Image: Roh Smith
Based in South Australia, Rebecca Hastings' practice engages with themes of the Posthuman condition, reflecting and drawing on both personal and collective existential anxieties. Her most recent work presents a ‘youthful agitator’ as an agent of change; the benefactor of our broken planet. Adopting the conventions of figurative and still life painting genres, uncanny and gothic tropes interact with the everyday to convey otherworldly, surreal narratives. These embodiments of unease acknowledge the inexpressible, playing out as memento mori for our home, our innocence, and our humanity.
Hastings graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art in 2011 with a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours), and in 2017 received a Master of Visual Art (Research) from the University of South Australia (UniSA), supported by an Australian Post Graduate Award.
Awards and grants include Art SA Project grants and a UniSA Graduate Research Travel and Research Support Scholarship enabling a research residency in Japan in 2017. Her work has been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Prize 2015 (National Portrait Gallery, London), and a Finalist in a range of significant art prizes, including the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize (2021), the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (2012), the Sulman prize (2014 and 2015), and the Archibald prize (2014). Hastings has exhibited widely, with work held in collections nationally and internationally.
Video: Roh Smith
Video: Roh Smith
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS
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
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
AWARDS
AND PRIZES
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
Megna, Eleanor, “Rebecca Hastings - Artist in focus", MAYSPACE ONLINE, 2021
Llewellyn Jane, “Profile Rebecca Hastings”, The Adelaide Review, Issue 484, June 2020
Art Collector, “Rebecca Hastings”, Special Edition Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sept, 2015
McDonald, Patrick. “Mum’s the painter’s main word”, The Advertiser, 2014
Tilgas, K. “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/
Anderson, P. “Archibald prize finalists review”, The Daily Review, 15th July http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/archibald-prize-finalists-review-agnsw-sydney/
Nelson Robert, “Resisting walls and shrinking spaces”, The Age, 12th June, 2013
Luxford Phe, “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
Fleming Kylie. “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
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 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
QUALIFICATIONS
AND EXPERIENCE
2023
Lecturer, Adelaide Central School of Art, SA
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