J O B E R T I N I
J O B E R T I N I
Elsewhere
17 October – 9 November 24
Opening Celebration Thursday 17 October, 6 – 8pm
Artist Talk Saturday 26 October, 3pm
The poetic paintings of Jo Bertini are an ode to the wild. Having inhabited diverse desert landscapes for decades, Bertini contemplates and celebrates the personal and anthropological profundity of remote wilderness. The sacredness of sites that cannot be tamed, conquered or colonised, and the ways in which these wild places speak to the sublimated and primal parts of the human psyche. For Bertini, her inexplicable affiliation with the world's most isolated desert landscapes connects with an elusive yet fundamental human longing, seeding creative consciousnesses.
In this new suite of paintings, entitled ‘Elsewhere’, Bertini leads us to otherworldly places and surreal psychological states. Spectral trees are sentinels of secrets, and ethereal skies coat the land with impenetrable mystique. Bertini reads the desert like an ancient archive of stories, with only fragments visible at any one time. Her paintings lasso these fragments into free verse stanzas or floating chapters that forge fictional landscapes as her own personal allegories. After years of working en plein air, the artist feels she has been “gifted” a new maturity, or “enlightenment”, less tethered to actual places and more in tune with her own internal landscapes: “I’m working more intuitively, esoterically and imaginatively from my heart and mind, my dreams and the unseen”. For Bertini, “trees can talk, mountains can move, rivers bury secrets, grains of sand weave myth, knowledge and culture from past to present.” These paintings are a synthesis of all her years of experience – “it's like I have built up this huge mound”, she explains, “layers of leaf litter from which to grow my own ideas and imaginings about wild desert landscapes and the natural environments I live in and love.”
In translating the beguiling beauty and biodiversity of remote wilderness, these paintings proudly depart from the cliched visions of aridity and desolation dominating the traditional trope of the desert. Employing natural ochres and iridescent pigments, the artist achieves a mineral richness that shimmers with life and abundance. Opalescent colours glaze the land in a pastel splendour like a perpetually unfolding twilight, hatching a sweet surreality – as if the magic crystal trees of our childhood have come alive. Bertini’s dusty, feathery application of oil sings of memories cherished, and moments lost, while her sumptuous forms embody fecundity, and freedom. A dance of revelation and concealment can be found in Bertini’s generosity of colour and form, with personal parables falling across the canvas like a shooting star. Beautiful, and fugitive, much like the migratory birds that silently traverse Bertini’s compositions.
The landscape genre here is softened as Bertini offers an intimate, feminine perspective on the archived historical context of these environments. For her, the female experience of wilderness has been long overshadowed by macho manifestations and mythologies of the land. Bertini’s gentle application of paint in tender tones summons a sense of nurture, as if she is caressing the land with each brushstroke, embracing and sustaining it.
For this series, Bertini has taken inspiration from the female poets her late mother introduced her to at a young age – many personal friends of hers. In the work Etching for Oneself a Memory the words of Jennifer Rankin contour the trees, whose reflections bleed into the landscape like sprawling arteries or visceral roots: “When I sit down all the places I have been shall twist and reform in one revolution, uprooting, replanting favourite trees”. In another painting, Language Without Wind, moonlit trees resist the darkness with impossible luminescence: “Standing here in the night we are turned to a great tree, every leaf a star, its root eternity” (Judith Wright).
Bertini’s lyrical paintings are deeply devotional, paying tribute to a land that has inspired and nourished the artist for many years. Though her depictions are at once familiar and foreign, they radiate with an unexpected benevolence. They are emotional expressions of an elusive ‘elsewhere’ that exists only in the pristine wilderness of the heart.
Jo Bertini dedicates this series to her late mother, sculptor Anne Ferguson, honouring her lifelong love and mentorship.
An award winning painter, educator and writer, Jo Bertini has over thirty years of experience as a professional exhibiting artist. Her works are held in the collections of Artbank, National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery. Bertini has been a finalist in numerous art prizes, including the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2024, 2022, 2021, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004), Wynne Prize (2015), Tattersalls Art Prize (2019, 2015, 2014), Calleen Art Award (2014, 2013), Mosman Art Prize (2023, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2001) and Sulman Prize (2011, 2010).
Elli Walsh Principle Writer, Artist Profile
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Sara Teasdale There Will Come Soft Rains
Hereafter
iridescent pigments & oil on French polyester canvas
165.5 x 204.5 cm (framed)
$26,000
And the poem that exists will never equal the poem that does not exist. Trembling, it crosses the frontier at dawn from non-being to being carrying a small banner, bearing a message,
bringing news of the poem that does not exist, that pulses like a star, red and green, no-colour, blazing white against whiteness. Listen to the universe –those are the possibilities of order buzzing and humming.
The outline of non-existence can be held by the inner eye, always moving, it assumes the shape of stillness.
Over the frontier
Rosemary Dobson
Devotional oil on French polyester canvas
201 x 201 cm (framed)
$29,000
I hold the crimson fruit and plumage of the palm; flame-tree, that scarlet spirit, in my soil takes root. My days burn with the sun, my nights with moon and star, since into myself I took all living things that are. All things that glow and move, all things that change and pass, I gather their delight as in a burning-glass; all things I focus in the crystal of my sense.
I give them breath and life and set them free in the dance. I am a tranquil lake to mirror their joy and pain; and all their pain and joy I from my own heart make, since love, who cancels fear with his fixed will, burned my vision clear and bid my sense be still.
Judith Wright The Maker
Liminal Moment
oil & iridescent pigment on French polyester canvas
201 x 201 cm (framed)
$29,000
If I could leave their battleground for the forest of a bird I could melt the past, the present and the future in one and find the words that lie behind all these languages. Then I could fuse my passions into one clear stone and be simple to myself as the bird is to the bird.
Judith Wright Birds
Am a Bird Now oil on French
123 x 123 cm (framed)
$14,000
I
polyester canvas
Now my five senses gather into a meaning all acts, all presences; and as a lily gathers the elements together, in me this dark and shining, that stillness and that moving, these shapes that spring from nothing, become a rhythm that dances, a pure design.
While I'm in my five senses they send me spinning all sounds and silences, all shape and colour as thread for that weaver, whose web within me growing follows beyond my knowing some pattern sprung from nothinga rhythm that dances and is not mine.
Judith Wright Five Senses
157.5 x 204.5 cm (framed)
$26,000
Riversky oil on Belgian linen
When I sit down all the places I have been shall twist and reform in one revolution, uprooting, replanting favorite trees
Jennifer Rankin Last Wind
Etching for Oneself a Memory oil & iridescent pigment on Belgian linen
134.5 x 134.5 cm (framed)
$16,500
Standing here in the night we are turned to a great tree, every leaf a star, its root eternity.
Judith Wright Night
Language Without Wind oil on French polyester canvas
134.5 x 134.5 cm (framed)
$16,500
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver Wild Geese
Migrations and Transformations
oil & iridescent pigment on Belgian linen
134.5 x 134.5 cm (framed)
$16,500
Let me go where'er I will, I bear a sky-born music still: It sounds from all things old, It sounds from all things young, From all that's fair, from all that's foul, Peals out a cheerful song…
'T is not in the high stars alone, Nor in the cup of budding flowers, Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone, Nor in the bow that smiles in showers, But in the mud and scum of things There alway, alway something sings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Music
Led by the Sound of a Mountain oil on Belgian linen
142 x 155 cm (framed)
$19,000
This most I envy, most would emulate, the watchful eye, the trained receptive ear, the mind that waits illumination, waits to see, though blind; though deaf, at last to hear.
Rosemary Dobson Poems from Pausanias
Reverent Eye
134.5 x 155 cm (framed)
$18,500
The
oil on Belgian linen
From a wreck of tree in the wash of night Glory, glory, sings the bird; Across ten thousand years of light His creative voice is heard. Wide on a tide of wind are set Warp and woof of silvered air; But the song slips through the net To where the myriad galaxies are. And to the heartbeats of the light, Now from the deepness of the glade Well up the bubbles of delight: Of such stuff the stars were made.
David Campbell
Speak with the sun
The Calling Bird Ghost Fishing oil & iridescent pigment on Belgian linen
142 x 155.5 cm (framed)
$19,000
I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the riverbed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.
Mary Oliver Sleeping in the Forest
Everywhen oil on Belgian linen
155 x 155 cm (framed)
$20,000
I looked up and there it was among the green branches of the pitch pines –
thick bird, a ruffle of fire trailing over the shoulders and down the back –
color of copper, iron, bronze –lighting up the dark branches of the pine.
What misery to be afraid of death, What wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.
When I made a little sound it look at me, then it looked past me.
Then it rose, the wings enormous and opulent, and, as I said, wreathed in fire.
Mary Oliver I Looked Up
Embers in the Night Hawks’ Garden oil on Belgian linen
129 x 135 cm (framed)
$16,000
This moment chiselled out in stone Or graven on the plate of rhyme Would seem more permanent than bone, An asset in the vault of time. But when this stone is desert sand, The key of this dead language lost Perdurable, this moment's brand On living bone will be embossed.
David Campbell Eternity
99 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
Unborn Moon oil on Belgian linen
Clear, simple as a windless day calm in its paradise of blue, when through the quiet of earth it seems that earth itself will speak to you
Gwen Harwood Impromptus IV
99 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
Slipping Between Mornings oil on Belgian linen
It all could be a great pitcher at which not gods now, but piping bellbirds come to drink, to dwell inside the mountain
Michael Dransfield Dangar Gorge
Valley of Wind Rifts & Wittering Songbirds
oil on Belgian linen
99 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
But for this hour I offer you, whose warmth and words and skill renew the heart, a poem, though words can never contain, as music does, the unsayable grace that cannot be defined yet leaps like light from mind to mind.
Gwen Harwood Impromptus III
95 x 89 cm (framed)
$9,500
Mist Net in Furnace Creek oil on Belgian linen
No heat can be too great To burn a mind aware To obscured rhythms of First morning’s prayer,
And all the golden banners So long close furled Blaze a terrible glory over Re-created world.
Nancy Keesing Litany
Reading a Fathom of Sand oil on Belgian linen
94 x 88.5 cm (framed)
$9,500
Remembering betrays Nature, Because yesterday’s Nature is not Nature What’s past is nothing and remembering is not seeing.
Fly, bird, fly away; teach me to disappear!
Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)
Rather the flight of the bird passing and leaving no trace
Wind Incantations
oil on French polyester canvas
99 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more That you can’t see, can’t hear; Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages That aren’t always sound but other Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky In wind, swept our hearts clean With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know That we must take the utmost care And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of All this, and breathe, knowing We are truly blessed because we Were born, and die soon within a True circle of motion, Like eagle rounding out the morning Inside us.
We pray that it will be done In beauty. In beauty.
Joy Harjo Eagle Poem
Following Grace oil on French polyester canvas
99 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
In simple twilight water speaks peace, the swallows turn. in lessening arcs. The dry reeds rustle and part to set the nightwind free. The heart holds, like remembered music, a landscape grown too dark to see.
Gwen Harwood Alla Siciliana
99.5 x 104.5 cm (framed)
$10,000
Walking Rain oil on Belgian linen
J O B E R T I N I
Born 1964 Australia
EDUCATION
1992 Life Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, National Art School, Sydney, NSW
1983 B.A. Fine Arts, Sydney University, NSW
B.A. Literature (via correspondence), Deakin University, VIC
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2024 Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2023 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Art Centre, NSW, Finalist
Paddington Art Prize, NSW, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
2022 Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC, Finalist
2021 Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Paddington Art Prize, NSW, Finalist
2020 Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2019 Tattersalls Prize, Tattersalls Club, Brisbane, QLD, Finalist
2018 Smokebrush Foundation for the Art, Sponsored Artist, Colorado Springs, USA
Australian Government Sponsored Artist in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2017 Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
2016-17 Australian & Indian Government Sponsored Artist working with Maldhari Herders in Kachchh, North West India
2015-17 Inaugural Artist Annex Residence, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2015-16 Australian High Commission Sponsored Artist touring Rajasthan and Kachchh & solo exhibition at the Indira Ghandi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, India
Murray Art Museum Albury Residency
Fish Lane Outdoor Gallery Lightbox Projection - Urban Design Project, Brisbane City Council. Brisbane, QLD
2016 Alice Prize, the Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Finalist
J O B E R T I N I
2015 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Manning Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Tattersalls Prize, Tattersalls Club, Brisbane, QLD, Finalist
2014 ArtStream Inaugural Artist in Residence, Albury, NSW
NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Percival Portrait Prize, Perc Tucker Regional Art Gallery, Townsville, QLD, Finalist
Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW, Finalist
2013 Central West Regional Award, Cowra Regional Gallery, NSW, Winner
Adelaide Perry Drawing Award, Highly Commended
Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
2012 Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
2011 Paddington Art Prize, NSW, Finalist
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
City of Albany Art Prize, Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, WA, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
2010 Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
2009 Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Inaugural Artists’ Camp & Artist in Residence, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, NSW
2008 Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Highly Commended & People's Choice Winner
Kedumba Drawing Award Invitational, Kedumba Art Gallery, Wentworth Falls, NSW, Finalist
2007 Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
2006 Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Fleurieu Landscape Prize, McLaren Vale, SA, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2005 Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
J O B E R T I N I
2005 Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2004
Blake Prize, University of Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Kedumba Drawing Award, Invitational, Kedumba Art Gallery, Wentworth Falls, NSW, Finalist
Kings School Art Prize, Invitational, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Regional Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Tatterstalls Prize, Tattersalls Club, Brisbane, QLD, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award Touring Exhibition, NSW & QLD
2003 Artist in Residence, The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Hill End, NSW
Inaugural Art on the Rocks Invitational Prize and Exhibition, Sydney, NSW, Highly Commended
2002 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Alice Prize, The Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Regional Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award Touring Exhibition, NSW
2001 Artist in Residence, Bundanon Trust, Bundanon, NSW
Portia Geach Portrait Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
Roche Contemporary Art Award, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2000 Fleurieu Landscape Prize, McLaren Vale, SA, Finalist
1998 Fleurieu Landscape Prize, McLaren Vale, SA, Finalist
Martin Hanson Memorial Art Exhibition, Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum, QLD
1997 Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, NSW, Finalist
1996 Blake Prize, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
Blake Prize, Touring Exhibition, NSW & TAS
1992 Willoughby Art Prize, Sydney, NSW, Finalist
J O B E R T I N I
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 ‘Mountain of the Watchful Heart’, E.L. Blumenschein Home and Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2022 ‘Deep in Land’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Deep in Land’, Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, Ent Center for the Arts, Colorado Springs, USA
2021 ‘Songs of Dry Hills’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2019 ‘Land of Shining Stone’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2017 ‘Common Ground’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2016 ‘Living Lightly’, Indira Ghandi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India
‘Hortus Conclusus – The Enclosed Garden’, Murray Art Museum, Albury, NSW
2015 ‘The Explorer & the Artist’, Australian Consul General LA & the Tree People, CA, USA
‘I am in the landscape and the landscape is in me’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2014-15 ‘Terra Incognita’, Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2014 ‘Wild Wild West’ Touring Exhibition, Cowra Regional Gallery, NSW
2013 ‘Frontiers’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2012 ‘The Desert Garden’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘A Selection of Works From the Desert’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2010 ‘Desertification – Field Work’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2009 ‘Desert Expeditions – Paintings & Works on Paper’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Woollahra, NSW
2008 ‘Drawn From the Desert’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2007 ‘A Desert Within’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Woollahra, NSW
2004 ‘Bloodwood’, King Street Gallery on Burton, Darlinghurst, NSW
‘Australian Visions, Art from Downunder’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, NSW
‘Jo Bertini Paintings from Hill End’, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst, NSW
2003 Paintings (with James Jones & John Turier), King St Gallery at Span Galleries, Melbourne, VIC
2002 The Still Life of Landscape’, King St Gallery on Burton, Darlinghurst, NSW
2001 ‘Painting the Shadows / Writing the Light; Reflections of Bundanon’, King St Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Survey Show’, Stephanie Burns Fine Art, Canberra, ACT
2000 ‘Another Sense’, King St Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1999 ‘North Harbour Series; From a Kayak’, Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1998 ‘Lacuna’, Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1997 ‘Penumbrae Fall, The Beatty Gallery, Sydney, NSW
J O B E R T I N I
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Portia Geach at 60, S.H. Ervin Gallery, NSW
‘Summer’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘George Place’, Curated by Justin Miller, 345-363 George Street, Sydney, NSW
2023 ‘Paper & Clay’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘The Female Gaze’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2022 Arthouse Gallery Group Show at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney, NSW
‘Flood Relief – Spread the Love’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2021 ‘I Am Here’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Summer Salon’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2020 ‘Renewal’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Summer’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2019 ‘Reflections of a Fading Sky’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Autumn’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2018 ‘40/40 Project Exhibition’, Wagner Contemporary Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Summer Salon’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘The Way You Came’, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2017 ‘Australian Watercolour Institute 94th Annual Exhibition’, Juniper Hall, Sydney, NSW
‘Recent Acquisitions’, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2016 ‘Australian Watercolour Institute 92nd Annual Exhibition’, Gosford Regional Art Gallery, NSW
‘Self Portraits on Paper’, Bouddi Foundation for the Arts, The Yellow House, Sydney, NSW
‘Country & Western - Touring Exhibition’, NSW, QLD, VIC, NT
‘Yulendj Arts exhibition, St Catherine's School, Melbourne, VIC
‘30 Years, 30 Artists, 30 Works’, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2014 ‘Artists Books’, MARS Gallery, VIC
‘MARS Goes West’, Kidogo Arthouse, Freemantle, WA
‘There Are Two Types of People: Cats and Dogs’, Olsen Irwin Gallery, NSW
‘The Third Wave, two decades of artists in residency’, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2013 ‘Small works’, Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, Sydney NSW
2012 ‘The Rapture of Death’, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
J O B E R T I N I
2012 ‘Not in Love’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
‘The SMH Great Australian Landscape Exhibition’, Australia Day Exhibition, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Look: Charles Darwin University Art Collection’, Charles Darwin University Art Gallery, Darwin, NT
‘The Sketchbook Project’, Brooklyn Art Library, Art Museum World Tour, Chicago, LA, Canada, London, Melbourne
2011 ‘Packsaddle Exhibition’ New England Regional Art Museum, NSW
‘Drawing In – An Invitational Exhibition of Drawing’, Australian Academy of Design, Port Melbourne, VIC
‘Autumn’ & ‘Solstice II’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2010 ‘Packsaddle Exhibition’, New England Regional Art Museum, NSW
‘Miscellanea’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘A Little Bird Told Me’, for Birds Australia, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2009 ‘Prelude’, Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Gallery, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT
‘Taronga Artists Camp Project’, Sotheby’s Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘A Bar to Call Home – the History of the RSL’, NG Art, Chippendale, NSW
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2008 Inaugural Opening Exhibition of the Permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra ACT
‘2 x 2’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2007 ‘Australia’s Muslim Cameleers (Pioneers of the Inland 1860s-1930s)’, SA Museum Touring Exhibition SA, ACT, NSW
‘Earth and Water’, MARS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
‘BRAG: Recent Acquisitions 2004-2007’, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW
‘Opening Exhibition’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2006 ‘Same Place Many Views, Painting the Australian Landscape’ Defiance Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Being At Bundanon’, Touring Exhibition, NSW
2005 ‘In and Out of Hill End’, Gallery and Visitors Centre, Hill End, NSW
‘Dog Trumpet’, Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney, NSW
‘Xmas Exhibition’, King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney, NSW
‘Gallery Artists Works on Paper’, King Street Gallery on Burton, NSW
2004 ‘The Year in Art, the Best Exhibitions of 2004’, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
New Acquisition ‘Kitty Kantilla and Freda Warlapini – Milikapiti’, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT
‘Artists in Residence at Bundanon’, Shoalhaven City Arts Centre, Nowra, NSW
‘Visions from Down Under – Contemporary Australian Painting’, Mudanjiang Public Art Gallery, Mudanjiang, China
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Gallery, NSW
2004 ‘10 x 10 x 10, Women Painters of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, NSW
‘Packsaddle’ Exhibition, New England Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2003 ‘Art on the Rocks’ Weekend Event and Exhibition, ASN Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Postcard Show’, Invitational, Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, NSW
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2002 ‘Contemporary Australian Portraits’, Opening Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, ACT
‘Painting 2002 – The Year in Art’, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Selected artists of King Street Gallery at SPAAN’, Melbourne, VIC
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2001 ‘Gallery Artists’ King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney, NSW
‘Collage’, Steffanie Burns Fine Art, ACT
‘Packsaddle’ Exhibition, New England Regional Gallery, NSW
‘New Abstracts’, King St Gallery, Newtown, Sydney, NSW
‘Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, NSW
‘Bat, Ball and Brush, a Summer of Cricket and Art at the SCG’, Sydney Cricket Ground, NSW
‘Creative Madness’, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Volvo Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2000 ‘Last Show of the Year’, King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney, NSW
‘Australian Contemporary Art Fair’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC
‘Women and the Landscape’, King Street Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Packsaddle’ Exhibition, New England Regional Gallery, NSW
‘Toowoomba Biennial Acquisitive Exhibition’, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, QLD
‘First Show of the Year’, King Street Gallery, Newtown, NSW
‘2088 Artists of Mosman’, Mosman Regional Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1999 ‘9” x 12” National Travelling Exhibition’, NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT
‘Mosman Artists’, Mosman Regional Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘Animal Tales’, Dubbo Regional Gallery, Dubbo, NSW
‘Last Show of the Year’, King Street Gallery on Burton, Sydney, NSW
‘Big Thoughts, Small Works’, Defiance Gallery, Sydney, NSW
‘13th Survey Exhibition’, Access Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1998 ‘Australian Contemporary Art Fair’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC
‘The Defiant Six’ Sculpture Show, Defiance Gallery, Sydney, NSW
J O B E R T I
1997 ‘Conrad Jupiters Art Exhibition’, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD
‘Mosman Art Exhibition’, Mosman Civic Centre, Sydney, NSW
1996 ‘Hung at the Hyatt’, Curator Anne Loxley, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Sydney, NSW
‘Conrad Jupiters Art Exhibition’, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD
‘Australian Contemporary Art Fair’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC
1995 ’Random’, The Beatty Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1992 ‘Printmakers’ Cell Block, East Sydney Technical College, Sydney, NSW
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Artbank
ArtStream Investment Group
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn Art Museum, NY, USA
Bundanon Trust Collection, NSW
Charles Darwin University Art Collection, Darwin, NT
Children’s Hospital Collection, Westmead, Sydney, NSW
Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, NSW
Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum, QLD
Hideaway Resort, Fiji
KPMG Collection, Sydney, NSW
Kedumba Collection of Contemporary Australian Drawings, NSW
Macquarie Bank Collection
Millennium Hotel, Sydney, NSW
Mosman Regional Gallery, NSW
National Library of Australia. Canberra, ACT
National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT
State Library of Victoria, VIC
Sydney Opera House Collection, NSW
Wollongong University Collection, NSW
J O B E R T I N I
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pippa Mott, Artist Profile Cover & Essay, p.64-73, Iss.59, 2022
‘Talking with Painters’ Podcast with Maria Stoljar, Ep.112, 2021
Eleanor Zeichner, ‘Land of Shining Stone’, Artist Profile, Iss.47, 2019
Turiya Autry, ‘Using the Arts to Build Community’, the Desert Trail Newspaper, USA, 6 Jan 2019
John McDonald, ‘Salon Des Refusés - No Need for Consolation Tones’, SMH, 29 Jun 2018
Prue Ruscoe, feature on Villa Selalu Gili Gede, Instyle Magazine, Oct 2018
Art Collector, back inside cover, Iss.82, Oct-Dec, 2017
Top 50 – Art & Design, Country Style Magazine, p.103, Dec 2017
Virginia Imhoff, ‘Going Places’, Country Style Magazine, Feb 2017
Bhumika Popli, ‘Where Visitors Can Get a Taste of India’s Rich & Endangered Pastoral Culture’, the Sunday Guardian, New Delhi, 10 Dec 2016
SS Balan, ‘the Outlier’, Daily Pioneer Newspaper, 6 Dec 2016
Derrick Krusche, ‘Desert to the Murray’, the Border Mail, 4 Jun 2016
Mandy McKeesick, ‘Expedition Artist’, Outback Magazine, p.100-101, Oct-Nov 2015
‘Celebrating the Portia Geach Memorial Award’, Artist Profile Magazine, p.114, Iss.32, 2015
‘Jo’s Desert Depictions’, Mosman Daily, p.34, 13 Aug 2015
Prue Gibson, ‘the Trouble With the Wynne’, the Conversation, 17 Jul 2015
Profile in Australian Traveller Magazine, p.114-115, Feb-Mar 2015
Book Club ‘Field Work’ Book Review, Country Style Magazine, p.139, Mar 2015
Australian Poetry Anthology, Cover Image, vol.3, 2014
Andy Dinan, Belle Magazine, p.71, Oct 204
Karen Cotton, Artistic Vision, Country Style Magazine, p.36-42, Aug 2014
‘Done in the Frame, Mosman Art Prize Finalists’, Mosman Daily, 11 Jul 2013
‘HER – Women Artists Who March to the Beat of Their Own Drum’, Laboratory International Arts Collective, USA, 2012
Kate Crawford, ‘Outback, Her Inspiration’, Mosman Daily, 10 May 2012
‘Australia Day – the Great Australian Landscape’, SMH, 26 Jan 2012
Karen Cotton, ‘Less is More’, Inside Out Magazine, Nov-Dec 2012
Prue Gibson, ‘the Rhapsody of Death’, Boccalatte Publishing, 2010
Dan Rule, ‘Around the Galleries’, the Age, 13 Nov 2010
Nicolas Rothwell, ‘Outback and Red but Green All Over’, the Australian, 19 Jun 2010
J O B E R T I N I
Karen Cotton, ‘Guardian of the Land’, the Australian Women’s Weekly, Jul 2010
John McDonald, ‘Salon des Refusés, Wynne & Sulman Prizes’, SMH, 3 Apr 2010
John McDonald, ‘Thankful For Small Mercies’, SMH Spectrum, 2 Apr 2010
Christopher Allen, ‘the Big Picture’, Review, Weekend Australian, 1 May 2010
Kate Crawford, ‘Artist Wings it for Elusive Prize’, Mosman Daily, 1 Apr 2010
Victoria Hynes, ‘Jo Bertini & Mathew Johnson’, Open Gallery, SMH, 25 Jul 2009
Christopher Allen, ‘In Good Company’, Review, Weekend Australian, 1 Nov 2008
Louise Schwartzkoff, ‘Adversity Brings Success as Self-Portrait Proves a Winner, SMH, 3 Oct 2008
‘Fabulous Four in the Frame for Fame’, Mosman Daily, 23 Oct 2008
‘Up Front’, Good Weekend, SMH & the Age, 23 Aug 2008
Karen Cotton, ‘Pictures by the River’, Country Style Magazine, Aug 2008
Sally Bennett, ‘Real Queen of the Desert’, Herald Sun, p.63, 23 Apr 2008
Anne Peacock, ‘Turning the Desert Into an Art Form’, Herald Sun, 20 Apr 2008
Dr Philip Jones & Anna Kenny, ‘Australia’s Muslim Cameleers – Pioneers of the Inland 1860’s-1930’s’, Wakefield Press, 2007
Kirsty De Garis, ’Desert Heart’, VIVE Magazine, Jul 2007
Places to Travel, Explore Magazine, Sun Herald, Aug 2007
‘Painted Landscape’, House and Leisure, South Africa, Iss.154, Jan/Feb 2007
‘Bertini’s Desert Art on Show’, Mosman Daily, 1 Mar 2007
‘Jo’s Bush Travels Prove Fruitful’, Mosman Daily, 15 Mar 2007
Prue Gibson, ‘Desert Pilgrim’, Australian Art Review, Iss.12, Nov 2006-Feb 2007
John Neylon, ‘Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale’, the Adelaide Review, 17 Nov 2006
Judy Adamson, ‘Piece Activist’, My Domain, SMH, 16 Feb 2006
‘Just Like Being at Bundanon’, Mosman Daily, 22 Jun 2006
Susan Wyndham, ‘Cotton Club Celebrates Twin Talents’, SMH, 4 Mar 2005
Prue Gibson & Tami Christiansen, ‘Art House’, Inside Out, p.112-118, Sept/Oct 2005
‘Being at Bundanon, A Bundanon Touring Exhibition’, Exhibition Catalogue, Vision of Australia, 2005
Prue Gibson, ‘Kedumba Drawing Award’, Australian Art Review, p.54, Iss.08, 2005
‘Colourful Exchange of Culture’, Mosman Daily, 2 Dec 2004
‘Australian Visions From Mosman to Mudanjiang’, Exhibition Catalogue 2004
David Shapter, ‘the China Connection’, Mosman 2088 Magazine, Iss.14, Jun 2004
Kate Crawford, ‘Taking our Art Culture to China’, Mosman Daily, 5 Aug 2004
J O B E R T I N I
Art & Australia, Inside Cover, vol.41, no.3, 2004
‘Feast of Art on Show at Gallery’, Western Advocate, 17 Jan 2004
Trish McDonald, ‘Your Chance to See Inside an Artist’s Studio’, Weekend Advocate, 17 Jan 2004
‘Artist To Give Free Talk at Gallery’, Western Advocate, 22 Jan 2004
‘Artists Flock to Hill End’, 48 Hours, Western Advocate, 26 Jan 2004
‘From the Regional Galleries of Explorer Country’, this Month in Explorer Country, Feb 2004
‘Paintings Inspired by Hill End Landscape at Gallery’, Western Advocate, 15 Dec 2003
Kate Crawford, ‘Women Recognised’, Mosman Daily, 11 Dec 2003
‘The Grand Plan’, Image, Inside Out Magazine, p.56, Nov 2003
Bonnie Malkin, ‘Critics Pick’, Metro, SMH, 30 May 2003
Robin Wallace-Crabbe, ‘Troubled Expressions, Inaugural Exhibition; Contemporary Australian Portraits’, Australian Art Review, Iss.01, Mar/Jun 2003
Benjamin Genocchio, ‘Drawing in Full Flower’, Review in Weekend Australian, 9-10 Nov 2003
Victoria Hines, ‘Exhibitions; Critics Pick’, Metro, SMH, 28 Jun 2003
‘Oh, if I Could Just Chalk With the Animals’, SMH, 28 Feb 2009
John McDonald, ‘the Archibald’s Close Brush with Fame’, Weekend Australian Financial Review, 8 Jun 2003
Carrie Lumby, ‘Two Kings’, Australian Art Collector, p.62, Iss.19, Jan-Mar 2003
Sue Hicks, ‘Arts Briefs’, Mosman Daily, 6 Jun 2003
Sonia Barron, ‘Seven Artists’ Ways with Collage’, the Canberra Times, 7 Nov 2001
Victoria Hines, ‘Exhibitions; Critics Pick’, Metro, SMH, 16 Nov 2001
Cerentha Harris, ‘SMH Domain; Houses Inside and Out’, Viking, Penguin Books, 2001
Sue Hicks, ‘Uncharted Streams of Consciousness’, Mosman Daily, 8 Nov 2001
Sue Hicks, ‘Painting in the Paddocks’, Mosman Daily, 5 Apr 2001
Courtney Kidd, ‘Exhibitions; Critics Pick’, Metro, SMH, 13 Oct 2000
Reproduction, Art & Australia, vol.37, no.4, 2000
Sebastian Smee, ‘Hierarchy of Hues Falls to Wrecking Ball’, Review, SMH, 29 April 2000
Sue Hicks, ‘Painter Jo’s Abstracts Capture the Landscape’, Review, Mosman Daily, 20 April 2000
Bennelong Dreaming, Summer Places, SMH, 14 Jan 2000
Reproduction, Belle Magazine, p.20, no.153, Jun/Jul 1999
Sue Hicks, ‘Budding Artists Learn From a Pro’, Review, Mosman Daily, 16 Dec 1999
‘Gone Bush’, Domain, SMH, 23 July 1998
66 McLachlan Avenue
Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011
+61 2 9332 1019
contact@arthousegallery.com.au
www.arthousegallery.com.au
Photography by
Additional Photography by Prue Ruscoe, Will Mansfield & Thomas Studer
Artwork
Michèle Brouet, Jyles Reynolds & Thomas Studer