Ben Apfelbaum

SALON DES REFUSES 2017 @ S.H.ERVIN GALLERY

Featured image – Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes by Yvonne East.

The Salon Des Refuses was initiated by the S.H.Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the main exhibition.

Each year the Salon Des Refuses is invited to go behind the scenes of the judging process for the Archibald Prize for Portraiture and the Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting and figure sculpture at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Salon selected 54 works that did not make the main exhibition and presented these works at an alternative exhibition at the S.H. Ervin.

This year’s Salon panel comprised James Dorahy, art advisor from the Michael Reid Galleries, Elizabeth Hastings, curator and author, Kevin Connor monograph writer, and James Watters, director of the S.H. Ervin Gallery.

Since its inception, the Salon Des Refuses exhibition has established an excellent reputation that rivals the selections made in the official exhibition.

The exhibition is renowned for selecting works of quality, diversity, humour and experimentation which explore contemporary art practices, and different responses to portraiture and to landscape.

The Salon Des Refuses exhibition continues at the S.H.Ervin Gallery, Watson Road, Observatory Hill, The Rocks, Sydney until the 15th October 2017.

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Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.