BRISBANE.- The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art announced that 77 artists and artist groups from 27 countries would feature in 'The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT7)', marking the 20th anniversary of the international exhibition.

On display at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) from December 8, 2012 to April 14, 2013, the exhibition will range from internationally renowned senior artists, including Huang Yong Ping (China/France), Atul Dodiya (India), Raqib Shaw (India/UK) and Fiona Tan (Indonesia/The Netherlands), to young and emerging artists from the region.

QAGOMA Acting Director Suhanya Raffel said highlights of APT7 would include the first major focus on artists from West Asia; works by young generations of Indonesian and Vietnamese artists; new work from a group of seven Australian artists; and the most significant representation yet of contemporary work from PNG.

'Over 20 years, the Gallery's flagship contemporary art event has attracted over 1.8 million visitors and continues to be the only recurring art exhibition focussing on contemporary art from Asia, the Pacific and Australia,' she said.

'APT7 is made possible by founding sponsor the Queensland Government, presenting sponsor Santos, and principal partners Events Queensland, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Government's Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy. The PNG component is sponsored by Kramer Ausenco, and a range of cultural organisations have also made invaluable contributions.

'Occupying all of GOMA and key spaces in QAG, including the iconic Watermall, APT7 will include several artists whose work has never been seen before in Australia, numerous major commissions, and site-specific works, Ms Raffel said.

'APT7 will feature a free opening weekend program involving many of the exhibiting artists and several performance events; the GOMA Talks series of discussion panels; two film programs; the 20 Year Archive project; as well as printed and online publications and education resources.

'Kids APT will premiere interactive artworks and installations by participating artists and the On Tour program will be presented throughout regional Queensland.'

QAGOMA Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art Russell Storer said the project '0-Now: Traversing West Asia' was developed in collaboration with Istanbul-based curator November Paynter.

'It will feature works by artists from Egypt, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Syria, Jordan and the diaspora, united by an interest in the movement of peoples and changing landscapes of West Asia,' he said.

'APT7 will feature vibrant new work by an exciting group of young artists from Indonesia and Vietnam where the emerging contemporary art scene is being driven by independent artist-run spaces and a highly engaged art community.

'The Australian component of APT includes new work from five Aboriginal artists — Daniel Boyd, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Michael Cook, Timothy Cook and Shirley Macnamara — in addition to Louisa Bufardeci and Susan Jacobs, all reflecting on the varied histories that contribute to their distinctive senses of place, which is one of the key threads running through the exhibition.

'The major presentation of contemporary works informed by customary practices from Papua New Guinea will bring together performance objects with two major architectural commissions by artists from the East Sepik province.

'The public sculpture The World Turns by New Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai, which was commissioned in November 2011 to mark the fifth anniversary of the opening of GOMA and the 20th anniversary of APT, will be located outside GOMA on the bank of the Brisbane River.

'The twentieth anniversary of APT is an opportunity to reflect upon the unprecedented transformations that have occurred in Australia, Asia and the Pacific over the past two decades,' Mr Storer said.

'With this in mind, APT7's 20 Year Archive project invites four artists and artist collectives to explore a range of regional archives, including QAGOMA's Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art, and present creative interpretations of their content."

Mr Storer said the Gallery's Australian Cinémathèque would present two major cinema programs for APT7: one that expanded upon the exhibition's exploration of social, political and aesthetic changes occurring throughout Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East during the last 20 years, and a historical survey of Chinese animation.

APT7 will be accompanied by a wide-ranging suite of publications, online resources and educational material.