After more than two years of major building upgrades, the Brett Whiteley Studio will reopen this Saturday, welcoming visitors back with a brand-new exhibition.
Widely regarded as one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, Sydney-born Brett Whiteley gained national and international recognition for his bold and expressive paintings, sculptures and graphic works.
You’ll recognise Sydney in many of Whiteley’s works, from the deep blues of the harbour to the bikini-clad figures of Bondi Beach, but his subjects stretched far beyond the city, capturing everything from the streets of New York and Paris to Australia’s distinctive wildlife.
While Whiteley’s work hangs in galleries around the world, few people realise you can also step inside the very place where much of it was created, right here in Sydney.
Tucked away off an unassuming backstreet in Surry Hills, the artist’s former home and studio has undergone renovations over the last two years and will reopen to the public this Saturday. Here’s everything you need to know about the free art museum’s return.
The return of Brett Whiteley Studio and a brand-new exhibition
In 1985, Whiteley bought a former T-shirt factory, eventually transforming the two-storey warehouse into a studio and exhibition space. He lived and worked there until his untimely death in 1992.
Today, the remarkably preserved studio operates as a time capsule, offering an intimate glimpse into Whiteley’s creative world.
Visitors can explore his studio, iconic graffiti wall, personal record collection and sketchbooks, gaining a rare insight into the artist’s life and process. Managed by the Art Gallery of NSW as a free museum, it remains one of the few major cultural attractions in Sydney that doesn’t charge admission.
Over the past two years, the studio has undergone “extensive upgrades to revitalise and preserve the site for generations to come”. It officially reopens this Saturday with a new exhibition, Brett Whiteley: Coming Home, celebrating the artist’s extraordinary body of work from 1970, a year widely regarded as the peak of his creative career.
Coming Home will feature a diverse array of 80 paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, prints, photographs and sketchbooks from the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Brett Whiteley Studio. A conservation team worked to meticulously return every item in the studio to its original position, using a Matterport scan to ensure the space was restored exactly as it was before it closed.
Visitors can expect to see “sublime landscapes, sumptuous nudes, reflective portraits and revealing interiors”, reflecting his time living and working abroad from 1960 to 1969. Also on display will be Whiteley’s iconic painting Alchemy, an allegorical self-portrait that explores the people and experiences that shaped his life.
Whiteley’s former wife, Wendy Whiteley (an arts patron, cultural figure and his longtime muse) helped the Art Gallery of NSW reinstall the artist’s works throughout the studio ahead of its reopening. In a video shared on Instagram, she said, “I now call myself a gardener but this week I’m a picture hanger, a curator”.
Asked what she thought Brett would make of the restored space, she replied, “I think he’d be happy”.
Brett Whiteley Studio (located at 2 Raper Street in Surry Hills) will officially reopen on Saturday, July 25, with visiting times running from 10am-4pm from Thursday to Sunday. You can find out more here.
Discover another Whiteley Sydney landmark
The Brett Whiteley Studio isn’t the only free space in Sydney under the Whiteley name. Wendy Whiteley also created her own special sanctuary in Lavender Bay, at the foot of her private home. Known as Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden, the space is a popular spot for visitors to picnic, relax and explore.
After the death of her husband in 1992 and the loss of her daughter, Arkie, in 2001, Wendy Whiteley channelled her grief into transforming a neglected patch of public land through guerrilla gardening. She cleared away mountains of rubbish, hacked through blackberry vines and hauled out discarded mattresses, rusted refrigerators and other debris.
Over the following years, Whiteley painstakingly restored the site, planting, pruning and nurturing it back to life. Alongside her gardening team, she introduced exotic ferns and native plants while clearing the overgrowth to reveal the site’s magnificent fig trees. Hidden sculptures were dotted throughout the garden, and native birdlife gradually returned, transforming the once-neglected space into one of Sydney’s most treasured public gardens.
Wendy’s Secret Garden is an easy walk from Victoria Cross Metro Station, North Sydney and Milsons Point train stations, as well as the Milsons Point and McMahons Point ferry wharves.
