The National 2021 opens at three of Sydney's leading cultural institutions
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, October 4, 2024


The National 2021 opens at three of Sydney's leading cultural institutions
Wona Bae Charlie Lawler 'Regenerator' 2021. Charcoal, glue, steel, sound, installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artists © the artists. Photo: AGNSW, Diana Panuccio.



SYDNEY.- A major survey of contemporary Australian art, The National 2021: New Australian Art, opened across three of Sydney’s leading cultural institutions, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), presenting 39 new commissioned projects by established, mid-career, emerging artists and artist collectives from across the nation.

The third iteration in a series of biennial surveys, originally launched in 2017, The National 2021 showcases the varied and vital work being made by Australian artists, in urban and regional centres, as well as remote communities, by artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds.

Three distinct exhibitions have been developed by four curators, Matt Cox and Erin Vink (AGNSW), Abigail Moncrieff (Carriageworks) and Rachel Kent (MCA Australia). Each exhibition invites collective dialogue about the ideas and concerns mobilising some of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists.

The National 2021 at AGNSW presents a diverse selection of works from 17 artists and cultural practitioners, including five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from the Zendath Kes (Torres Strait Islands), Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia, Brisbane, and Canberra.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in this exhibition present works that exist between moments of categorisation and form, relying on and claiming Indigenous and non-Eurocentric forms of knowledge. Significant commissions include two large-scale nocturnal, healing landscapes by Betty Muffler and Maringka Burton, a daguerreotype installation reclaiming Kaurna place names by James Tylor, and large fibreglass sculptural forms of sea creatures by Alick Tipoti,” said AGNSW Co-curator Erin Vink.

AGNSW Co-curator, Matt Cox said: “Reflecting on the six years since the inception of The National and its intention to present new Australian art that observes moments in our collective histories, the third iteration offers a renewed sense of what it means to be living in Australia and despite post-truth cynicism, an optimism in the transformative value of art.”

“The exhibition harbours a tension between sorrow and hope. The sites of grieving in the work of Fiona Hall and Gabriella Hirst, which respond to the devastation of the bushfires and the Barka Darling River system, are buoyed by an undeniable joy and promise of alternative futures in the performative installation of Justin Shoulder,” added Cox.




A deep sense of questioning and responsiveness lies within the works presented at Carriageworks. Interrogating ‘who is speaking’ and ‘what is being said when we speak’ the works contain both messages and warnings. The cry of Guwayi bird warns of a turning tide in Vernon Ah Kee and Dalisa Pigram’s work, while the Karrabing Film Collective use filmmaking to interrogate the conditions of inequality for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and to retain connections to land and their Ancestors. Alana Hunt turns her lens on colonial aspirations of leisure, tourism and development that underpin contemporary life. The material complexity of Isadora Vaughan and Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s sculptures speak to a sense of place and history while Sarah Rodigari’s performance installation draws from conversations with casual staff at Carriageworks, providing a new reading of the site and its relationship to labour.

Carriageworks Curator, Abigail Moncrieff said: “Collaboration, kinship and sociality threads throughout the work of the 13 artists and artist collectives at Carriageworks, with each work navigating the measure and texture of our actions and engagement with the world around us. These urgent voices from around Australia speak to our complicated and fractured present, and within this, offer hope for a renewed future.”

The National at the MCA presents the work of 13 artists who consider diverse approaches to the environment, storytelling, and intergenerational learning. Their works incorporate natural materials and processes, as well as found objects and detritus, to explore notions of planetary caretaking and our relationship to place in an era of dramatic change.

Unseen physical forces – wind, gases, emissions – power works by sculptor Cameron Robbins, as seen in his 5-metre-tall kinetic wind powered sculpture, commissioned for the MCA Sculpture Terrace. Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung artist Maree Clarke looks to the natural world using objects such as river reeds, kangaroo teeth and echidna quills in her work, whilst Lauren Berkowitz transforms plastic waste into powerful statements on the fragility of our environment. Women’s practice is central to The National at the MCA, explored through diasporic and familial histories by artists such as Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Mehwish Iqbal, and Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, whose large-scale painting reflects her mother’s Country, Antara – a portrait of four generations of women in her family.

MCA Chief Curator, Rachel Kent said: “For me, symbiosis in nature is an enduring and meaningful exhibition motif. It is expressed in the art of Mulkun Wirrpanda, whose bark paintings demonstrate the ways that diverse animal communities cohabit harmoniously, in the termite mounds of north-east Arnhem Land. Her works reveal intricate patterns of connection and the balance of all things in the natural world.”










Today's News

March 29, 2021

Is a long-dismissed forgery actually the oldest-known biblical manuscript?

Palmer Museum of Art showcases the exuberant art of Lucille Corcos

Moderna Museet presents the first major museum presentation of Lea Porsager's work

World Chess Hall of Fame exhibition celebrates the legacy of Keith Haring

Edward Jenner pioneered vaccination. Will his museum survive a pandemic?

MACBA re-examines the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Sotheby's to offer three supremely important Ming and Qing Imperial seals

Bulldozers and looting threaten Libya's ancient treasures

Studio Erwin Olaf announces upcoming exhibitions and catalogue

The boom and bust of TikTok artists

John Michael Kohler Arts Center presents 'Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola: Magic City'

The National 2021 opens at three of Sydney's leading cultural institutions

Exhibition at Maruani Mercier brings together works by Stefan Brüggemann and On Kawara

Alice Boyd - the lost Pre-Raphaelite- featured at Bonhams 19th Century Art sale in London

Exhibition of works by Ed Shostak and his alter ego, Rose Royale on view at David Richard Gallery

New publication captures a portrait of the nation during the first national lockdown

Cities worldwide dim lights to mark Earth Hour

Guangdong Times Museum opens an exhibition of works by Candice Lin

Major group exhibition that explores artistic forms of resistance from across the world

World Press Photo opens in Hong Kong after being nixed over security fears

Musicians hungry to perform make a Manhattan storefront their stage

Britain's stately homes struggle to survive with Covid restrictions

In troubled Sahel, memories of a cinematic golden age

Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour announces Contemporary Craft Fair

The Best webtoon manhwa websites in 2021

Are You Spending Too Much Money on Vaping?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful