Receiving and unpacking new acquisitions can be an exciting but also nervous moment for a Gallery conservator. This is the first opportunity to catch a glimpse of the artwork you have heard so much about from your colleagues, but you are also well aware of the risks involved with transporting artworks, and this is the…
Untitled (Chakraman) is a rare example of Nepalese painting. Visually striking in its scale and colour, and rich with iconography, it illustrates concepts connected to Buddhism, Hinduism, tantric principles and yoga, while depicting a great number of deities and incarnations. The central figure is a yogi (male yoga practitioner) showing the inner structure of the body that presents…
The 2012 Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Appeal focuses on the acquisition of a group of rare icons of historical Aboriginal art from Queensland, made between the mid-1800s to the 1940s. These works are representative of many of the cultural groups within Queensland and reflect the diverse artistic heritages of Aboriginal peoples from this state. The…
You Are Here is an artist collective from Sydney, established in 2006 by artists Zanny Begg and Keg de Souza – their work Emeraldtown: Gary, Indiana 2010 has been an audience favourite in the current GOMA exhibition ‘Social Networking’. Shortly after ‘Social Networking’ opened in March I recorded this interview with Zanny Begg detailing You Are Here’s…
Continue reading » “You Are Here, with Michael Jackson, in Gary, Indiana”
‘Carl and Phillip McConnell: Queensland studio potters’ is an exhibition by a father and son team of potters who established Australia–wide profiles. Carl McConnell was one of the hundreds of thousands of American Servicemen who passed through Brisbane but made lasting ties when he met and married a local girl, Bernice (Bunny) Pearson. Carl and…
‘Lightness & Gravity’ showcases the Gallery’s contemporary art collection in a series of thematic constellations, and features several major recent acquisitions. The title of the display points to a longstanding philosophical discussion on the fundamental character of existence — and, by extension, the nature of art-making — as weighty, meaningful and constrained by history, or…