Objet D’Art: Theo Koning And His Creative Self

The Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre is currently presenting a major retrospective exhibition, related public program and substantive illustrated publication about the art practice and creative life of celebrated Fremantle based WA artist Theo Koning (1950-2022).

This is the first comprehensive exhibition of Koning’s art in Australia. With the assistance of his friends and family, and with the unanimous support of leading WA art curators, writers, academics and collectors the exhibition will be a thorough record of Koning’s work and impact on the visual arts of WA.

The exhibition includes artworks spanning his entire oeuvre with examples of assemblage, sculpture, collections of his repurposed materials, series of paintings, drawings, collage and print editions, including artist books and examples of his mail and poster art. Audiences can see examples of Koning’s Super 8 and 16-mm films, image/word poetry shared through email and Instagram, and documentation of his performance art and TV appearances.

The exhibition traces the artist’s career in WA across five decades revealing aspects of his collaborations with community partners, artist organisations, commercial galleries and through numerous local gardening projects and residencies at Artsource Basel Atelier Mondial studio after 2015.

The exhibition has been undertaken following extensive research and development by the Curator Andre Lipscombe following Koning’s death in 2022.

As Andre Lipscombe has observed: “Theo Koning should be a household name in WA. He was widely known in art circles and was greatly appreciated as an instinctive and natural maker, and wry narrator of the human condition by art historians, curators and enthusiastic collectors”.

The Exhibition opened at Fremantle Arts Centre Friday night and runs until 26 January 2026.

*For more about Theo Koning’s life and art, see Lyn diCiero’s heartfelt tribute

Vale Theo Koning – Much Loved Freo Artist here on the Shipping News

Story and photographs by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey.

*Jean Hudson is our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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