Telling the Story of Australian Art in new and innovative ways Swedish-born artist Oscar Friström’s Duramboi 1893 depicts James Davis, a young convict sent from Scotland to Australia. Davis escaped from a Moreton Bay penal colony in 1829 and lived with several Indigenous groups in the area, particularly on Fraser Island (where he was known as…
Aboriginal artist Sally Gabori (c.1924–2015) is one of the most important Australian painters and her work Dibirdibi Country 2012 is among the best of her works. Here, we touch on some of the history behind the artist and her radiant painting. Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori was born around 1924 on the south side of Bentinck…
Telling the Story of Australian Art Your reimagined Australian Collection brings together art from different times and across cultures. After 120 years of building the Collection, there are many stories to tell of traversal and encounter, we focus on this theme as we continue with our series on Australian art. Scottish-born artist Ian Fairweather’s Lights, Darwin Harbour…
Continue reading » “From this island, we look out across the sea”
Sidney Nolan’s painting Mrs Fraser is a captivating story. In 1947 Nolan spent an extended period in Queensland, including several weeks in Brisbane and on Fraser Island (formerly known as Great Sandy Island). In Brisbane’s John Oxley Library he read, among other things, accounts of the shipwreck of the English brig, the Stirling Castle, off…
Continue reading » “Sidney Nolan’s Mrs Fraser is a spectacular colonial narrative”
The most ambitious exhibition of work by Patricia Piccinini exclusively at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in March 2018, became GOMA’s largest ever solo exhibition by an Australian artist. Featuring more than 50 new and recent works by the globally renowned artist, ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection‘ included sculpture, photography, video, drawing and installation, as…
My Generation Queensland-born, Sydney-based artist William Yang describes a moment in Sydney when a number of creative groups came together to generate an artistic wave that swept across Australian society. The intersections of the tight literary circle of Nobel award winner Patrick White and his partner, Manoly Lascaris, with the theatrical circle, their friends Jim…
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.