To Approach the Unknowable

1 November to 6 December 2025

This exhibition brings together Anthony Cahill, Louisa Chircop , Rhonda Dee and Ambrose Reisch, four Australian contemporary artists whose works, guided by a surrealist inclination, engage in a fascinating dialogue with personal ideas and with works selected from the Hassall Collection. The juxtaposition creates a rich exploration of the surrealist inspiration within the Australian context.

The exhibition catalogue includes an introduction from Simon Weir
Artist and Academic, Sydney School of Architecture, Design & Planning, The University of Sydney

The exhibition title is taken from a 1976 poem by Australian artist James Gleeson in which he states:

The aim of Art

is to approach the unknowable;

and the only approach

is by way of the known, to use it

as a springboard.