Community
© Photography by Louise Kennerly
For over 35 years, the Macquarie Group Collection has supported emerging Australian artists by acquiring and displaying their works in Macquarie offices around the world.
Part of the Macquarie Group Foundation, the Collection focuses on the theme of The Land and Its Psyche, reflecting the diversity of the Australian landscape as seen through the eyes of Australian artists.
Now comprising more than 950 works, works from the Collection are displayed in over 40 Macquarie offices globally. Acquisitions by the Collection are selected by a volunteer committee of Macquarie employees, in consultation with a curatorial expert, who are dedicated to identifying art that reflects its guiding principles.
The Collection acknowledges Macquarie's heritage and reflects our culture as an organisation that actively explores ideas, supports emerging talent and embraces diversity of thoughts."
Helen Burton,
Director, Macquarie Group Collection
Sally Scales, Untitled, 2003
work on paper, Macquarie Group Collection
© the artist
A proud Pitjantjatjara woman from far west of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in remote South Australia, Sally Scales creates vibrant landscapes that represent her ancestral home and Tjukurpa. Scales is also a strong advocate for First Nations Culture, having served as Chairperson of both the APY Executive Board Council and the National Gallery of Australia’s First Nations Advisory Group.
The Collection supports emerging artists by displaying their art, which in turn can spark interest and conversation among employees and visitors. It instils a thoughtful and reflective quality within Macquarie’s workplaces, standing as a testament to the organisation’s Australian origin and community involvement.
The annual Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize offers support to a new generation of visual artists. Eligible artists are invited to submit an original work that relates to the Collection theme, with finalists' art displayed in a dedicated exhibition. A selection is also acquired by the Collection, with other works made available to the public for purchase.
Forrest River, north-west of Wyndham, Kimberley, WA, 2002
archival inkjet on paper
94 x 142cm
© the artist
The acclaimed colour photographs by the late Richard Woldendorp (1927-2023) offer new and revelatory perspectives on the Australian landscape, his mapping of the land from above echoing the approach of Western Desert Aboriginal artists. Forest River, north-west of Wyndham, Kimberley, WA, depicts the river snaking across the multi-coloured salt pan.
Puntujalpa, 2008
acrylic on Belgian linen
120 x 40cm, 120 x 60cm, 120 x 40cm
© the artist
Pintupi artist Theresa Nowee, also known as Theresa Nowee Napaltjarri, was born in 1971 in the Balgo community of Western Australia. The three Puntujalpa paintings have a distinctly ethereal quality, linking magically the sky with its myriad of cloud and colour relationships with the earth’s infinite variety of forms and hues.
Centennial Park, 2008
oil on canvas
42 x 83cm
© the artist
Rocco Fazzari, born in Adelaide to Italian immigrant parents, is a renowned Australian artist celebrated for his incisive caricatures, political illustrations, and multimedia storytelling. This painting of Sydney’s Centennial Park captures the trees and subdued light, providing an immediacy to the work which results in a finely integrated and unusual view of Sydney’s best-known parklands.
Leaves in the Wind, 1999
acrylic on canvas
183 x 122cm
© the artist
Leaves in the Wind by high-profile artist Gloria Petyarre (1945-2021) is a visually compelling painting that depicts the rhythms that pulse through the natural world. One of the senior Utopia artists, her work exemplified the wide range of expression for which that part of the Aboriginal world has become famous, most notably through the work of her peer Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
Crane View, Cockatoo Island, 2007
acrylic on canvas
66 x 84cm
© the artist
Joe Frost’s work explores the interplay between memory, place, and abstraction. In response to the three paintings in the Macquarie Group Collection – Crane View, Cockatoo Island, Cockatoo Island from Drummoyne, and Night, Cockatoo Island – art critic Sebastian Smee claimed that "Australia has few more sincere and talented painters than Frost".
