Heather B Swann: The Elephant
The Elephant is an exhibition of drawings from 2023, 2024 and 2025 selected especially for Bett Gallery. Heather’s first exhibition Kings of Wishful Thinking was with Dick Bett Gallery in Salamanca in 1993, followed by Paper Doll in 1996 and Animal Behaviour in 2004. Heather worked for Dick at the gallery on Saturdays for many years and is entwined in our family history. In 2013 at Bett Gallery in North Hobart Heather gave us an exhibition called Family and now we are delighted to present The elephant here in our newest space in the city. Heather is represented by STATION Gallery.
In addition to presenting more than twenty solo shows since 1993, Heather has had work included in numerous significant curated group exhibitions, including Inner Sanctum, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2024); From the other side, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2023-2024); NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2023); The National 4: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2023); Setouchi Triennale, Japan, (2022); Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2021); Magic Object, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2016); and Streetwise: contemporary print culture, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2015). Her work is represented in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Heather is the current recipient of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Barbara Triben Travelling Scholarship.