Three Colours: Yellow | Group Exhibition

When Vincent van Gogh arrived in southern France in the spring of 1888, he immediately wrote to his brother Théo: 

“The sun dazzles me and goes to my head, a sun, a light that I can only call yellow, sulphur yellow, lemon yellow, golden yellow. How lovely yellow is!”

Yellow has not lost its poetic gloss in France. For the Mouvement des gilets jaunes, yellow is revolution. For cyclists, it is victory.

With the same Indo-European etymology as ‘gold’ and ‘yell’, yellow commands attention. Sometimes that attention is unpleasant – just ask your nearest yellow-bellied coward.

Closer to home, yellow has been significant for tens of thousands of years. Yellow ochre is still widely used in Indigenous art and a yellow sun takes centre stage on the Australian Aboriginal Flag.

As we enter the spring of 2022, Three Colours: Yellow celebrates and explores this uniquely captivating colour in an Australian context.

Three Colours: Yellow is a curation of contemporary Australian and Indigenous works. Featuring artists: Erika Cholich, John Edwards, Isabel Harden, Nikki Suebwongpat, Freda Eamay, Madeleine Tuckfield-Carrano, Claudio Valenti, Christine West, and Debra West.