing of the World/World of Drawing, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, 2009
David Hagger, reductive, exhibition catalogue, ACGA Gallery
Wilma Tabacco, Flights of Fantasy, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Publishing, 2009
Fiona Capp, The Living Room, exhibition catalogue, Counihan Gallery, 2007
Fiona Capp, If you can’t stand the heat…, exhibition, Linden, 2007
Wilma Tabacco, Slipstream, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Publishing, 2004
I Dover, embark/disembark: an exploration of cultural dislocation, exhibition catalogue, Immigration Museum, Melbourne, 2003
S Hewitt, Reunion: The Art of Sixteen Graduates, exhibition catalogue, University of Melbourne, 2003
John McDonald, Mystic Medusa on Art, 2004 Astrology Calendar, New Contemporaries Gallery, Sydney, 2003
C. Heathcote, North: Art from the Other Side of the Yarra, LaTrobe University Art Museum, 2003
Four, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Galleries/holmes à court Gallery, Perth, 2003
Mystic Medusa, Mystic Medusa on Art, exhibition catalogue, New Contemporaries Sydney, 2003
Cover of Media and Arts Law Review, vol.7, March 2002
Zara Stanhope, Good Vibrations, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, Heide, 2002
Edward Colless, Agrodolce Bliss Bomb, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Galleries, 2002
Cynthia Troup, A Matter of Distance, exhibition catalogue, Linden Gallery, 2000
Daniel Thomas, Painted Spaces, exhibition catalogue, Rice Talbert Museum, UK, 2000
Geoff Le Gerch and David Thomas, We are Australian, exhibition catalogue, 2000
M Gates, A Letter to Picasso, exhibition catalogue, 1999
RMIT Fine Art at the Hong Kong Art Centre, exhibition catalogue, RMIT, 1998
A Decade of Contemporary Australian Printmaking, exhibition catalogue, The Contemporary Museum of Seoul, Korea, 1998
The Cast, exhibition catalogue, Fringe Festival, 1998
Wilma Tabacco and Irene Barberis, Saying it with Flower, exhibition catalogue, 1998
Masks, exhibition catalogue, The Jewish Museum of Australia, 1998
K Wilson, Nature: Traditional & Contemporary Visions, Cooloola Shire Public Gallery, Queensland, 1998
M Scott and P Zika, research, Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, 1997
M Gates, Patterning: Layers of Meaning in Contemporary Art, exhibition catalogue, Canberra School of Art, 1998
Central Queensland Art Purchase, Rockhampton Art Gallery Trust, Queensland, 1997
Pot- Pourri, exhibition catalogue, Savina Gallery, Korea, 1997
Don Williams and Colin Simpson, Art Now Contemporary Art Post-1970 Book Two, McGraw Hill, Australia, 1996
G. Pradolin, Our Parents’ Children, exhibition catalogue, Access Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, 1995
Christopher Heathcote, The Situation Now: A Survey of Local Non-Objective Art, exhibition catalogue, La Trobe University Art Museum, 1995
Recent Acquisitions: Deakin University Art Collection, exhibition catalogue, Geelong Art Gallery, 1995
Wilma Tabacco: Les Fleurs, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Galleries, 1995
Alan McCulloch, revised by Susan McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin, 1994
Art Right Now, cd-rom, Discovery Media, 1994
Contemporary Australian Paintings-Works from the Allen Allen & Hemsley Collection, Westpac Gallery, 1993
Wilma Tabacco: La Nouvelle Constellation, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Galleries, 1993
Small Works - Wide Vision, Downlands Art Exhibition, 1992
Wilma Tabacco, exhibition catalogue, Niagara Galleries, 1992
J Holmes and E Colless, Rediscovery: Australian Artists in Europe 1982–92, exhibition catalogue, 1991
Elizabeth Cross, Freedom of Choice, exhibition catalogue, 1991
Neville Drury, New Art 3, Craftsman Press, 1989
ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
D Rule, ‘In the Galleries’, Spectrum, The Age, 19 December, 2015
R Schirru, ‘La mappa archeologica delle emozioni, Il Globo, 7 December, 2015
J McKenzie, http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/wilma-tabacco-gilt-edge
D Raintree, ‘Gilt-edged visual manifestations’, The Age, May 29, 2013
K Kincade-Sharkey, ‘Place of desire and sapphire’, North & West Melbourne News, March 10, 2012
R Nelson, ‘Geometric Gems with Kinetic Jives’, The Age, February 8, 2012
S Pottinger, ‘Shows display giddy variety of imagery, colour,’ The Chronical, Sept. 11, 2010
D Rule, ‘Around the galleries’, The Age, April 11, 2010
G G Hubbard, ‘Arte, cultura, identità, simbolismo e creatività’, Il Globo, July 20, 2009
S Grishin, ‘Discipline and chaos’, Canberra Times, August 24, 2009
S Robson, ‘Art takes on living spaces’ Moreland Leader, December 3, 2007
S Grishin, ‘Colourful sweeps’, Canberra Times, November 23, 2007
E Bartlem, ‘Room: A series of schemes, Scheme 3 – Living Room’, Trouble, Nov., 2007
R Nelson, Show your wit, but not your poetry, The Age, August 29, 2007
F Capp, Drudgery or inspiration? The Age, August 18, 2007
J Makin, Wilma earns her stripes, Herald Sun, June 14, 2006
G Hubbard, ‘Quando l’ispirazione va in cucina’, Il Globo, August 23, 2007
S Grishin, ‘Inner strength on display’, Canberra Times, 29 September 2005
G Hubbard, ‘Contenuti ed estitica dello spazio privato’, Il Globo, 28 July, 2005
Philip Watkins, ‘Disorientate: Colour, Geometry and the Body’, Artlink, vol. 25 no.1, 2005
J Makin, ‘In search of gold’, Herald Sun, May 24, 2004
R Nelson, ‘Tabacco in playful mood’, The Age, May 14, 2004
Robert Cook, ‘Fizz for eyes’, West Australian Saturday Extra, June 28, 2003
P Hill, ‘Magical mystic tour’, Spectrum, The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 May 2003
R Nelson, ‘A year of grand openings’, The Age, 25 December 2002
R Nelson, ‘Good vibrations to test the retina’, The Age, 16 November 2002
A Barclay, ‘Optical Nerve’, Herald Sun, 6 November 2002
A Crawford, ‘Sydney Road’s New Soul’, The Age, 1 October 2002
R Nelson, ‘Prize show offers fascinating tour of new directions’, The Age, 21 Sept. 2002
S Barron, ‘Geometric abstractions and witty sculptures’, Canberra Times, 23 August 2002
A. Jarvis, ‘Wilma Tabacco’s Slant on Illusion’, Richmond News, 23 July 2002
Arty Facts, ‘Earning her stripes’, Herald Sun, 6 July 2002
M Backhouse, ‘Colours jar and jostle’, The Age, 6 July 2002
J Makin, ‘Wilma Tabacco-Agrodolce Bliss Bomb’, Herald Sun, 8 July 2002
A Frost, ‘check mate’, Australian Style, No 64, July, 2002
E Mahoney, ‘Edinburgh’s dangerous wallpaper’, The Guardian, 25 February 2001
J Calcutt, ‘Painted Spaces, Scotland on Sunday’, 18 February 2001
S Grishin, ‘Not purely minimalist’, Canberra Times, 6 May 2000
R Cerbona, ‘Sand and sensuality’, Canberra Times, 4 May 2000
R Nelson, ‘Taking space for a walk’, The Age, 19 April 2000
S Carroll, ‘Identifying the creative gene, The Age: Extra, 20 Nov 1999
O Cameron, ‘Double act’s flower power’, Herald Sun, 16 July 1999
R Rooney, ‘Gallery closure takes shine off celebrations’, The Australian, 9 July 1999
R Rooney, ‘The Big Flower Show’, Straits Times, Singapore, 6 July, 1999
J Makin, ‘Choice Views’, Herald Sun, 5 July 1999
L Ancilli, ‘SBS Radio, Italian Language Program’, 28 June 1999
G Pignatelli, ‘SBS Radio, Italian Language Program’, 4 June 1999
J McIntyre, ‘Cup of tea put this flower show on road’, The Examiner, 17 April 1999
S Thou, City Park Community FM Radio, Launceston, 1 April 1999
M Stevenson, ‘Flowers tell a story’, The Examiner, 10 April 1999
M Stevenson, ‘Duo has blooming lovely art symbols’, The Examiner, 3 April 1999
S Barron, ‘Stunning abstract paintings’, Canberra Times, 15 September 1998
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