As we celebrate National Wattle Day on the first day of September each year, we delve into two works that include the wattle — with over 1,000 species of acacia Australia-wide, it’s the nation’s largest family of flowering plants. While the flowering times of wattle vary greatly depending on the region, Australia’s national flower —…
The exhibition ‘North by North-West’ at the Queensland Art Gallery presents recent acquisitions and old favourites from the Gallery’s Indigenous Australian art collection, highlighting unique visual threads and continuities that traverse the top half of the continent. Over our blog series we will delve into the exhibition themes: ‘Journey across the Northern Territory’; ‘Seven Sisters’;…
Continue reading » “North by North-West: Form, symbol & texture”
The 2023 QAGOMA Foundation Appeal will this year support the acquisition of major works by Queensland Indigenous artists, beginning with Judy Watson, Teho Ropeyarn, and Brian Robinson in collaboration with emerging artist Tamika Grant‑Iramu. Here, we share insights into the works and their makers. Three works lead this year’s Appeal. An impressive sense of scale…
A captivating work by Pitjantjatjara law man and artist Timo Hogan — Lake Baker 2021 (illustrated) — unfolds the ancient religion within the Pukunkura (Lake Baker) landscape, for which he is cultural caretaker, and the narratives of the beings that shaped it. DELVE DEEPER: North by North-West: Indigenous Australian art Based at Spinifex Arts Project…
Continue reading » “‘Lake Baker’ evokes the surface of the salt lake”
‘Murun’, a Wiradjuri word meaning breath or life, and the English word ‘murmur’, meaning a low recurring sound or soft voices, are terms born far from each other — one long of this land, and one newly spoken here — but converge in untitled (giran) 2018. This major installation by artist Jonathan Jones is the…
Continue reading » “2000 separate sculptures are woven together with air”
Wutan #2 2014 (illustrated) depicts a specific tract of land and its waterways in the Cape York region, Far North Queensland, leading to a site of significance to Mavis Ngallametta (1944–2019) — a sister work to Ngak-pungarichan (Clearwater) 2013 (illustrated). This large portrait-format landscape uses its height to chart a tract of land and water,…
Continue reading » “Mavis Ngallametta’s work has personal significance”
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.