The City Wakes, The City Sleeps curated by Dr Victoria Lynn and James Lynch draws from the TarraWarra Museum of Art Collection to present a selection of rarely seen artwork treasures, exploring how artists across different eras have captured the architecture and social dynamics of life in the city and revealing the distinctive character of our urban experience and built environments.

The exhibition opens with a major work by Peta Clancy (Yorta Yorta) titled Birrarung ba brungergalk, which depicts the local Birrarung through a First Nations lens. Originally commissioned by the Museum for The Soils Project in 2023, this work explores the confluence where brungergalk (Watts River) meets the birrarung (Yarra River) near Healesville on Wurundjeri Country. brungergalk had been tapped and damned, without consideration for its vital connection to Country, and its sacred and sustainable value for First Nations communities. Its inclusion in this exhibition signals to visitors the natural and cultural significance of the terrain before the growth of cities.

Peta Clancy, Birrarung ba brungergalk, 2023 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection. Purchased 2024, acquired with the assistance of the Robert Salzer Foundation © Peta Clancy, courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

Australian artists working between 1950 and 2000s have captured the evolution of modernisation of life. Featuring over forty artworks by over 25 of Australia’s most influential artists, the exhibition represents a visual capsule of how cities have been regarded through the eyes of artists.

This curated journey through the TarraWarra Museum’s rarely displayed collection reveals how artists have always been urban anthropologists, dissecting the architecture of our ambitions and the social choreography that transforms buildings into communities.

The exhibition is divided into 9 key  ‘scenes’: The Modern City, Suburbia, Rhythms,  Thresholds, Interior Lives, The Industrial City, Dreams and Play, and features multiple works by artists such as Howard Arkley, Clarice Beckett, Charles Blackman, John Brack, Rosalie Gascoigne, Louise Hearman, Melinda Harper, Dale Hickey, Robert Jacks, Inge King, Joanna Lamb, Sidney Nolan, Jeffrey Smart and Edwin Tanner.

John Brack Subdivision, 1954 TarraWarra Museum of Art collection. Purchased 2004 © Helen Brack

Curator and Director of TarraWarra Museum of Art, Dr Victoria Lynn says: “This exhibition considers the city awakened and at rest. From the joyful paintings of Swimming at St Kilda Beach, by Sidney Nolan, in the 1940s, through the depiction of urban sprawl in John Brack’s painting, Subdivision, 1954, and Dale Hickey’s de-populated interiors through to Louise Hearman’s eerie dream like images and Jon Cattapan’s watery painting, Mirror, 1991, Australian artists have manifested a variety of atmospheric interpretations of the modern city.”

Curator at TarraWarra Museum of Art, James Lynch says: “Looking at this exhibition, one thing that became evident is just how much distance and time have passed since many of the artworks were first created. The 1950s post-war boom of Melbourne was 75 years ago, and the population of Melbourne has gone from just over 1 million to 5.3 million. Melbourne has become more culturally diverse as well as much physically larger, with new neighbourhoods stretching in every direction. At the same time, our lives have been transformed in the digital age.  It is a good opportunity for our visitors to reflect on some of the utopian and dystopian ideas about the growth of cities, and how it compares to their contemporary realities.”

Behind the Glass
First Rehang of TarraWarra Museum of Art’s Visible Art Storage 

Curated by James Lynch and Emma Nixon
From 22 November 2025
Eva and Marc Besen Centre

Erica McGilchrist, Rain: Quiet longing 1961, TarraWarra Museum of Art Collection. Gift of Eva Besen AO and Marc Besen AO 2013. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program @ the Estate of Erica McGilchrist

Coinciding with The City Wakes, The City Sleeps, TarraWarra Museum of Art’s visible art storage, located in the new adjacent Eva and Marc Besen Centre, will undergo its first major re-hang since the Centre’s inauguration, to feature trailblazing women artists from Australia. Australian artist Erica McGilchrist (who is featured in the new hang) once commented, “There can be no holistic view of history – or of art – if the perspectives of women are omitted” (in Erica McGilchrist: for the record, edited by Linda Short, 2019).

The Museum’s Curator, James Lynch, and Assistant Curator, Emma Nixon, have brought together groundbreaking yet little-known achievements of modern artists, such as Constance Stokes and Erica McGilchrist, alongside the internationally recognised hybrid human/animal sculptures of Patricia Piccinini. This display centres the pivotal role women have played in the development of modern and contemporary art in Naarm/Melbourne and across Australia.

Featured artists include Davida Allen, Yvonne Audette, Kate Beynon, Angela Brennan, Virginia Cuppaidge, Janet Dawson, Lesley Dumbrell, Rosalie Gascoigne, Melinda Harper, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Hillary Mais, Mandy Martin, Erica McGilchrist, Margaret Preston, Angelina Pwerle, Vivienne Shark le Witt, Aida Tomescu, Michelle Ussher, Jenny Watson and Judy Watson.

Brought together, these works highlight a desire for recognition, change, and to reinsert the voices of women artists in the historical narrative.

Curator at TarraWarra Museum of Art, James Lynch says: “Through the glass walls of our innovative visible art storage facility, visitors can explore the profound legacy and compelling narratives of Australia’s women artists. It is a privilege to present these remarkable artists, who have fundamentally shaped and enriched our understandings of modern and contemporary art.”

Assistant Curator at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Emma Nixon says: “It is wonderful to trace the history of Australian art from the early twentieth century to contemporary times, through the lens of these incredible women artists. We are very honoured to celebrate their work in our first Behind The Glass rehang of the Eva and Marc Besen Centre. Visitors will also enjoy seeing sculptural works in the storage shelves and selected landscape paintings by some of Australia’s leading modern artists.”

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