For more than four decades, Vivienne Shark LeWitt has developed a distinctive style that is witty, layered, and intrinsically personal. Drawing on a wide range of references – from pre-Renaissance art and Catholic iconography to literature and philosophy – her paintings present allegorical narratives that explore the complexities and absurdities of being human. For Shark LeWitt, painting is a form of storytelling: an intuitive visual language that expresses what words often cannot.
Vivienne Shark LeWitt The Wind Cries Mary
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2025
Group Show, A Fictional Retrospective: Gertrude’s First Decade 1985–1995
Gertrude Contemporary, 2025
Vivienne Shark LeWitt Misc.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2007
Vivienne Shark LeWitt Pardon My Sarong
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2001
Group Show, All Stars
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2000
Group Show, Stockroom
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1995
Vivienne Shark LeWitt
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1995
Vivienne Shark LeWitt Works on paper
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1994
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1992
Vivienne Shark LeWitt
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1992
Group Show, The Cocktail Party (All Gallery Artists)
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1988
Group Show, 7th Biennale of Sydney
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1988
Vivienne Shark LeWitt
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1987
Group Show, Chaos
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1987
Group Show, The Forbidden Object
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1986
Vivienne Shark LeWitt Paintings
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1985
Group Show, Australian Visions
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1984
Vivienne Shark LeWitt
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 1984
VIVIENNE SHARK LEWITT
Born Sale, Victoria, Australia 1956
Lives and works Melbourne, Victoria
EDUCATION
Post-Graduate Diploma of Fine Art, Alexander Mackie, Sydney
Diploma of Fine Art, Tasmanian, School of Art Hobart, Victoria
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
The Wind Cries Mary, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Sine Proprio, Castemaine Art Museum, Castlemaine, Victoria
The Wind Blows Where It Will, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Best Served Cold, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria
Massa Peccati: The Seven Deadly Sins, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Vivienne Shark-Lewitt, Comedies and Proverbs, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
Misc, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Disorientalism, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Pardon my sarong, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Sorority Virtues, Anna Schwartz Gallery at Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
Works on Paper, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
The Egg & I, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Vivienne Shark Lewitt, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Vivienne Shark Lewitt, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
Works on Paper, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Vivienne Shark Lewitt, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Vivienne Shark Lewitt, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Inner Sanctum, 18th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Thin Skin, curated by Jennifer Higgie, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Slow Burn: a century of Australian women artists from a private collection, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
We Call Them Pirates Out Here, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
Contemporary Australian Drawings 1, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Gallery, Melbourne
Painting (as one), Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
Who let the dogs out - The dog in contemporary Australian Art, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul, Australia
See Here Now, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
It's A Beautiful Day: New Painting in Australia 2, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Spellbound, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles
Signs of Life, Melbourne International Biennial, Telstra Exchange Building, Melbourne
Take my wife, Ist Floor, Melbourne
Cartoons & Caricature in Contemporary Art, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Bus Stop Art, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Melbourne
Imagining the Real, Parliament House, Canberra
Lovers, Museum of Modern Art at Heidi, Melbourne
Double Vision, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Loti & Victor Smorgon Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
The John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Nude 1992, Sara Weis Award, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne
Rivers in Australian Art, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne
Aus Australien, (Edition Rene Block, Berlin, 1988), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
From the Southern Cross, 7th Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
The Australian Bicentennial Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (touring Germany)
Origins, Originality + Beyond, 6th Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Australian Visions, Solomon R. Guggenhheim Museum, New York USA
Meaning & Excellence, ANZART in Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland
Le Reve et Le Reel, Musee d'Art Moderne de La Ville de Paris, Paris
Australian Perspecta 1983, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
The End of Civilization Part II: Love Among the Ruins, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
New Painting, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Baillieu Myer Collection, Melbourne
B.P. Collection, Melbourne
City of Melbourne Collection, Victoria
Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Australia Bank Collection
National Gallery of Victoria (ICI Collection)
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Smorgon Collection, MCA Sydney
St.Kilda Collection, Melbourne
University of Melbourne, Melbourne
University of Queensland, Brisbane
Vizard Collection
Bibliography
Lucy Stranger, "Vivienne Shark LeWitt", Artist Profile, Issue 36, 2016 https://artistprofile.com.au/vivienne-shark-lewitt/
Hannah Fink, “Vivienne Shark LeWitt,” See Here Now: Vizard Foundation Art Collection of the 1990s, editors Chris MacAuliffe and Sue Harvey, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd, Victoria, p. 126, 127
Andrew Frost, “It's A Beautiful Day: New Painting in Australia 2,” Australian Art Collector (NSW Previews), Issue 23, Jan - Mar 2003
Anne Loxley, “All ages show leaves one lusting after virtuosity,” Sydney Morning Herald - Metropolitan, Wednesday, November 27, 2002, p.16
It's A Beautiful Day: New Painting in Australia 2, Ian Potter Museum of Art & Art Gallery of New South, touring exhibition 2002 - 2003, p. 14,15
Bruce Hainley, Spellbound review, Artforum, January 2000
Juliana Engberg, Vivienne Shark LeWitt, Signs of Life catalogue, MIB 1999
Anna Clabburn, Whimsy in the White Cube, Catalogue, Geelong Art Gallery 1998
Juliana Engberg, review, Art & Text, Aug - Oct 1997
Deborah Hart Imagining the Real: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions from the Parliament House Art Collections, exh. cat., 1996
Edward Colless, `Love's Limbo: Vivienne Shark LeWitt,' The Error of My Ways, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1995
Naomi Cass, catalogue essay, Vivienne Shark LeWitt, Roslyn Oxley Gallery9, 1995
Felicity Fenner, “Galleries,” Sydney Morning Herald, Friday June 30, 1995
Robyn McKenzie, Vivienne Shark LeWitt Works on Paper, Roslyn Oxley Gallery9, 1994
D. Williams and C. Simpson, Art Now, Contemporary Art Post 1970, McGraw-Hill, 1994
Susan McCulloch, Encyclopaedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin, 1994
Robert Rooney, `The John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize',The Weekend Australian, 5/3/94
Robyn McKenzie, `What Girls Like', Art & Text, September 1993
Eve Sullivan, `Wit as Diversion/Subversion', Art Monthly, August 1992
Mark Pennings, `Vivienne Shark LeWitt', Agenda May 1991
Jo Saurin, “Portfolio's key is confidence,” Sydney Morning Herald, Friday December 7, 1990, p. 14 (Arts)
Frances Lindsay, Australian Contemporary Painting Craftsman Press, 1990
Edward Colless, `Love's Limbo: Paintings of Vivienne Shark LeWitt', Art & Text 29 1988
Bruce Adams, “Melbourne art keeps its cool,” Sydney Morning Herald, 30 May 1987
Robyn McKenzie, The Australian Bicentennial Perspecta Catalogue AGNSW 1987
Cathy Lumby & David Messer, `Personal Icons', Follow Me December1986
Patricia Simons, `6th Biennale of Sydney', Burlington Magazine. London September1986
Peter Cripps, Interviews With Artists, Institute of Modern Art , Brisbane 1986
Return to Sender exh. cat., Tasmanian School of Art, Mt. Nelson Campus, University of Tasmania, p. 10 - 15
Paul Taylor, `Civilization and its Discontents', Flash Art January1985, p. 67- 69
Robin Barden, `Love & Fear, Vivienne Shark LeWitt', Tension 6 1985
Terence Maloon, “LeWitt and Arkely show why young artists still dare to be different,” Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday May 12, 1984, p. 46
Jenny Watson, "Urgent Images", Art & Text 14, Winter 1984
Memory Holloway, `Art Attack', Harpers Bazaar Australia, September 1984
Judy Annear, `Us in the U.S.', Vogue Australia, August 1984
Judy Annear `The Allegory of Vivienne Shark LeWitt',On The Beach Winter 1984
J.Engberg `Australian Visual Artists at The Edinburgh Festival 1984' Studio International 197,1984
Bernice Murphy `Recent Painting in Australia', Flash Art January 1983, p. 56-59
The International Trans-Avantgarde (Ed. A.Bonita Oliva) Milan 1983
Robin Barden `The End of Civilization', Tension 2 1983
Anne Dagbert, `Australian Perspecta', Art Press Paris October 1983
By the artist
Catalogue essay, Caroline Williams, Viva Australia: Out of my mind, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne 2000
Cartoon illustrations, Like, Art Magazine, #1 October 1996, #2 March 1997, and # 3 Winter 1997, Melbourne.
Art School Artfan, Summer 1996/97, Melbourne
Catalogue essay "Exactly." (curated by VSLW), 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne June 1996
`Paul Taylor 1957-1992', Obituary, Art & Text 44, January 1993
Artist's pages, Pataphysics Issue F 1990, Melbourne
Catalogue essay, Other People, (co-curator) ACCA, Melbourne 1985
Cover illustration, Art & Text Winter 1984
`In The Desert', Stuff, August1983
`Tattslotto', Stuff, February1983
`The End of Civilization Part II: Love Among the Ruins', Art & Text, Winter 1983
`Why Egyptian Mods etc.', Art &Text, Spring 1981
Awards
VACB Project Grant
VAB Travel Grant
- About
- Subscribe
