Gifted Works

From time to time artists, individuals and organizations make gifts of artworks to the Burnie Regional Art Gallery. Famous Green politician, Senator Bob Brown, for example, donated the 1993 portrait of him by Archibald Prize wining artist Geoff Dyer to the Gallery. 

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Rodney Pople - Endangered 2016 (Upper House Tasmania) 

Kindly donated through the Commonwealth Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Dr Felicity Fenner in 2018, this painting by Rodney Pople is a significant addition to the permanent collection. As with most regional galleries, Burnie Regional Art Gallery has limited means as far as major acquisitions are concerned and particularly to collect works by artists of state and national importance. The opportunity to add a work by nationally recognised artist Rodney Pople is of great importance to the community. This significant donation supports the Gallery’s and the Collection’s ability to tell the contemporary stories of Tasmania.

Endangered 2016 (Upper House Tasmania) exemplifies Pople’s ongoing dismay at the vandalism of Tasmania’s natural environment and abuse of power (an ongoing theme) by what he sees as the Tasmanian parliament’s continued colonial mindset. Although now living in Sydney, Rodney Pople was born and raised in Launceston and continues to have a close connection to Tasmania and the State’s northwest.

Pople’s work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank, and several regional, university and private collections, both nationally and internationally and now with Burnie Regional Art Gallery.

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Ruth Faerber - bas-relief handmade paper cast works

In 2007 the Burnie Regional Art Gallery received a generous donation of 36 works by Sydney printmaker and paper artist Ruth Faerber. The pieces selected for this special exhibition are all from her remarkable bas-relief handmade paper cast work - the earliest made in 1982 and the latest in 1998.