The Thousands

From what I can gather (little, I admit), the Helpmann Academy go out of their way to sort out artists who have a talent for arting, as opposed to those whose chief skills lay in the artful compilation of grant applications. For this reason you know that Helpmann’s annual graduate show will be worthwhile (and not just for the splendid array of cheeses they always manage to secure).

Example: Kim Buck. Kim is able to do things with charcoal and lead that I had previously thought were only within the grasp of the severely autistic. The feather-light details of her huge drawings are staggering, but it’s the literacy and character with which they are executed that make you suspect that the poor woman has spent almost as much time thinking as she has squinting. Look out also for the latest Duchampian curiosity to spring from the imagination of fellow SASA graduate Ray Harris, as well as the playful authenticity-trap that is Shaw Hendry’s Hermano Fan Club.

Seriously though, the cheese will disappear quick, so make sure you get there early.