Anala Art Advisory was lucky enough to attend the opening of the confronting and beautifully striking “I Witness”, by George Gittoes.
Penrith Regional Gallery is fortunate enough to have this beautiful show on display until the 21st of August.
This is the first major survey in Australia of the work by leading Australian artist and filmmaker George Gittoes.
The exhibition presents a chronological journey of Gittoes 40-year career with a diverse body of work that includes paintings, drawings, printmaking, and artist diaries from the fields of war, as well as installation and film.
Continually pushing the boundaries of his art practice by positioning himself at sites of conflict and upheaval, this exhibition reveals a remarkable body of work from his mobile studio of camera, video and richly illustrated diaries that document the sites of cultural conflict including Nicaragua and the Philippines in 1980s, Rwanda, Cambodia and the Middle East in 1990s, and more recently in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Gittoes service to Australia has been recognised by the award of Member of the Order of Australia (1997) for service to art and international relations as an artist and photographer portraying the effects on the environment of war, international disasters and heavy industry.
He was also awarded the Centenary Medal (2001) for service as an internationally renowned artist.
He was given an honorary Doctorate in Letters by the University of New South Wales in 2009.
A comprehensive public solo exhibition of his work, Witness to War, appeared at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, in April 2011.
Gittoes has received numerous awards, including the Bassel Shehade Award for Social Justice (awarded at Syracuse University, New York, in October 2013) and, most recently the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize (announced in April 2015, to be awarded in November 2015).
For further information about George Gittoes and the opportunity to own one of his works, please feel free to contact Anala Art Advisory.
