Jacinta Smart & Sandy O’Callaghan TRANSCENDENT NARRATIVES
February 6 - March 23, 2025
Gallery 3
Exhibition launch - February 22, 2 - 4pm
Transcendent Narratives is an exhibition that span realism, abstraction, and expressive styles, each capturing an essence rather than a literal depiction.
Jacinta and Sandy invite you into their sanctuary, offering a glimpse of the pair’s creative exploration, growth, and the power of shared experience. The exhibition is a celebration of their friendship, their shared and individual artistic journeys, and the transformative power of art, connecting both artists and audiences to a deeper sense of place and purpose.
Jacinta and Sandy are based in the Adelaide Hills and have shared a creative journey over the past decade that includes not only a collaborative studio space but also annual road trips to remote Australian landscapes. This exhibition reflects their evolving themes, shaped by these shared experiences and deepened by countless conversations, laughter, and mutual support within the studio. Their studio isn’t merely a workspace; it’s an inspiring environment that has cultivated an artistic kinship, where ideas and styles have intermingled, while allowing still affording each artist a distinct creative voice. In this dynamic setting, the ebb and flow of silence, discussion, focus, and feedback have allowed their individual artistic languages to develop alongside each other. Their annual road trips provide another layer to their work, inspiring them to immerse fully in the landscapes they explore. These shared journeys infuse their art with a sense of place and personal connection, seen in themes of landscape, narrative, and memory.
Works in progress, 2024
Jacinta Smart
Jacinta has been a practicing Artist and Educator for over 30 years in various parts of Australia both in secondary Visual Art and First Nations Focus. She is passionate about the human condition and the importance of place. Predominantly Painting and Drawing, she works also with Mixed Media.
Jacinta is captivated by the beauty found in life's subtleties and the quiet poetry of everyday moments. Her work invites viewers to explore the intricate textures and vibrant colours in details, the laughter that escapes in a snort, and the gentle persistence of rain. She finds inspiration in the seasons' rhythms, in the way light shifts with time, and in the graceful marks that life and age leave behind.
Most recent works reflect narratives from new places. Through the Simpson desert to more local historical landmarks, the research and stories of people plus her own experience of the landscape are what sparks her soul. Art is an incredible way to express different means of viewing our world.
Sandy O’Callaghan
After a fulfilling lifetime career in Art Education, Sandys focus has shifted to studio practice, where she experiments and explores new methods and ideas, aiming to produce a cohesive body of work each year working in oil, acrylic, and mixed media.
Sandy enjoys navigating a range of styles and techniques, often leaning towards a semi-representational approach that allows for creative fluidity and interpretation.
With an interest in portraiture still-life, and landscape, which serves as a constant theme in her work. Sandy is captivated by the landscape’s intangible qualities—its energy, presence, and the layered histories it holds, which stirs a profound sense of wonder and curiosity within her.
This current body of work began with an exploration of still-life, using objects imbued with personal significance. Over time, she moved away from traditional arrangements and gravitated towards creating narratives that capture moments of “then and now,” with a subtle sense of place woven into each piece.