The Tractor Chapters: Annabel Butler

The Tractor Chapters brings together paintings, drawings, sculptures and assemblages reflecting Annabel Butler’s decades-long fascination with vehicles.

Substitutes for humans, her anthropomorphic vehicles have lives of their own. Animated through expressive brushwork and bold colour they are a playful assembly of personalities, some of whom appear to have sauntered out of a children’s picture book.

The exhibition showcases a variety of characters going about their business, including tractors at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon, excavators on Munich construction sites and diggers in suburban Sydney. Recent works depicting vehicles venturing indoors into the Ironbark Gallery, situated within the Strathfield Library & Innovation Hub, marks the latest chapter in Butler's long-running conversation with her steadfast mechanical companions.

EXHIBITION
Strathfield Library & Innovation Hub
14 August – 11 October 2026

GUEST SPEAKER:
Peter Crisp, OAM, international glass artist & tractor driver on the farm

Media Release(PDF, 166KB)

Exhibition Overview(PDF, 100KB)

Artist Q&A - Annabel Butler(PDF, 1MB)

Watch Now: Exhibition Tour of The Tractor Chapters: Annabel Butler