Blockbuster Cressida Campbell exhibition opens in Canberra as National Gallery acquires one of her works

In its latest headline exhibition, the gallery is honouring the more than 40 years of work by Australian artist Cressida Campbell who, curator Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, rightly told the launch crowd on Friday is "so wonderfully and gloriously alive".

Gallery director Dr Nick Mitzevich said Campbell brought a charming and unique view to the world, as evidenced in her 140 works in the exhibition, which starts in spring and continues over summer.

"We've never presented a living artist during our summer major exhibition and it's fitting that first exhibition should be the work of Cressida Campbell,' Dr Mitzevich said.

The gallery also announced, as part of its own 40^th birthday celebrations this year, that it had acquired Campbell's 2022 woodblock painting Bedroom nocturne, with the help of arts philanthropist Marilyn Darling.

The painting uses a circular composition, offering an intimate night-time view of the bedroom Campbell shares with husband, Warren Macris.

Dr Mitzevich said he first met Campbell nearly 30 years ago in the dining room of the artist Margaret Olley.

"Olley had this amazing knack of bringing people together who she thought would get on and Olley was a great supporter of Cressida's work and it was a wonderful meeting," he said.

"And over the last 30 years, we've tracked Cressida's progress and it's so heartening that after that first meeting by Margaret Olley, we can present Cressida's survey show at the National Gallery."

Campbell's woodblock paintings and single-edition prints were detailed and colourful, elevating the ordinary item to a thing of beauty.

Dr Noordhuis-Fairfax said the exhibition tracked Campbell's life as well, because her work was so autobiographical.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to see how an artist looks at the world," she said.

The exhibition and the artist's keen eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary was also a reminder that "art is everywhere".

"The world does sometimes seem that it is going to hell in a handbasket but these are these incredible moments of beauty that I think we can take great solace from," Dr Noordhuis-Fairfax said.

"There's beauty in nature, there's beauty in our homes, there's beauty in our family and friends."

Cressida Campbell told the crowd there couldn't be a greater compliment for a contemporary artist than such a major, retrospective exhibition.

"I just want to thank Nick and Sarina, who have been amazing," she said.

Campbell said she enjoyed taking "really rudimentary" objects, the ones that people took for granted, and elevating them to art.

The exhibition includes a free "drop in and draw" area where visitors can attempt their own still life, using objects curated by Campbell, including items from her own home.

A documentary about Cressida Campbell, produced by Helen Campbell and financed by Dick and Pip Smith, is also broadcast as part of the exhibition.

"I've been too embarrassed to watch it," she said, with typical self-deprecation.

"But I've heard it's got a few laughs in it."

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