Through the work of ten artists from around Australia, the 2024 edition of the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial focuses on the compelling and allusive languages of abstraction.

Matthew Allen (NSW), Helen Eager (NSW), Emma Fielden (NSW), the late Ngarralja Tommy May (WA), Ceara Metlikovec (NSW), Kerrie Poliness (VIC), Cameron Robbins (VIC), Sandra Selig (QLD), Kate Vassallo (ACT) and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (ACT) share an abstract aesthetic and preoccupation with the mediums, methods and formal possibilities of drawing. Their concerns include the role of technology and of collaboration, the forces of nature and rhythms of the body, chance versus the urge to control, repetition and gesture, and the telling of stories of culture and Country.

The works selected for this exhibition look at the implication of the artist’s hand – its presence or absence – and questions of materials and pictorial space. They vary from hand-drawn graphite, coloured pencil and ink on paper, to collaborative wall and floor drawings, works made using the power of the sun, and works that extend beyond two dimensions.

Supported by the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, this is the fifth Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.