Celebrating the opening of Margaret Preston, Alastair Robinson, Manager of Biodiversity Services at Royal Botanical Gardens, and exhibiting Wadawurrung artist Dr Deanne Gilson join exhibition curators Beckett Rozentals and Michael Gentle to explore the native flowers and plants featured in Preston’s work.
Throughout Margaret Preston’s career she was zealous about depicting botanicals. By looking closely at a selection of her paintings, we will identify the native species that are featured in Preston’s work, and will discuss the role of these flower and plant species within Indigenous knowledge systems.
This program will take place in the Margaret Preston exhibition. You do not need to register to attend the talk, but an exhibition ticket is required to enter Margaret Preston. Purchase exhibition tickets
Beckett Rozentals is Senior Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She completed her Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne in 2009 and commenced working at the NGV the same year. Beckett has curated numerous major exhibitions including The Field Revisited (2018), Found and Gathered: Rosalie Gascoigne | Lorraine Connelly-Northey (2021), Grace Crowley & Ralph Balson (2024) and Margaret Preston (2026).
Michael Gentle is a curator and art historian based in Naarm.
Dr Deanne Gilson is a Proud Wadawurrung woman living on her ancestral Country of Ballarat, Victoria. Having dedicated over forty years to her art practice, Gilson works across multi mediums, traversing time, place and culture.Gilson’s artworks capture Wadawurrung knowledges held within indigenous plants and trees, alongside the multiple birds from her Creation Story. She incorporates endangered species and deep connections to Country, people and all living things through the use of ochre and other materials sourced on Country. Highlighting women’s business, identity, spirituality, ceremony and oral storytelling, alongside spirituality, ceremony and oral storytelling, alongside ancestral voices pre and post settlement. Often including uncomfortable issues relating to the objectification of First Peoples by the male and female gaze, giving a voice to the voiceless.
Alastair Robinson manages identification and horticultural botany services across Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, including the plant identification service, the plant identification web portals VicFlora and HortFlora, the Library and Artwork components of the State Botanical Collection, and the botanical journal Muelleria, for which he is Editor in Chief. He is a botanist specialising in tropical Asian montane flora, with a particular interest in terrestrial and epiphytic orchids, but also of carnivorous plant genera worldwide, particularly Nepenthes and Drosera.
A central figure in the story of modern art in Australia, Margaret Preston is renowned for her floral still lifes and modern woodblock prints .
From the 1920s, Preston pursued the development of a visual language that was uniquely Australian. To do this, she turned towards the cultural material of First Peoples. Although Preston was progressive in recognising the aesthetic value of the objects and motifs she incorporated, her approach did not consider their significance to the communities from which she appropriated. As such, Preston’s work continues to generate debate, emphasising the important contribution she has made to Australian art history.
Margaret Preston features over 250 works, including loans from the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia, as well as private collections. Margaret Preston charts the artist’s career and contextualises her work alongside peers and in direct conversation with contemporary First Nations artists who have responded to her legacy.
Ahead of this program, join exhibition curators Beckett Rozentals and Michael Gentle lead a highlight tour with exhibiting Wadawurrung artist Dr Deanne Gilson. Together they will introduce Preston’s remarkable life and career, and reflect on how Preston’s art has shaped the cultural and aesthetic landscape of Australia, from 12pm–1.45pm.