September 2025: This November, Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre will honour the life and
legacy of celebrated local artist, Theo Koning, with the first retrospective of his work to date,
Objet d’Art – Theo Koning and his Creative Self. The exhibition will offer an expansive look at
one of Western Australia’s most instinctive and inventive makers.

Drawing on a career that spanned five decades and traversed sculpture, painting, poetry,
performance and gardening, the exhibition will feature Koning’s entire oeuvre, capturing the
breadth and brilliance of an artist who found creative potential in the things people
discarded and overlooked.

In the wake of his passing in 2022, there was a groundswell of support for a review of his
life’s work. What followed was extensive research and development to bring together over
200 works of Koning’s prolific and genre-defying practice from across his entire career.

The works displayed are borrowed from the artist’s estate and family and 65 institutional,
corporate and private art collections from as far as Sydney, as well as from across the state;
Bunbury, New Norcia Museum Collection, Janet Holmes a Court Collection, Bankwest and
Royal Perth Hospital Collection and privately from local collectors in Perth and Fremantle.

Produced by André Lipscombe, Curator of the City of Fremantle Art Collection, the
exhibition traces Koning’s local and interstate projects, collaborations, art activism, poetry,
Instagram and association with contemporary art groups like Praxis and notably, his
residency at the Basel Atelier Mondial Studio in 2015.

Lipscombe believes Koning should be a household name in Western Australia. Explaining,
“he was widely known in art circles and greatly appreciated as an instinctive and natural
maker.”

“He was a wry narrator of the human condition, and he undertook an artistic life not as a
journey but a playground, in which he found new ways to explore life experiences through
the joy of creative experimentation.”
Koning was known to have a creative eye for uncovering meaning and beauty in what others
cast aside, with his materials often coming from street junk, skip bins, op shops, school
fetes and tips. He also had a natural and incorrigible sense of humour and ability to express
himself without pretention.

Such artworks include his series of dress ups posted through dozens of hilarious Instagram
posts (2018-2020), using homemade masks and one a prosthetic ear he found at a local
beach. He also produced a homemade horror film, Amputation (1980), that tells a story of a
man who after a car crash, gains a prosthetic wheel in place a leg.

The exhibition includes Koning’s large-scale assemblage and installation, sculpture, series
of paintings, drawings and print editions; as well as artist books, narrated poetry, collage
and examples of his mail art.

The exhibition will include historical video interviews with Koning produced by Fremantle
creative Colin Story in 2015 and 2018 and an oral history with Koning produced by
Lipscombe in 2007.

The exhibition reveals a deeply playful and philosophical artist who navigated the material
and metaphysical worlds with equal curiosity and sensitivity.

Not only the first major retrospective of his work, but the first posthumous retrospective to
be presented at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre, a fitting home given the strong
relationship Koning shared with the WFAC over nearly five decades.

Abigail MoncrieB, Curator and Collections Lead at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre is
excited to welcome Koning’s work back to the galleries.

“We have exhibited Koning’s work 14 times in the Centre’s 52-year history, so it was fitting
that we hold this major retrospective to look back on his life’s work,” reflects Moncrieff.

“Koning’s creative legacy is deeply rooted in Fremantle, not only through his artworks but
also his private and laneway garden projects behind his home. His influence, however,
extends beyond WA, having taught for many years, he’s shaped the practices of a younger
cohort of artists locally.”

Objet d’Art – Theo Koning and his Creative Self will be open at the Walyalup Fremantle Arts
Centre from Saturday 15 November – Sunday 8 February, open daily from 10AM until 5PM.
Coinciding with the exhibition will be the launch of a limited-edition illustrated monograph
about the artist and his work.

The exhibition is presented as part of the City of Fremantle’s Art Collection program, which
for over 50 years has celebrated Walyalup / Fremantle’s vibrant artistic community through
a growing collection of more than 1,600 artworks.

For more information visit https://wfac.org.au/whats-on/post/objet-dart-theo-koning-and-his-creative-self/

ENDS

For information, interviews & images:
Alice Hamilton
Detail Marketing Communications
alice@detail.com.au
0415 576 57