The 26th South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Festival programme sees 10,915 artists participating and 697 exhibitions to see in 620 venues across Adelaide and regional South Australia.
SALA is the world’s largest open access visual arts festival, celebrating South Australian artists’ creativity and vision through their artistic practice. Art lovers can discover exhibitions in galleries, cafes, streets and laneways, as well as community spaces and creative hubs.
The event highlights the state’s visual artists, embracing all mediums from tradition to contemporary.
“South Australians live in an innately creative community, we have incredible artists around every corner and once again, in August SALA Festival throws open the studio doors, lights up the galleries and gets art into the most unlikely of places,” SALA Acting CEO Bridget Alfred says. “Visual arts is for everyone and during SALA there are many ways to enjoy and celebrate our artists and tap into our own creativity.”
The SALA Hub returns for a second year at Queen’s Theatre in the city. The iconic venue will host a range of events, including a drawing marathon led by Christopher Orchard, a five-day drawing intensive presented by SALA with the support of Adelaide Central School Of Art. There are also workshops like Painting: The Figure; Expressive Ink, Portrait Drawing, and jewellery workshop Lost Wax Carving.
SALA Tours are a chance to hear from expert tour guides walking art-lovers through a selection of exhibitions in the city. You can explore the city’s street art with Leah Grant and join Jenna Puppet and her Weimaraner Zelda, meandering the streets on the Dog Friendly Art Tour. Plus, Tikari Rigney will lead a tour of the SALA exhibitions taking place in Tarntanya (Adelaide) featuring diverse work from First Nations artists.
Artist Studio Bus Tours are a first for SALA in 2023. Artist Oakey will take art lovers behind the scenes at some of the city’s East Side studios, where you’ll hear from practicing artists and have the opportunity to explore their studios. Plus, artist Ida Sophia hosts the Westside Bus Tour, exploring galleries and studios from Bowden and Hindmarsh.
Artist: Helen Fuller
The featured SALA artist in 2023 is Helen Fuller. Helen’s work is on the cover of the 2023 SALA Festival programme and poster. She’s had an extensive career and has established a multidisciplinary practice encompassing a variety of painting, sculpture, installation, and ceramics.
Some of Australia's most exciting and dynamic artists, both established and emerging, are represented in this year's programme, including: Angela Valamanesh, Geoff Wilson, Tony Kearney, James Tylor, Laura Wills, Kaspar Schmidt Mumm, Vans the Omega, Gail Hocking, Ian Gibbins, Kate Kurucz, Crista Bradshaw, Michael Carney, Gemma Rose Brook and Ashlee Hopkins.
South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA) is on from 1-31 August.
