Art Bites

Have you ever wondered about art works in your building? Or sculptures on your walk through campus? The ANU is peppered with remarkable and nationally significant artworks managed by the ANU Art Collection.

Lunchtime Art Bites are held fortnightly during semesters, facilitated by Drill Hall Gallery staff and co-hosted by artists, academics, and students. Expect a short informative introduction on the artworks followed by questions and an open conversation. Get to know your campus, learn to talk about art, build your cultural community, join the conversation.

If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation plan please contact us before the event: dhg@anu.edu.au

Thursday 23 July, Hancock Library Courtyard, 1:15pm
Join sculptor Kensuke Todo in the Hancock Library Courtyard to view and discuss his 2025 work Utsuroi 移ろい (transience).

Echoing the library’s internal staircase and the three monumental rocks that adorn the courtyard’s garden, Utsuroi 移ろい (transience) acts as a meeting point between humankind and the natural world. The sculpture’s position in this vital intersection recalls both the ANU’s motto, naturum primum cognoscere rerum – “first to know the nature of things”, and the Japanese architectural concept of ma. Ma refers to the interval between incidents or things, the gaps, spaces and differences, filled with meaning, alive in human imagination. The alignment of these two references is apt for the Japanese born artist whose interest in the differing experiences of space in Japanese and Western culture propelled him across the sea to study at the ANU School of Art first on exchange in 1999, and then to complete a MA (Visual Arts) in Sculpture in 2004.

Thursday 6 August, 1:15pm
Location announced shortly

PAST ART BITES – If you missed an Art Bite, here is a little more information on the works we looked at:

Thursday 16 April Art Bite at the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre included paintings by Naata Nungurrayi, Emma Beer and Ildiko Kovacs. Find out more here

Thursday 30 April Art Bite at the RSSS building foyer including sculpture by Jan King and paintings by Angelina Pwerle Ngala, Dorothy Napangardi Robinson, Esther Giles Nampitjinpa and Tjawina Porter Nampitjinpa. Find out more here. 

Thursday 14 May Foyer of the Florey Building, 54 Mills Rd, including Lenton Parr’s 1964 steel sculpture, Untitled, and Lawrence Daws’ 1957 painting, Aboriginal Camp.

Thursday 28 May, 1:15pm, HC Coombs Tea Room, including Wilkinkara site, 2000, by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, one of the founding members of the Western Desert Art movement, and Ildiko Kovaks’ painting, Inner cycle, 2016.