Ruby Tjangawa Williamson SA b.1940 Pitjantjatjara people / Artist Nita Williamson SA b.1963 / Suzanne Armstrong SA b.1980 Pitjantjatjara people (Collaborating artists) / Ngayuku ngura (My country) Puli murpu (Mountain range) 2012 / Synthetic polymer paint on linen / Purchased 2012 with funds from Margaret Mittelheuser, AM, and Cathryn Mittelheuser, AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
GOMA hosting major contemporary Indigenous Australian art exhibtion
Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) stages its largest exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian art when My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia on display from June 1 until October 7, 2013.
The exhibition features more than 300 works by over 115 artists from every state and territory, as well as an interactive children’s exhibition, cinema program and community opening events including a performance by Archie Roach.
In addition to work from the Collection by Vernon Ah Kee, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Michael Riley, Vincent Serico, Brook Andrew, Christopher Pease, Judy Watson, Warwick Thornton, Archie Moore, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarrnda Sally Gabori, Richard Bell, Tony Albert, Dickie Minyintiri, Wakartu Cory Surprise, Destiny Deacon, Bindi Cole, Fiona Foley, Christian Thompson and many more, two new site specific installations is commissioned for key areas in the Gallery.
This exhibition examines the strengths of the Gallery’s holdings and explores three central themes – presenting Indigenous views of history (My history), responding to contemporary politics and experiences (My life), and illustrating connections to place (My country).
From paintings and sculptures about ancestral epicentres to photographs and moving-image works that interrogate and challenge the established history of Australia, to installations responding to political and social situations affecting Australians, the thread that binds these artists is their collective desire to share their experiences and tell their stories.
Here is a smart state sourced from the exhibition catalogue: ‘Contemporary Aboriginal artists are heroes making that strike causing non-indigenous Australians to think, ponder and debate their past, the present-day lives they want to live honestly, and the intellectual, racial and moral legacy they want to create for the next generation’, Djon Mundine.
Deputy Director of Curatorial and Collection Development: Maud Page
Curator: Bruce McLean
Click here to read the media release