In response to images found in art history, archives, newspapers, cinema and online, the artists in this exhibition use drawing to reanimate history, in a process that involves imagination, fabrication and the repurposing of prior sources. 

Vernon Ah Kee creates skeletal and ghostly faces in remembrance of the 2004 Palm Island riots; Sharon Goodwin’s 3-D drawings re-vision the slippery surfaces of fact and fiction in historical narrative; and Laura Hindmarsh’s double exposures trace images of women in cinematic classics as found on the internet.

Showcasing the vitality and breadth of drawing in Australia. Drawing is fundamental to the practice of each of the ten contemporary artists in this exhibition. Their works range from watercolour to film, performance and sculpture, highlighting how the art of drawing can often defy classification. 

The exhibition reveals how the process of drawing itself allows these artists to engage with the landscape – urban, rural, natural or constructed – and the importance of a tangible subject to their work.  
Drawing out is the first in a series of curated exhibitions on contemporary Australian drawing to be held every two years – the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial – following the acclaimed Dobell Prize for Drawing (1993–2012). It features Tom Carment, Joe Furlonger, Ross Laurie, Ivy Pareroultja, Ana Pollak, Peter Sharp, Mary Tonkin, John R Walker, Gosia Wlodarczak and John Wolseley. Their wide-ranging works move from intimate sketchbook drawings to large-scale panoramas