The Gallery welcomed a record 1.73 million visitors in 2016-17, the largest annual attendance in its history, and is forging ahead with another busy year profiling the work of leading international and Australian artists and culminating in APT9 from 24 November 2018, the ninth chapter of the Gallery’s flagship Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art series.
As with previous Triennials, APT9 will be expansive in its scope and geographic reach and it will be presented across both QAG and GOMA. It will include significant projects from Australia, China, Hawaii, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, The Philippines, Turkey, PNG and other parts of the Asia Pacific, with works by more than 80 senior, mid-career and emerging artists. For the first time it will include a project co-commissioned by us and Singapore Art Museum, and major works developed in partnership with Tjibaou Cultural Centre, New Caledonia and Dhaka Arts Centre, Bangladesh.
Elizabeth Watsi Saman creating Sinsu, APT9 Women’s Wealth workshop, Chabai, Bougainville, September 2017 / Women’s Wealth Collaborative project developed by QAGOMA for APT9 co-curated by Sana Balai Autonomous Region of Bougainville / Australia b.1957 Nakaripa clan, Hakö people / Women’s Wealth is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. / View full image
APT9 will have a strong representation of Australian artists and among the many highlights will be two major projects undertaken with Pacific artists – The Bougainville Women’s Wealth Project, which extends to the Solomon Islands, developed with Sana Balai, independent curator and active member of the Pacific Islander community in Australia and the Pacific, and the newly developed Marshall Islands Project. Following the presentation of projects by Patricia Piccinini and Tony Albert, the Children’s Art Centre will open APT9 Kids from 15 September 2018.
Watch our time-lapse as we install Gerhard Richter’s ATLAS compendium comprising some 400 panels personally selected by the artist from thousands of clippings, photographs and source images.
As we announce the 2018 program we look forward to strong attendances all through summer, with our two major exhibitions focused on senior contemporary artists Gerhard Richter and Yayoi Kusama at GOMA, and the return of Kusama’s much-loved, interactive installation The obliteration room at the Children’s Art Centre.
From 2 December 2017 view ‘Picasso: The Vollard Suite’, a National Gallery of Australia exhibition which focuses on the rare complete set of a hundred etchings and engravings created by Picasso in the 1930s and named after art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. The works explore themes much favoured by Picasso including the artist and his model. This iconic suite of prints will be shown alongside selected works from the QAGOMA Collection.
From 9 December 2017 the Children’s Art Centre presents ‘Me, Myselfie and I’, an exhibition focused on multiple representations of self, featuring works from the international, Asia and Pacific, and Australian collections, as well as hands-on and multimedia artist projects.
Patricia Piccinini, Australia b.1965 / Teenage Metamorphosis 2017 / Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, found objects / Courtesy: The artist, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco. / View full image
‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ opens from 24 March 2018. Exclusive to GOMA, this will be the Australian artist’s most ambitious project to date and includes major new commissions contextualised with works from the past 15 years. It will occupy GOMA’s entire ground floor as well as a dedicated Children’s Art Centre space, where an interactive project Piccinini has developed for children will draw young audiences into an immersive environment filled with soft sculptural creatures.
An exhibition chronicling the development of Indigenous Australian artist Tony Albert opens from 2 June 2018. ‘Tony Albert: Visible’ features works from 2002 to the present, including the artist’s epic appropriations and re-appropriations of kitsch ‘Aboriginalia’, text-based installations and the award-winning photographic series ‘Brothers’. Albert is one of the most exciting Australian artists working today. His work interrogates representations of Aboriginal people through a mix of humour and poignancy, while tackling issues of race and representation head-on. ‘Tony Albert: Visible’ continues the Gallery’s commitment to presenting major exhibitions of contemporary Indigenous art. It will be a showcase of an early to mid-career artist in his prime. Albert’s large-scale project for children and families will also be presented at the Children’s Art Centre, GOMA, from 19 May 2018.
Cinema
In 2018 the Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque will present major film programs complementing exhibitions ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ and ‘APT9’ alongside stand-alone film programs ‘All the Worlds Memories’ from 5 January, ‘Exotic Hollywood’ from 4 February, ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’ from 2 March and ‘Rainer Werner Fassbinder’ from 1 June.
Production still from Tarzan and His Mate 1934 / Directors: Cedric Gibbons, James C McKay / Image courtesy: Park Circus / View full image
On Tour
In 2018 QAGOMA will tour ‘A World View: The Tim Fairfax Gift’, an exhibition celebrating a decade of international artworks acquired through the support of a single generous benefactor, Tim Fairfax AC.
