Japanese fashion: Classic, elegant and outrageous

‘Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) 1 November 2014 – 15 February 2015 explored the tremendous innovation of Japanese fashion designers from the early 1980s to the present. This was a rare opportunity to view over 100 unique garments drawn from the unparalleled collection of the Kyoto…

Contemporary trends, old art

Installed in the restored spaces of the Queensland Art Gallery’s Philip Bacon Galleries, the new display of the International and Asian Collection links both architecturally and conceptually to QAGOMA’s vision for contemporary curatorial practice by offering an historic point of contact from which to begin or end your journey as you navigate your way through…

The Spirit of Renewal: Robin Gibson

Robin Gibson’s vision of Brisbane celebrating its powerful river changed the face of the city’s South Bank waterfront, and his award-winning design for the Cultural Centre enabled the Queensland Art Gallery to host major national and international exhibitions, including ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT). In this tribute by Michael Barnett, we honour…

Vale: Robert Hunter

The Gallery acknowledges the recent passing of Robert Hunter (1947–2014), one of Australia’s pre-eminent abstract artists. Born in Melbourne, Hunter was strongly influenced by teachers Dale Hickey and James Doolin, and later the enigmatic black paintings by Ad Reinhardt, as well as the conceptual grids of Sol LeWitt. However, by the mid-1960s he had found…

The sublime and cultural difference

‘Sublime: Contemporary Works from the Collection’ draws together culturally diverse points of contact with notions of the sublime through major works from QAGOMA’s Australian and international collections. Here, we trace some of the multiple historical and cultural narratives surrounding the sublime. In the last 30 years there has been sustained attention to concepts of the sublime in…

Daido Moriyama is known for his gritty, intense photographs

This stunning black-and-white photograph is by Japanese artist Daido Moriyama known for his gritty, intense photographs of the streets of Tokyo. A central figure in Japanese photography since the 1960s, Moriyama is renowned for his distinctive visual style and his singular commitment to documenting the everyday life of a densely urbanised society. An autodidact, Moriyama…