Four artists have been chosen to display art on the street hoarding around the Newcastle Art Gallery construction site in a taste of what's to come at the new look space.
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A $43.8 million expansion of the gallery is underway and City of Newcastle recently called for interest from artists to decorate the temporary fencing.
More than 300 artists from across Australia put their names forward and Newcastle's Izabela Pluta was one of four artists chosen to have their work presented on the hoarding.
Proud Yuwi man Dylan Mooney from Brisbane, and Sydney-based artists Diana Baker-Smith and Agus Wijaya will also have their work on show to passers-by during the construction phase.
Each artist will produce a new work, working closely with the art gallery's curatorial and exhibitions team to develop their ideas.
"Newcastle Art Gallery is held in high regard in the Australian arts community, home to a nationally significant collection worth more than $126 million and with an award-winning artistic program," Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.
"This esteem will grow further as we progress with our long-awaited gallery expansion project.
"In the meantime, the hoarding commission project offers a unique opportunity for audiences to enjoy new site-specific works of art made by these four well-regarded contemporary Australian artists, which will also help to improve the external view of this work zone in the heart of our city."
Newcastle Art Gallery director Lauretta Morton said the selection panel was impressed with the calibre and diversity of the artists' proposals.
The selected artists detailed themes of renewal, change and anticipation through photography, drawing, painting, text, and digital illustration.
The four new works of art will be digitally reproduced and presented on the temporary street hoarding that will be erected around the site in coming months by construction contractor Hansen Yuncken.
Meanwhile, remediation of the historic mine tunnels 80 metres underneath the building is now complete.
About 13,500 cubic metres of grout, equivalent to five-and-a-half Olympic-size swimming pools, was placed in the Dudley and Borehole seams ahead of the main expansion works.
Construction is scheduled for completion in late 2024.
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