calendario eventi  :: 

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22/9/2014

Two exhibitions

Museum of Contemporary Art - MCA, Sydney

Primavera 2014: Young australian artists

Young Australian Artists Create Visual Dialogue on the Diverse Contemporary Australian Experience.

Opening to the public Tuesday 23 September, Primavera 2014 promises visitors a visual feast of colour and an intimate glimpse into the preoccupations of Australia’s next wave of visual arts talent.

Mikala Dwyer, alumni artist from Primavera’s inaugural 1992 exhibition and this year’s guest curator, has selected work by artists who reimagine our contemporary experience. With no specific exhibition theme, each individual work speaks distinctively to the artist’s unique experience. When brought together in the context of Primavera, however, the outcome is a powerful collective stream of consciousness, telling of shared but diverse experiences of the world we live in.

Hailing from six states and territories across Australia, the artists in this year’s exhibition are Madison Bycroft, Ben Denham, Nick Dorey, Caitlin Franzmann, Hossein Ghaemi, Emily Hunt, Ishmael Marika, Barayuwa Mununggurr, Sean Peoples and the Telepathy Project (Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples), Alison Puruntatameri, Lucienne Rickard, Marian Tubbs and Paul Yore.

Spanning two-dimensional, three-dimensional and time-based work such as drawing, painting, sculpture, video, ceramics, textiles, installation and performance, the exhibition reflects on topics as varied as Surrealism, robotics, queer fertility, ritual, time, witchcraft, science, alchemy, dreaming and telepathy.

Several artists, including Madison Bycroft, Ben Denham, Caitlin Franzmann and Lucienne Rickard share an overlapping interest in exploring man’s relationship with our surroundings; be it nature, the urban environment, each other or our selves. For example, urban planner turned artist Caitlin Franzmann’s work inspires us to re-imagine our awareness of our spatial environment, while Lucienne Rickard’s meticulous drawings portray the complex relationships between man/animal and animal/animal.

Meanwhile, in The Telepathy Project, Sean Peoples and Veronica Kent challenge existing boundaries of human connection by exploring the possibilities of telepathic communication. Nick Dorey examines chemical boundaries in his alchemical works, erecting dichotomized structural installations rupturing and reconfiguring states of being.

Others, like Paul Yore and 23-year-old Ishmael Marika, are concerned with social issues: Marika’s work, a manifestation of his exploration of indigenous cultural identity and heritage, and Paul Yore’s colourful and psychedelic works created from humble every-day items, a commentary on gay politics.

Marian Tubbs, whose work aims to reconcile nature with our virtual world, speaks to our growing love affair with the Internet, while artists Hossein Ghaemi and ceramicist Emily Hunt share an interest in the surreal and satirical.

The exhibition also includes the detailed paintings of Barayuwa Mununggurr, a reflection of his North East Arnhem Land upbringing, and Alison Puruntatameri’s emotive paintings, who hails from Pirlangimpi.

With a reputation for uncovering new artistic talent, this year’s Primavera artists join the ranks of some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists including Shaun Gladwell, Gail Hastings, Jess MacNeil and more recently, Rebecca Baumann, Kate Mitchell and Brendan Huntley.

Artist List

Madison Bycroft was born in 1987, Adelaide Hills, SA. Lives and works in Adelaide.
Ben Denham was born in 1979, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
Nick Dorey was born in 1985, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
Caitlen Franzmann was born in 1979, Gympie, QLD. Lives and works in Brisbane.
Hossein Ghaemi was born in 1985, Tehran, Iran. Lives and works in Sydney.
Emily Hunt was born in 1981, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
Ishmael Marika was born in 1991, Nhulunbuy, NT. Lives and works in Yirrkala, NT.
Barayuwa Mununggurr was born in 1980, Wandawuy, NT. Lives and works in Wandawuy.
Sean People and the Telepathy Project (Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples). Peoples was born in 1986, Melbourne, VIC. Lives and works in Melbourne.
Alion Puruntatameri was born in 1984, Melville Island, NT. Lives and works in Melville Island.
Lucienne Rickard was born in 1981, Lithgow, NSW. Lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania.
Marian Tubbs was born in 1983, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
Paul Yore was born in 1987, Melbourne, VIC. Lives and works in Melbourne.

About the Curator
Mikala Dwyer was born 1959 in Sydney, where she lives and works as an artist.
Her recent projects include solo exhibitions at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2013); Project Art Centre, Dublin (2012); Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney (2012); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); Dwyer has also participated extensively in group exhibitions including the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); The End of the 20th Century. The Best is Yet to Come. A Dialogue with the Marx Collection, Hamburger Banhof, Berlin, (2013–14); Less is More: Minimal and Post-Minimal Art in Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2012).

About Primavera
Primavera is an annual exhibition for Australian artists aged 35 years and under. It was initiated in 1992 by Dr Edward Jackson AM and Mrs Cynthia Jackson AM and their family in memory of their daughter and sister Belinda, a talented jeweller who died at the age of 29. The exhibition commemorates Belinda Jackson by celebrating the creative achievements of talented young artists who are in the early stages of their careers. Primavera 2014 runs at the MCA from 23 September – 30 November 2014

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Martu art from the FAR western desert

Vibrant paintings by 29 Aboriginal artists from remote Western Australia pulsate with kaleidoscopic colour and present a unique cartographic perspective that reveals the artists’ intimate knowledge of Country.

Opening September 23, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s exhibition Martu Art from the Far Western Desert brings together a selection of collaborative paintings by 29 Martu artists, the Aboriginal owners and custodians of a vast area across the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts in Western Australia.

Martu Art from the Far Western Desert is the first exhibition to focus on the unique collaborative artworks by the Martu artists. The exhibition brings together a selection of 12 recent paintings, from the immense to the intimate. It explores the process of working together incorporating a number of distinct collaborative practices, most of which are cross-generational and made up predominantly of women.

MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE notes, ‘We are fortunate to have such a distinctive insight into this part of Australia to share with our audiences. I have no doubt that our visitors will respond with great enthusiasm to the extraordinary vitality and richness of this body of work, produced in such a remote location’.

‘We hope this exhibition will generate more interest in the relatively new painting practices stemming from artists living and working in Martu communities’.
– Anna Davis & Megan Robson

For the artists in Martu Art from the Far Western Desert painting is a social activity. People come together to paint and talk, tell stories and sing. As Martu artist, Ngalangka Nola Taylor, notes: ‘People don’t like painting alone’. While collaborative paintings are not unusual in contemporary art practice, the works created by Martu artists are unique in that they reflect the everyday life, culture and attitudes of the Martu people. As the MCA’s curators, Anna Davis and Megan Robson, note:

‘Painting is an important part of sharing knowledge in Martu communities. A social experience, it allows elders to spend time with younger people, creating opportunities to keep language and culture alive. We hope this exhibition will generate more interest in the relatively new painting practices stemming from artists living and working in Martu communities’.

Drawing our attention to the harsh beauty and biodiversity of this isolated part of Australia, paintings in Martu Art from the Far Western Desert pulsate with kaleidoscopic colour and pattern, while others are more subdued and include large areas of white space that represent salt lakes. Depicting in intricate detail their Ngurra (Country), the works illustrate the Martu people’s intimate knowledge of the desert region and its stories.

KEY WORKS
Our Country 2011
Kumpaya Girgirba, Noelene Girgirba, Thelma Judson, Noreena Kadibil, Anya Judith Samson, Kathleen Sorensen, Karnu Nancy Taylor, Natasha Williams, Sonya Williams, Marjorie Yates Painted by ten artists, crossing generations, the large-scale painting Our Country depicts the region surrounding the Canning Stock Route (CSR) from a contemporary perspective. Cutting across the length of the painting, the 1850 kilometre road dissects a layered and intricate landscape of sandhills and rock formations, deep blue waterholes, groups of camels and the odd donkey, and the footprints of the Martu people walking up and down Country. Travelling along the CSR are 4WD cars and trucks; an acknowledgment of the modern-day role of the road as a major tourist destination.

As senior artist Kumpaya Girgirba notes: The jina (feet) show where the Martu walked in pujiman (bushman time), all through the desert, we still walk through our Country, now there are lots of Toyotas on the CSR, tourists, Martu and the Martu rangers working on the Country to look after it’. (1)

Yarrkalpa - Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area 2013

Ngamaru Bidu, Yikartu Bumba, Kumpaya Girgirba, Thelma Judson, Yuwali Janice Nixon, Reena Rogers, Karnu Nancy Taylor, Ngalangka Nola Taylor

The large-scale, boldly painted work, Yarrkalpa - Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area, comprises ‘lots of little stories about hunting’. The painting represents the intimate connection the artists have with Country illustrating in immense detail the region surrounding the Parnngurr community, around 370 kilometres east of Parnpajinya (Newman).

Kulyu 2014
Ngamaru Bidu, Jakayu Biljabu, Bowja Patricia Butt, Kumpaya Girgirba, Noelene Girgirba, Karnu Nancy Taylor, Muuki Taylor, Ngalangka Nola Taylor, Wokka Taylor

The most recent work in the exhibition, Kulyu was painted by 9 artists in Parnngurr in June 2014.

In Kulyu, the artists have painted the entire Martu determination, a vast area measuring over 136,000 km2. To create this striking large-scale painting the artists worked in layers, mimicking the topography of the region, starting with the waterways that run far below the ground, all the way up to the green shoots of the new spinifex grasses.

As Anna Davis and Megan Robson note in their catalogue essay ‘Kujungka-laju palyarnu (We did it together)’:
‘This significant painting reflects the fragile interdependent relationship between different environmental elements of the region, indicating how the hidden underground waterways impact the growth of visible vegetation, which are essential to the native fauna that plays an important role in the biodiversity of the area.’ (2)

THE ARTISTS
Ngamaru Bidu, Jakayu Biljabu, Yikartu Bumba, Bowja Patricia Butt, Maywokka May Chapman, Nyanjilpayi Nancy Chapman, Jugarda Dulcie Gibbs, Kumpaya Girgirba, Noelene Girgirba, Thelma Judson, Noreena Kadibil, Mulyatingki Marney, Yuwali Janice Nixon, Nora Nungabar, Reena Rogers, Anya Judith Samson, Dadda Samson, Muni Rita Simpson, Kathleen Sorensen, Karnu Nancy Taylor, Muuki Taylor, Ngalangka Nola Taylor, Wokka Taylor, Bugai Whyoulter, Muntararr Rosie Williams, Natasha Williams, Sonya Williams, Nora Wompi, Marjorie Yates.

1) Kumpaya Girgirba quoted in Our Country, Artist Statement, Martumili Artists, Parnpajinya (Newman), 2011.

2) Anna Davis & Megan Robson, adapted from ‘Kujungka-laju palyarnu (We did it together)’, Martu Art from the Far Western Desert, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2014.

Image: Madison Bycroft, Nupta Contagioso/Primordial Sound (still), 2014. Single-channel digital video, colour, sound, 3:30 minutes, image courtesy and © the artist

MEDIA contact:
Courtney Miller
0429 572 869
courtney.miller@mca.com.au

Museum of Contemporary Art - MCA
140 George Street - The Rocks - Sydney, Australia
Mon-Wed: 10am-5pm
Thur: 10am-9pm
Fri-Sun: 10am-5pm
Free Entry
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