A  major survey show reflecting on the mythologies of the beach and its community.

From the early and celebrated Bondi: Playground of the Pacific, 1989, through to the celebrated Leisureland, 1999, a series which documented the central place of leisure in Australian culture, and more recently Homeground, 2010, a series which explores the cultural characteristics of Sydney suburbs, an exhibition that continues to engage with contemporary art and its audience through the cultural lens of the beach.

Developed during a short residency, this series of portraits was taken at the Manly Surf Lifesaving Club of individuals and groups from the district who were invited to pose against a backdrop of the beach.

The backdrop was created from an original painting in the Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection by Nancy Gilmore circa 1930’s who based her composition on Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, [it] it depicts the south end of Manly beach, the site where the club is located. Inspiration and ideas come from a range of historical photographs that dovetail through the work to inform these new portraits. They hint in subtle ways at a changing social landscape, whilst playing with the real and artificial location of Manly Beach.