Salon des Refusés at Retford Park

The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition.

The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s most high profile and respected awards which attracts hundreds of entries each year and the S.H. Ervin Gallery’s ‘alternative’ selection has become a much-anticipated annual exhibition.

The Salon des Refusés has established an excellent reputation that rivals the selections in the ‘official’ exhibition, with works selected for quality, diversity, humour and experimentation, and which examine contemporary art practices and different approaches to portraiture.

Each year an expert panel is invited to go behind the scenes of the judging process for the annual Archibald Prize for portraiture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to select the Salon des Refusés display, crafted from the many hundreds of works entered, but not chosen, for the official Archibald Prize exhibition.

This summer, the Salon des Refusés comes to Retford Park, Bowral, for the very first time.

From the 1005 entries to the 2024 Archibald Prize the AGNSW Trustees selected 57 works, 35 of which will be on display.

DATES
Saturday 30 November 2024 – Sunday 26 January 2025
Retford Park will be open 10am-4pm, 7 days a week for the duration of the exhibition
Closed 24, 25, 26, 30 & 31 December
TICKETS
This exhibition will be ticketed and on sale from Friday 1 November.