IT’s portrait season in Sydney, and Canberra region artist Kerry McInnis has been selected for this year’s Salon des Refuses exhibition for her work, “Drawn in Steel” (Harrie Fasher)”.

The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition.

IN 2015 McInnis made it into the Archibald, but the Salon des Refuses, hung in the SH Ervin Gallery, is also highly regarded and she’s in good company, with Elisabeth Cummings, Madeleine Winch and Wendy Sharpe also in the salon lineup.

“Always sad to not get in to the Archibald, despite the usual controversial selections but I have to say that I’m really chuffed to get into the salon,” she says.

McInnis’ portrait is of Oberon sculptor Harrie Fasher.

Her sculpture “The Last Charge”, which captured the last charge of the Light Horse at the Battle of Beersheba in 1917, was shown early this year at Shaw Vineyards in Sculpture in the Paddock.

Fasher also won the $50,000 Rio Tinto Sculpture Award at the 14th annual Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe, WA, for her abstract steel work, “Transition”.

The winners of the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman Prizes will be announced at the Art Gallery of NSW, on Friday (May 10) and will be on show until September 8. The 2019 Salon des Refuses exhibition, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill Sydney, May 11 – July 28.

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