Merry Christmas, Sydney

Sydney Harbour *2

Sydney Harbour

Oprah day in Sydney*2

Oprah day in Sydney

Thousands of eager Oprah Winfrey fans have descended on the Sydney Opera House forecourt ahead of the taping of two special shows by the American talk show queen.

Twelve-thousand lucky audience members were chosen by a lottery to attend the shows featuring US musicians Bon Jovi and Jay-Z, as well as Australian stars Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Olivia Newton-John.

Yesterday was a high point for Winfrey and her 302 audience members who have travelled from the US to take part in her "Ultimate Australian Adventure".

The episodes will wrap up Winfrey's 25th and final season on air and are expected to be broadcast in 145 countries.

Taping of Oprah Winfrey's afternoon show at the Sydney Opera House was briefly suspended when Australian actor Hugh Jackman injured himself during a stunt.

Jackman, who portrays Wolverine in the X-Men movie series, crashed into a light as he zipped down on a flying fox from the top of the Opera House sails.

Winfrey was immediately concerned for Jackman and called for a doctor, as well as saying: "Let's take a break and get some ice."

Winfrey also welcomed Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban , U2 frontman Bono, Olivia Newton-John to the stage for interview.

Russell Crowe then joined Jackman, Urban, Kidman and Newton-John on stage, closing the show in spectacular style with a rendition of I Still Call Australia Home backed by the Gondwana children's choir as a massive Australian flag moved over the crowd.
Meanwhile, Winfrey showed she was still in a giving mood by announcing she would be giving diamond necklaces to all 6,000 members of her audience, prompting hysterical scenes.

Earlier, Winfrey told a press conference she had been promised a trip to Australia for her 50th birthday by her partner, Stedman Graham.
"Australia was an ultimate destination for me, I always wanted to come to the country," she said.
She says one of the things that has surprised her most about Australia is the people, which she referred to as the "open face of Australia".

As well as Sydney, Winfrey and her entourage have criss-crossed Australia, visiting iconic tourist sites including the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Byron Bay.
The federal and NSW governments spent $4 million to lure Winfrey and her show to Australia in the hope of boosting the flailing tourism industry.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson has defended the use of taxpayers' money to help stage The Oprah Winfrey Show in Australia.
A "small investment" of $4 million to $5 million by the Federal and several state governments is money well spent, according to Mr Ferguson.

Australia had already reaped a benefit of $71 million in Australia and $14 million in the United States, he says.

St. Marys Cathedral with lights of Christmas

The Lights of Christmas, a dazzling light show featuring traditional Christmas imagery and colours, were switched on at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral last night.

The display includes a constellation of sparkling stars, lights candles, Christmas wreath as well as a traditional and inspirational montage of bush blossoms, gum leaves and Sydney summer skies.

Visitors to the Lights of Christmas can listen also a free choral performance by a range of top Sydney choirs including the Australian Girls Choir, Sydney Philharmonic Choir, Sydney Street Choir and Cafe at the Gates of Salvation.

Ilumiantion go on every night from 8 pm to midnight, choral performance: Wed-Sun, 7.30 - 9pm until 25 December.

Chinese warriors in Sydney

One of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, the incredible life-size terracotta warriors have captivated audiences around the world. This amazing discovery stunned the world and exploration continues to this day.

The First Emperor: China's entombed warriors
is curated by the Gallery's director, Edmund Capon.

Discovered by villagers in 1974, this vast underground army was created to protect the tomb of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shihuang (259–210 BCE) in readiness for the afterlife.

New exhibition of Art Gallery of NSW -The First Emperor: China’s entombed warriors brings to Australia over 120 rare objects, featuring ten complete terracotta warrior figures including foot soldiers, generals, kneeling bowmen and horses.

Australia was the first country outside China to see these figures in the exhibition in Sydney in early 1983. Now is second opportunity to come face to face with the guardianwarriors of China's first emperor.

Exhibition in Art Gallery of NSW:  2 Dec - 13 Mar 2011

Liverpool Bicentenary celebration

Liverpool, NSW’s fastest growing city,  celebrate Bicentenary. A significant day has been chosen for celebrations a milestone in Sydney's western suburb. Liverpool Bicentenary Festival took place at Woodward Park on Sunday, 7th November.

Same day, 200 years ago,  Governor Lachlan Macquarie founded Liverpool nation's fourth oldest town behind the Sydney City,Parramatta and Hobart. But unllike these cities, Liverpool was the first free planned settlement in Australia.

The 2010 Dobell Prize for Drawing

It was announced today at the Art Gallery of New South Wales that Suzanne Archer is the winner of the 2010 Dobell Prize for Drawing for her work Derangement.

Suzanne Archer was awarded $25,000 for winning Australia’s most important prize for drawing. This year there were 635 entries, of which 45 are included in the exhibition.

The subject of the winning drawing is a self-portrait of the artist in her studio. At either side of the central form of her face are some of the objects she has gathered there – a desiccated kangaroo and a sculpture of a horse’s head the artist made from wood found in the nearby bush. It is part of a larger body of work that has arisen from drawings Archer made of animals at the Veterinary Science laboratories at Sydney University in 2004, as well as of skulls and bones collected near her bush studio, and from a developing awareness, arising out of her relationship with these animal remains, of her own mortality.

Suzanne Archer is a senior painter, sculptor, printmaker and teacher who has lived and worked at Wedderburn in the south-west Sydney region, since the late 1980s. Born in 1945 in Surrey, England, she studied at Sutton School of Art prior to migrating to Australia in 1965. She has exhibited widely since the mid 60s, was granted residencies in New York and Paris in 1978-79 and has won numerous awards including a fellowship from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council in 1993 and the Wynne Prize in 1994. She has been a Dobell Prize finalist three times (in 2000, 2002 and 2009).

The Dobell Prize for Drawing, initiated by the Trustees of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, is an acquisitive prize, first awarded in 1993.

This year's judge was Alun Leach-Jones. Alun is a Sydney painter, draughtsman, sculptor and printmaker.

Alun Leach-Jones comments: the work is expressive, darkly poetic and full of drama. There is an ambiguous narrative, alive and sinister images that are depictive, symbolic and metaphoric. The subject of drawing is drawing itself. Suzanne Archer’s winning work clearly shows her awareness of this profound aspect of the art of drawing - regardless of its apparent subject matter.

Scalpture for Canonisation first Aussie Saint.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, commis­sion­ed Australian sculptor Louis Laumen to produce the bronze sculpture which de­picts Mary MacKillop with a boy and a girl.

The dimensions of the statue base are: 2.5metres wide (width across the front including engraved lettering); 1.5 metres deep and 800mm high from top landing. The statue of Mary weighs 200kg, the girl 160kg and the boy 150kg.

Mr Laumen said he gladly accepted the offer to create this work, understanding the “great significance of the occasion of canonisation and the work’s placement at St Mary’s Cathedral, a masterpiece of the neo-gothic style”.

New monument at the Collage St entrance to St Marys Cathedral



Picassos and Chinesse warriors coming to Sydney

Yesterday in Art Gallery of NSW

Premier of NSW, Kristina Keneally and Arts Minister Virginia Judge announced yesterday during a media call at Art Gallery of NSW, inaugural the Sydney International Art Series, which will bring major exhibitions from around the world to Sydney, including China's famous Terracotta Warriors and a collection of Picasso paintings, as part of a new annual event.

Ten of the life-size warriors and horses, buried more than 2,000 years ago near the city of Xian in northern China, will be on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from December to March.

The exhibition will be the first in the Sydney International Art Series, launched today by Events New South Wales, the Art Gallery of NSW and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Also on display at the gallery will be the largest-ever collection of Picassos to come to Australia.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, meanwhile, will host a retrospective of work by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.



Premier Kristina Keneally says the new event will draw thousands of tourists to Sydney bringing $20 million a year for the NSW economy.

Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon says the Picasso exhibition will likely be the biggest show the gallery has ever hosted. 



Edmund Capon,
 Director of Art Gallery NSW

 

Premier Kristina Keneally
 during announcement

 















Spring in The Royal Botanic Gardens

Bed of tulips in the Sydney Botanic Gardens

Art & About Sydney *2

Dressed up  and flamboyantly decorated some of Sydney's iconic statues are putting on their finery for Art & About Festival.

Prince Albert The Good

Captain Cook

Queen Victoria