Penrith Regional Gallery

AUTUMN OPEN DAY | SATURDAY 31 MAY 2025, 10AM - 2PM

We’re excited to announce the full program lineup for our upcoming Autumn Open Day!

PROGRAM

10am-2pm | Participatory Weaving Demonstration
With local artist Ilana Lapid

10am-2pm | Drop-in Artmaking Activities
Free drop-in artmaking activities for all ages, led by an Artist Educator, connecting with our current suite of exhibitions.

10:30am | Deadly Arts Official Opening
This exhibition showcases powerful works by Deadly Arts students and graduates - an initiative based at Nepean Creative and Performing Arts High School and delivered in partnership with the NSW Department of Education Arts.

10:45AM - 11:30AM | Live music with Elina Roberts-Turner
Elina Roberts-Turner is a rising Gamilaroi singer-songwriter with an unmistakable voice and a raw ability to bring her stories to life.

11:30am | Penrith Youth Art Prize Opening and Award Ceremony
The Penrith Youth Art Prize exhibition celebrates entries from primary (5-12yrs) and secondary (12-18yrs) artists with a connection to Penrith and its surrounds that engage with the 2025 theme, echoing nature, using any medium in two dimension.

12pm | Curatorial Tour: Blak Douglas ‘The Halfway Line’
Join Toby Chapman, Director, Penrith Regional Gallery, for a curatorial tour of The Halfway Line, a mid-career survey of the pioneering Aboriginal Artist Blak Douglas. Bookings required: https://form.jotform.com/251320620715849

1pm | Blak Douglas: ‘Didge You Know’ performance
Join us for a special lunchtime performance by acclaimed artist Blak Douglas. As part of his major mid-career survey exhibition, The Halfway Line, Blak Douglas will perform Didge You Know on the didgeridoo, sharing personal stories that stem from the themes of his work.

This is a free event.
For more details please visit our website: https://www.penrithregionalgallery.com.au/events/autumn-open-day-2/
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Image credit: Eddy Summers

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ARTIST PROFILE WEEKEND REVIEW: EVE SULLIVAN ON BLAK DOUGLAS: THE HALFWAY LINE

For Artist Profile’s Weekend Review, Eve Sullivan reviews Blak Douglas’ survey exhibition ‘The Halfway Line,’ which is exhibiting here at Penrith Regional Gallery until 20 July 2025.

“Like the tribal warriors that appear as witness of narrator figures in many of these paintings, whenever the artist gets up to speak at the podium, he also claims that space as a provocateur from suburbia, metaphorically sharpening his spear, rubbing the fire sticks together and getting ready to make a noise across multiple platforms.”

Read the full review here: https://artistprofile.com.au/blak-douglas-the-halfway-line/

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Blak Douglas, ‘The Halfway Line,’ installation view, Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of The Lewers Bequest, 2025. Photography: Silversalt Photography.

‘DIDGE YOU KNOW’ PERFORMANCE BY BLAK DOUGLAS: AUTUMN OPEN DAY - SATURDAY 31 MAY, 1PM

Join us for a special lunchtime performance by acclaimed artist Blak Douglas at Penrith Regional Gallery’s Autumn Open Day. As part of his major mid-career survey exhibition, ‘The Halfway Line,’ Blak Douglas will perform ‘Didge You Know’ on the didgeridoo, sharing personal stories that stem from the themes of his work. This free, drop-in, artist-led activity offers a deeper connection to the artist and his creative journey.

Our Autumn Open Day is a free, family-friendly event taking place on Saturday 31 May from 10am-2pm. There will be live music, drop-in artmaking demonstrations, a curatorial tour of Blak Douglas’ ‘The Halfway Line’ with Director, Penrith Regional Gallery, Toby Chapman (bookings required), and the official opening of our ‘Deadly Arts’ exhibition and the 2025 Penrith Youth Art Prize. For the full program, visit our website via the link in our bio.

Blak Douglas’ ‘Didge You Know’ performance will take place at 1pm on Saturday 31 May 2025.

Blak Douglas’ mid-career survey exhibition ‘The Halfway Line’ is exhibiting at Penrith Regional Gallery, open daily from 10am-4pm until 20 July 2025.

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Image: Blak Douglas performing ‘Didge You Know’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Courtesy of the artist.

DECORATIVE STONEWARE MUG | SUNDAY 25 MAY 2025, 10AM - 12:30PM

Unleash your creativity as you learn the art of creating your very own mug out of stoneware clay. In this workshop, you will be guided through a step-by- step process by local potter Linda Hernando to create your own functional ceramic piece. Linda will guide you through the coiling technique to create a vessel and the exploration of slab techniques to adorn your creations.

During the workshop, you will also paint and glaze your pieces, which will then be fired and ready for pick-up from the Gallery in approximately 4 weeks.

To book, head to the link here or in our bio: https://www.penrithregionalgallery.com.au/events/decorative-stoneware-mug/

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Photography: Linda Hernando

Blak Douglas’ triptych ‘Domestic Violets,’ painted in violet hues, is a portrait of Blak’s grandmother Clorine Morthem, who was stolen at age twelve from Jerseyville, Kempsey (Dhungatti Country) in 1924. She was institutionalised as a Ward of the State at Cootamundra Girls home, stripped of her name, language, family and culture and forced into servitude. Here, she is depicted between stylised domestic cleaning products White King and Vanish, pointing to her existence of being cleansed and domesticated.

‘Blak Douglas: The Halfway Line’ continues at Penrith Regional Gallery until 20 July 2025.

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Blak Douglas, ‘Domestic Violets,’ 2016, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 97 x 73cm each. Installation view in ‘Blak Douglas: The Halfway Line,’ Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of The Lewers Bequest, 2025. Photography: Silversalt photography.

Adam Hill (now known by the moniker Blak Douglas) painted ‘The Cherry Pickers’ in 2007 as a pitch to the Indigenous Land Council (ILC) committee for the exterior façade design of the ILC building on Cope Street in Redfern, Sydney; a project that came to fruition in 2008.

Adam Hill’s pitched design pays homage to the history of Cope Street as the original site of the National Black Theatre, which operated in the 1970s and played a crucial role in the emergence of contemporary Aboriginal theatre. Hill was inspired by the story of Kevin Gilbert and his play ‘The Cherry Pickers,’ which Gilbert wrote in 1968 while serving a 14-year prison sentence. It became the first Aboriginal play to be published, and was performed by an all-Aboriginal troupe in 1993.

The ILC building is now home to a number of Indigenous organisations, including the Gadigal Information Service and Koori Radio, the first Aboriginal owned and operated radio station in Sydney. It continues to be a cultural hub for First Nations creatives, and a marker of the Black Theatre’s storied history and continued significance.

Blak Douglas: ‘The Halfway Line’ continues in our Main Gallery until 20 July 2025

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‘Blak Douglas: The Halfway Line,’ installation view, Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of The Lewers Bequest, 2025. Photography: Silversalt Photography

COMING SOON - PENRITH YOUTH ART PRIZE: 24 MAY - 20 JULY 2025

Penrith Regional Gallery is excited to announce the upcoming opening of the 2025 Penrith Youth Art Prize: Echoing Nature.

The Penrith Regional Gallery Youth Art Prize aims to recognise, encourage and celebrate the creative talent of young artists in our local community through the opportunity to showcase their work in a regional gallery setting. The 2025 theme is ‘echoing nature,’ and asks primary (5-12yrs) and secondary (12-18yrs) artists with a connection to Penrith and its surrounds to explore and celebrate the dynamism of the natural world through their creativity, using any medium in two dimensions to showcase how nature inspires them.

‘Penrith Youth Art Prize: Echoing Nature’ will exhibit in our Loungeroom Gallery from 24 May - 20 July 2025

Join us for the official opening and award ceremony of the 2025 Penrith Youth Art Prize as part of our Autumn Open Day on Saturday 31 May 2025, from 11:30am.

What’s on:
Blak Douglas -The Halfway Line: 15 March - 20 July 2025
Deadly Arts: 24 May - 20 July 2025
Penrith Youth Art Prize - Echoing Nature: 24 May - 20 July 2025
Autumn Open Day: 31 May 2025, 10am-2pm

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Edie Douglas, ‘A Flower,’ 2025. Courtesy the artist.