The City of Fremantle Art Collection will present 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 will include 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 will 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 will trace 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.

“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” Andre Lipscombe.

Image Theo Koning photo John Austin