Fish Carvings from Catherine Truman

One of our major releases for this year is the latest SALA monograph, Catherine Truman. With a lush, evocative text from Melinda Rackham, this book delves into the fascinating world of Truman's art. One of her earliest series, the Fish Carvings, has echoes throughout her career. Truman's first solo exhibition, Fish Carvings (1987), held at the Contemporary Jewellery Gallery in Sydney, intuitively articulates a feminist discourse of difference in conceptions of ageing and beauty. Carved in two woods –…

Catherine Truman's SALA Opening Address

One of the biggest pleasures of the SALA festival is hearing the keynote address from the featured artist. Last year it was Giles Bettison on the importance of art. This year, Catherine Truman spoke to a packed house about the joys of 'tadpoling', and how important a sense of adventure and a strong work ethic are as an artist – or, indeed, a scientist. Catherine's very kindly shared her speech with us here. We agree…

Giles Bettison on the state of the arts

This year, Giles Bettison was the SA Living Artists Festival's featured artist and the subject of our beautiful monograph. Giles made a speech that brought the house down on opening night, and he's kindly allowed us to share a bit of it with you here … Good evening everyone. Tonight I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people, whose land our ancestors occupied and on whose land we are standing now. It is an amazing honour to be…

Delicious food and gorgeous art writers

The SALA Festival is almost upon us, and we're celebrating art writers over at Wakefield! At the top of the particularly excellent list is the SALA Writing Art Literary Dinner, and you're all invited, just by the way -- Good food, good company, interesting conversation – can you go wrong? Oh, and about that food – let me show you a peek of the menu so you know what I'm talking about: AMIRITE??