Connections: Vivienne Shark LeWitt, John Brack and William Strutt
This month, as part of our new online delivery of the Inside Out program, we welcome artist and VCA lecturer Dr Raafat Ishak, who draws from his close knowledge of the University of Melbourne Art Collection and its history to present the first of our fully digital Up from the Vaults talks.
Between 1996 and 2010 Ishak was the Potterâs conservation technician, and his survey exhibition Raafat Ishak: recipes for aversion and strategy. Work in progress #6, was held here in 2010. Since that time, Ishak has continued his interest in our Collection through his role as a lecturer in Visual Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he is Head of Painting.
Here, youâll hear from Ishak as he discusses works by Vivienne Shark LeWitt, John Brack and William Strutt â three artists from three different generations of Australian art, whose work is held in our Collection. Youâll hear insights into the new relationships between these disparate artists and their work as Ishak finds common threads in their approaches, including the subtle forms of protest and the criticism of art and its institutions that each artist employed.
ABOUT DR RAAFAT ISHAK
Dr Raafat Ishak is Head of Painting at the Victorian College of the Arts and a practising visual artist. Working across painting, sculpture and site-specific drawing, Ishak’s practice is informed by the history of painting and architecture. His exhibitions include Chicken River, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2018; 1977, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2017; Painting, More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2016; The Future of a Promise: 54thVenice Biennale, 2011; NEW10, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2010; and Cubism and Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2009. Ishak is a founding member of Ocular Lab Inc and is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.