Artist Tony Woodward’s first solo exhibition, Red Star Shining, shines a light on 16 years of Labor governments

Many Tasmanians walk or drive past his sculptures every day, but few would know of Tony Woodward, the quiet, quirky and clever man behind them.

IT has been a labour of love to put together artist Tony Woodward’s first solo exhibition of his unique career.

While many Tasmanians walk or drive past his sculptures every day, few would know of the quiet, quirky and clever man behind them.

His exhibition of mosaics, Red Star Shining, at the Moonah Arts Centre, looks at the Labor governments from 1998 until 2014 under four premiers.

It could not be more timely with the calling of an early election.

But Woodward is quick to point out that he has no political allegiances.

“I’m completely neutral,” he smiles.

“There’s a lot to be told from that period and each of the four leaders were subject to factors and forces that derailed what they were hoping to achieve.

“What happens in political parties, with regard to factions, is not just unique to Labor.”

Artist Tony Woodward is holding an exhibition at the Moonah Arts Centre. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Late last year Woodward was diagnosed with cancer and is currently receiving treatment.

“I had hoped to have 16 mosaics to mark the 16 years of Labor, but I only completed 10 because my illness has slowed my progress in recent months,” he said.

Friends and family, including his wife Jan, an art teacher, his sisters Margaret and Cathy Woodward, and sister-in-law Justy Phillips, all artists, have teamed tirelessly together under his guidance to clean and grout the final mosaics he has been working on for the past seven years.

Tony Woodward’s mosaic piece title Lennongrad. Picture: Peter Whyte

Margaret is pleased the exhibition, which runs until April 24, has come to fruition.

“It has been a labour of love, and celebration of the culmination of Tony’s artistic career through his enduring artworks,” she said.

“This is Tony’s first solo exhibition, although the whole state is a venue for his large-scale public art commissions, which are widely recognised and admired as landmarks in the built environment.

“His first public art commission was for the Moonah Arts Centre in 1999, with the much-loved artwork Frida’s Carload, so there is a sense of a return to Moonah with MAC being the venue for this latest work.”

Tony Woodward’s mosaic work Frida’s Carload outside the Moonah Arts Centre. Picture: Margaret Woodward

Launceston-born Woodward, 59, grew up in an artistic household with his late father Terry also an artist and art educator who taught textiles, ceramics, printmaking and painting.

The apple did not fall far from the tree, with Woodward having his bright, giant eye-catching mosaic and concrete works scattered throughout Tasmania.

Frida’s Carload was lifted by crane from his home and then again from the Moonah Arts Centre’s old home to its now prominent place in busy Albert Rd.

Woodward’s other notable public works include Waiting Room at Rosny, which he completed in 2019, and the controversial Mountain Man on the Meander River at Deloraine, which is loved by children and adults alike, but some councillors want removed.

Woodward’s Waiting Room. Picture: Margaret Woodward

Woodward’s Waiting Room. Picture: Margaret Woodward

Woodward began his career 40 years ago and has had a huge impact on art education in Tasmania, both as an art teacher and in the design of curriculum.

Woodward said the highlights of his professional career include leading a delegation of fellow teachers, on two separate study tours, to New York in 2006, and Alaska, New Mexico and Hawaii in 2019 to research aesthetics education and First Nations education.

But being awarded an Alcorso Foundation residency in 2013 was a turning point in his artistic career.

“I was able to undertake workshops in Ravenna and Rome to study techniques of ancient mosaics and travel extensively in Italy visiting and documenting churches and ancient monuments that featured significant Byzantine mosaics,” he said.

“I was inspired by what I had seen, so I returned to Hobart and began work on the first in the Red Star Shining mosaic series and continued working on them up until this year.”

The Baptism of St James. Picture: Peter Whyte

Softly spoken and unassuming, Woodward’s propensity for puns shines through in the 10 detailed works that start with The Baptism of St James when late Premier Jim Bacon won a narrow victory in 1998, a poignant Fallen Comrade when he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and died in 2004 through to The Lepers Change Their Spots with the Labor Green government in 2010.

The mosaics clearly show Bacon’s trademark bushy black moustache and Paul Lennon’s red hair.

Red Bull is one of the 10 pieces by Tony Woodward in the Red Star Shining exhibition. Picture: Peter Whyte

Woodward is an astute observer of politics.

“I see my role as an artist as being similar to a political cartoonist, retelling stories that need to be preserved,” he explains

“In Red Star Shining, I bring ancient subject matter into a recent historical context, illustrating that stories of power, greed and impropriety are age-old and most likely recursive throughout time.”