This is Gippsland: located on the celestial plane somewhere between God’s Paradise and God’s Dumping Ground. Its decadent beauty is grimly accepted by its rough-shod residents and met by its visitors with a mixture of shock and bemusement.

Whether it represents the beginning of the world or its end, Gippsland is nothing if not otherworldly. As a place located in the south-east of Victoria it has vague geographical borders―spanning from the swamps of Pakenham in the west to Mallacoota Inlet in the east, and from the mountains in the north to Bass Strait in the south―but as a state of mind it has none.

‘This is Gippsland’ is a celebration of the art of this magical and mysterious region. Inhabited by the whispers of ancestors past it spans time and distance to capture a spirit that has intrigued artists for generations.

The exhibition features several key loans including ‘Gippsland Incident’ by Sidney Nolan from the Art Gallery of South Australia, ‘Gippsland Hills’ by John Wolseley, and ‘Poowong’ by Anne Montgomery (from Latrobe Regional Gallery), alongside a diverse range of works drawn from the Gippsland Art Gallery’s own permanent collection by Linda Gibbs, Fred Williams, Anna Farago, Trevor Vickers, Siri Hayes, Daniel Crawshaw, Ann Greenwood, Albert Tucker, Gillian Kline, Robin Wallace-Crabbe, David Ashley Kerr, Jennifer Mullett, Hal Waugh, Jessie Traill, Steaphan Paton, Lorna Chick, Tony Newsom, Frank Mesaric, Aunty Eileen Harrison, Peter Cole, Jane Burton, Andrew Southall, Jenny Noone, Owen Rye, Tricia Allen, Victor Greenaway, Sandra Black, Marian Hosking, Anthea Williams, Margret Booth, Tony Hanning, Nick Mount, John Woollard, Cheryl Burgess, and Kiyoshi Ino.

Curated by Simon Gregg, and based on the book ‘Spirits in the Bush: The Art of Gippsland’ (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018).