The desire to ‘climb the ladder’ of the social and economic order is humorously questioned by Justene Williams in The Vertigoats 2021. Lurid department-store shelving and vivid mannequins create the mood of a hyped-up retail environment. Williams distorts the mannequins’ limbs to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the ideal body propagated by the fashion…
Flashes of distant memories and glimpses of recent events are conjured by Jenny Watson in Private views and rear visions 2021–22 (illustrated). These pictures are taken from Watson’s personal recollections, ranging from treasured familial interactions to daydreams and unexceptional everyday occurrences. Horses and lone women are hallmarks of the artist’s practice and, within the various…
Continue reading » “Personal recollections: Distant memories & recent events”
It’s National Wattle Day on the first day of September, and we’ve been celebrating the Wattle for different reasons for over a century. QAGOMA has a sculpture in its Collection by artist Daphne Mayo that has a special connection to the Queensland Wattle League dating back to 1914. Daphne Mayo (1895–1982) is one of Queensland’s…
Continue reading » “Go back in time to Daphne Mayo’s 1914 Wattle Day celebrations in Brisbane”
Dressed in jodhpurs, a short-sleeved shirt and riding boots, Hilda Rix Nicholas’s ‘fair musterer’ is ready for the day’s work. Her nonchalant pose is easy, confident and self-assured; it suggests that she is both an accomplished horsewoman and a capable bushworker, a woman who actively participates in the life of rural Australia. Painted during the…
Continue reading » “Accomplished and capable: Hilda Rix Nicholas ‘The fair musterer’”
The early 20th century saw the rise of new styles of photography worldwide, which influenced photography in Queensland. Encouraged by advances in film development and camera production, camera clubs flourished. Interest in artistic photography resulted in the formation of the Queensland Camera Club in Brisbane in 1923, with the opening of its first Photographic Salon…
Arnhem Land artist Margaret Rarru Garrawurra has won the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for 2022 with a work featuring her signature rich black-dyed pandanus which she is renowned for. A closely-guarded process she discovered through rigorous experimentation, the dense charcoal coloration emphases the hand-weaving process. You can view works by…
Continue reading » “Margaret Rarru Garrawurra creates timeless forms”
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.