BRISBANE.- Regional Queensland audiences have an opportunity to experience key works from the international collection of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art when ‘A World View: The Tim Fairfax Gift’ tours to six galleries and museums from December 2017 until mid-2019.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said ‘A World View’ was first shown at GOMA, as part of the gallery’s 10th anniversary celebrations, and honoured the far-reaching contribution of Tim Fairfax AC, one of the Gallery’s most generous supporters.

‘Tim Fairfax’s outstanding support has kept QAGOMA at the forefront of contemporary international collection development, supporting the acquisition of more than 70 artworks including installations, sculpture, video and photography from across the world, with a focus on Africa, South America and the Pacific,’ Mr Saines said.

‘We are thrilled to be touring 20 international works from the collection to Gladstone, Townsville, the Gold Coast, Cairns, Gympie and Toowoomba.

‘Celebrating Tim Fairfax’s far-reaching generosity and advocacy for regional Queensland, the exhibition features works by both renowned and emerging artists, and includes large-scale sculpture through to more intimate photographic works,’ he said.

‘Central to the exhibition is the idea that art can help us to channel, refract, activate and recalibrate our understanding of the familiar, and to see the world anew. The works featured connect Queensland with cities across the globe and enable a deeper understanding of human experience and creativity.’

Highlights include Michael Parekowhai’s larger-than-life sculpture of a security guard Kapa Haka (Whero) 2003, Yvonne Todd’s uncanny tapestry portrait Alice Bayke 2008, Chinese Australian artist Ah Xian’s intricately worked bust Human human – Bust no.5 2002, and Iranian/Swiss artist Shirana Shahbazi’s beautifully detailed photographs on aluminium from her ‘Flowers, fruits & portraits’ series.

Colourful drawings by Nigerian-born artist Otobong Nkanga reflect on the fast-paced development in Lagos, Nigeria, while Siva in Motion 2012, a dramatic video by Shigeyuki Kihara features the artist performing a ballet of very precise, traditional hand gestures reflecting the ancestors, politics and cultural life of Samoa.

Mr Saines said the regional tour of ‘A World View: The Tim Fairfax Gift’ demonstrated the Gallery’s ongoing commitment to making art accessible to all Queenslanders.

‘It’s a key part of QAGOMA’s regional program delivery, along with talks, artist-run workshops and professional development opportunities,’ he said.

In 2018, QAGOMA will also tour ‘Me, Myselfie and I’, an interactive and multimedia exhibition for children, to 90 venues in Queensland and the Torres Strait from 1 January to 30 April, including 13 Indigenous communities (supported by Gina Fairfax through the QAGOMA Foundation). ‘Physical Video’, an exhibition focused on performance and theatricality in video art from the 1970s to the present, will tour Queensland from April 2018 to January 2020.