Art / “Cressida Campbell”. At the National Gallery until February 19. Reviewed by BARRINA SOUTH

AS the year draws to an end, we turn our minds to summer holidays and how we might spend our days. 

For most of us here in Canberra and surrounds, the National Gallery of Australia is the ideal place to visit with family and friends and the current exhibition of Cressida Campbell is a perfect choice. 

The exhibition forms part of the gallery’s ongoing project “Know My Name” through which the names of significant Australian women artists are celebrated.

As one of Australia’s prolific contemporary Australian artists, it is fair to say that many will know Campbell’s name and have seen most of her work. But what makes this exhibition a standout is not only the breadth of Campbell’s artwork on display, but the way it allows the opportunity for the public to view artworks not seen before as a third of the artworks in the show are on loan from private collections.

As you walk around the gallery space, you are struck by the meticulously painted wood blocks and wood block prints. The linear and bold works provide a window into Campbell’s life, and you find yourself wondering why she has chosen to capture that particular aspect of the interior; what is it about that composition? 

What the gallery visitor soon learns is that Campbell is capturing the beauty in the everyday, and that she sees art in the everyday and she invites the viewer to also pause and consider it, too. 

For me, this is particularly evident in Campbell’s works “Mandarin with Chinese Plate” (2004) and “Still life with Dragonfly” (2016-2017). Both artworks capture the fragility of life, a dragonfly putrefied and suspended in a spiderweb and now a meal and a half-peeled mandarin, flesh exposed to the elements, a meal of a different kind. Capturing these moments in time are great examples, illustrating Campbell’s artistic eye that is attentive to the delicacy of everyday life. 

It is these works, and those similar, on display that resonate with me, more so than the works featuring curated interior spaces. 

This survey exhibition cements Campbell as one of Australia’s greatest living artists and is a must-see, you won’t be disappointed.