In-Conversation: Emma Fielden & Anne Ryan

Learn more about the practice of artist Emma Fielden in conversation with Anne Ryan, Senior Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Together they will trace significant developments in Fielden’s evolving practice, where painting, drawing, and performance converge through acts of impact, connection, and transformation.

The conversation will delve into key works presented in Fielden’s new exhibition ‘The Sky Swallowed a Stone’ at UNSW Galleries. Fielden and Ryan will reflect on the artist’s durational performances Dialogue 2020 and From Breath 2024, along with works made from their material remnants. They will also discuss Fielden’s new series of paintings, where crushed stone and silverpoint are suspended in oil glaze. This exchange will offer insight into Fielden’s engagement with elemental materials and her exploration of how gestures leave enduring, metamorphic traces.

Emma Fielden is a multidisciplinary Australian artist working across performance, drawing, painting, and video. Her practice explores time, memory, and transformation through elemental materials like metal and stone, often unfolding via repetition and endurance. Recent exhibitions include ‘Infinite: Dobell Drawing Biennial’ (AGNSW, 2024) and ‘Hours of Stars’ (Passage, 2024). Fielden is currently completing a Master of Fine Arts (Research) at UNSW and lectures seasonally at its School of Art & Design.

Anne Ryan is Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where she has responsibility for the collection of Australian prints, drawings, and watercolours. Anne has organised a number of exhibitions and publications on historical and contemporary Australian art and artists. Her interests include modern and contemporary Australian painting, drawing and printmaking, with a particular interest in women artists. At the Art Gallery of NSW, she has curated the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial exhibitions ‘Drawing Out’ (2014), ‘Close to Home’ (2016), ‘Real Worlds’ (2020), and ‘Infinite’ (2024), and has curated the annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes since 2015.

—

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Emma Fielden: The Sky Swallowed a Stone’ at UNSW Galleries, 29 August – 16 November 2025.