Installation shot of the exhibition “Marking the Infinite” at Newcom Art Museum. Courtesy Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
Major exhibition of women Aboriginal artists launches North America tour in five distinguished museums.
Aboriginal Australian art might not be well known in the USA, but a new exhibition Marking the Infinite, is set to leave its mark on American audiences. Featuring seventy works in mediums that range from paintings on canvas, paper and eucalyptus bark, through to woven installations and video projections, Marking the Infinite presents nine women at the forefront of global contemporary art practice. Beginning September 2016, this major exhibition featuring nine of Australia’s leading Aboriginal women artists will embark on a two-year North American tour.
Organized by the Nevada Museum of Art, Marking the Infinite will travel to museums in New Orleans, Miami, Reno, Washington, DC, and Vancouver, Canada.
The show’s North American tour stated with a four-month stay at Newcomb Art Museum before continuing on to some of the most prestigious museums in the United States and Canada. “It is an honor to share with the New Orleans community such a historically significant exhibition,” noted museum director Monica Ramirez-Montagut. “These nine Aboriginal women create contemporary work not only of exceptional visual beauty, but also art that embodyies the world’s oldest living cultural history.”
Revered as matriarchs in their communities, the artworks made by these women are proud assertions of who they are and represent their pride in their communities. This strength of vision is immediately evident in works that shimmer and swirl, that assert their authority like lightning bolts, or sparkle like the night sky. The works in Marking the Infinite, are drawn from the collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl, Miami-based collectors and philanthropists.
“This exhibition does not attempt to survey the entirety of Aboriginal art practice. It focuses on the work of nine exceptional artists, whose art is both culturally specific and globally alert. This puts them in line with many of the most important artists working in the world today—artists like El Anatsui, Beatriz Milhazes or Rivane Neuenschwander. Just like their counterparts around the world, these Aboriginal women are attempting to grapple with what it means to exist in our increasingly connected world.”
Henry Skerritt, Curator of the exhibition
“Marking the Infinite” Venues and Dates:
Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, September 7, 2016–January 1, 2017
Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum Florida International University, Miami, FL, January 28–May 7, 2017
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ, September 23, 2017–January 21, 2018
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, February 17–May 13, 2018
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, June 2–September 9, 2018
Museum of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 1, 2018–February 24, 2019
SOURCES :
Papunya Tula Artists
Newcomb Art Museum
Nevada Art Museum
ARTICLES
•Symons, Emma-Kate, Australia’s indigenous women artists set to make a splash in major U.S., NY Live- The NY Times, 25 July 2016
•Symons, Emma-Kate, Aboriginal women at vanguard as US collects ‘mesmerising’ art, The Australian, 19 March 2016.
•Miss Rosen, “Marking the Infinite” Power of the First Peoples of Australia, , Crave, 8 Septembre 2016
•Bookhardt, D. Eric, Marking the Infinite at Newcomb Art Museum, Gambit, 3 October 2016