Image: Roh Smith
Rebecca Hastings is a painter working in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. Her practice explores imagination, intuition and the irrational. Employing Classical Realist techniques, Hastings allows subconscious cues, unexpected associations and illogical impulses to shape the direction of a painting in preference to fixed narratives and meanings. Her works reveal an ‘other’ place—one that is grounded in reality but slightly displaced from it. Disembodied hands, watchful eyes, strange figures and suspended objects appear within shadowy, ambiguous spaces. Through these unsettling and sometimes absurd encounters, Hastings makes room for the fantastical, the unknowable and the impossible.
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS
2024
FEED, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2023
By the time you read this we shall all be dead, Praxis Artspace, Adelaide, SA
2020
Two minutes to midnight, MAY SPACE, Sydney, NSW
2018
The Eternal Youths, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2016
We went for a walk in The Uncanny Valley, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2014
The Other Mother, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2013
Scold, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Disquiet, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2012
Offering, The Hotel Metropolitan, Adelaide, SA
Portal, Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide, SA
GROUP
EXHIBITIONS
AWARDS
AND PRIZES
2026
Half a pound of art, Gallery Stephan Stumpf, Munich, Germany
2025
The New Portrait, Gallery Stephan Stumpf, Munich, Germany
Five and Under, Arcadia Contemporary, New York, USA
While the world looks away, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2024
Horizons, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2022
New, MAY SPACE Online, Sydney, NSW
2021
Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC
CCH Art Prize, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Tatiara Art Prize, Walkway Gallery, Bordertown, SA
20/21, MAY SPACE Online, Sydney, NSW
2017
Familiar, Modern Eden, San Francisco, USA
In Your Face, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC
2016
Fuse, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC
2015
There’s no place like home, Sydney Art Fair, M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW
The Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
2014
The Dark Side, Melbourne Art Fair, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC
SALA, The Advertiser, Adelaide, SA
Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, and regional galleries, NSW and VIC
The Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW
Dead or Alive, Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Through the Mirror Ball, BMG Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Portrait Show, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2012
Triple Happiness, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
The Eutick Memorial Still Life Exhibition, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
Exploration 12, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, Adelaide, SA
2011
Emergence, ACSA Graduate Exhibition, Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2025
Market Development Grant, CreateSA, South Australia
2021
Finalist, Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo, Vic
Finalist, Centre for Creative Health Art Prize, Adelaide, SA
Finalist, Tatiara Art Prize, Walkway Gallery, Bordertown, SA
2020
Grant, National Assistance Program for the Arts, The Myer Foundation
Independent Makers and Presenters Project Grant, Arts SA
2017
Graduate Research Travel and Research Support Scholarship, UniSA
2016
Australian Post Graduate Award (Scholarship Masters by Research)
SELECTED
PUBLICATIONS
ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
Eleanor Megna, “Rebecca Hastings - Artist in focus", MAYSPACE ONLINE, 2021
Jane Llewellyn, “Profile Rebecca Hastings”, The Adelaide Review, Issue 484, June 2020
Art Collector, “Rebecca Hastings”, Special Edition Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sept, 2015
Patrick McDonald, “Mum’s the painter’s main word”, The Advertiser, 2014
K. Tilgas, “Is this your first time?”, Art Gallery of NSW, 21st July 2014
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/blog/posts/is-this-your-first-time/
P. Anderson “Archibald prize finalists review”, The Daily Review, 15th July http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/archibald-prize-finalists-review-agnsw-sydney/
Phe Luxford, “Disquiet” The Melbourne Review Online, 12the June 2013
“Rebecca Hastings – Process”, Artist Profile, Issue 22, March 2013
The Adelaide Review, Issue 390, August 2012, Front cover and p. 41
Kylie Fleming, “Mixed emotions”, Adelaide Matters, June 2012
“Graduates come together in show of best and freshest”, Update, Helpmann Academy, Vol 19, No 1, Issue 75, 2012
CATALOGUES AND ESSAYS
Mary-Jean Richardson, “FEED" Catalogue Essay, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC, 2024
Walker Wendy, “The Eternal Youths" Catalogue Essay, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC, 2018
Millner Jaqueline. “We went for a walk in the Uncanny Valley” Catalogue Essay, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC, 2016
Brown Marguerite “The Other Mother”, Catalogue Essay, Flinders Lane Gallery, VIC, 2014
Archibald Prize Catalogue 2014, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Neylon John, “The Other Mother”, Catalogue Essay, Hill Smith Gallery, SA, 2013
Luxford Phe, “Disquiet” Exhibition Catalogue, Flinders Lane Gallery, Vic, 2013
Dance Polly “From chaos to order”, Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition Catalogue, 2012
“Emergence”, Update, Helpmann Academy, Vol 18, No 4, Issue 74, 2012
BOOKS
The Big Book of Little Art Essays (2024), Flinders Lane Gallery
The Splicer I (2021), reproduced in Luxemburg, Gesellschaftsanalyse und linke Praxis, 3/2022, front cover
Gazing into the Anthropocene II (2017), iScape I (2015), and The Eternal Youths IV (2018) Reproduced in Jason Moore, The Capitalocene, Maize 6, 2019
She left us at Ikea and went off to find herself (pink) (2014), reproduced in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilio, Libri Mondadori, Italy, 2017
Smell this (2011), reproduced in Roy, D., Baker, W., & Hamilton, A. Teaching the Arts: Early childhood and primary education, Port Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press, 2012
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2024
Artist in Residence, Adelaide Central School of Art, SA
Keynote Speaker, Visual Art Educators South Australia (VAESA) Conference, SA
2023 - CURRENT
Lecturer, Adelaide Central School of Art, SA
Private Tutor
2019
Master of Visual Art, University of South Australia (UniSA), SA
2017
Research Residency, Japan
2012-2016
Lecturer and Tutor Visual Arts, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA
2011
Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours, Adelaide Central School of Art, SA
Adelaide Central School of Art Academic Board, Student Representative