Cindy Sherman doesn’t want for the world’s attention – she has had it since the late-1970s, when ‘Untitled Film Stills’ announced her arrival. I am so pleased we were able to welcome Cindy to GOMA for the opening of her exhibition ‘Cindy Sherman’.

Cindy’s most recent show opened 3 weeks ago in New York and we are privileged to have six of those works on display here in Brisbane. Being able to work with an artist of Cindy Sherman’s stature has fed into our recent drive to develop exhibitions directly with some of the world’s most interesting and enduring artists.

As an inspiration to the development of the exhibition, in 2011, our major benefactor Tim Fairfax gifted us a work from Cindy Sherman’s Balenciaga collaboration. It features two women who really have to be twins; the ‘feminist studies academic’ and the ‘more out there’ one – same make-up, hair, dress, jewellery and big tortoise shell glasses. Their only distinctive features are a jacket and a knitted coat; one closed, one held open – both trimmed in faux-fur collars; one natural, one brightly coloured! It’s opening night in what looks like a re-purposed industrial art space. This is Sherman’s superb instinct for a trope.

All of us ‘gallery goers’ should be just as thrilled to now see this one work surrounded by 55 more, which between them map an irresistible assignation of life’s characters.

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‘Cindy Sherman’ / Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / 28 May – 3 October 2016

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