Alison Mackay is the 2020 recipient of the $20,000 Gallipoli Art Prize for her painting Breathe.
In a first for the prize, the exhibition is open to viewers through a 360 degree virtual tour of the Merrylands RSL where it is currently installed. While the RSL remains closed to the public, this innovation brings works by the winners and finalists to a much wider audience.
Mackay’s winning work, painted on nine birch panels, depicts nine gas masks from World War I. For the artist, this piece was partly a response to recent experiences of bushfires on the NSW South Coast.
“The gas mask was patented in 1914 and over a century later, in this recent summer of fire and smoke, protective breathing masks were once again in use,” Mackay says in her artist statement. “My personal experience of these fires and the mask I needed to wear for smoke protection made me think about this connection between past and present.”
Of course, given the current impact of COVID-19 restrictions on exhibitions and ANZAC Day memorials alike, the breathing mask is an especially poignant image.
The prize, which has been running for 15 years, invites artists to respond to the Gallipoli Memorial Club’s values of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship. The works do not need to depict warfare or relate to any particular conflict.
Artists Lori Pensini and Deirdre Bean received Highly Commended awards for their works.
Award judge and Gallipoli Club president John Robertson pointed out the resonance of the prize at this moment in history. “At a time when we are suffering great fear and loss worldwide, The Gallipoli Art Prize provides an important opportunity to reflect on periods of hardship in our collective history, including the 1919 influenza pandemic, and to commemorate those qualities that helped us through adversity.”
Until 2026, Wanneroo Regional Art Gallery will be showing 53 original artworks by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century: Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol ICONS includes famous works such as Elvis (1963), Campbell’s Soup Cans (1968) and Marilyn (1967).
For the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Paris-based Fondation Cartier has commissioned 14 new works by Indigenous artists across the globe, curated by renowned Kuku Yalanji artist, Tony Albert.
From revamped industrial sites to brand new spaces in Sydney, to openings in Adelaide, Melbourne, Cottesloe and Darwin—across Australia there’s a flurry of new and reopening gallery activity.
Mai Nguyễn-Long’s latest exhibition at Wollongong Art Gallery takes influence from her Vietnamese heritage and living in a modern Australian setting—speaking to the trauma experienced by the diaspora.
Ceremony and radical activism may seem like differing forces, but The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial is showing us otherwise, centering itself on art, action and change. This touring exhibition is now on display at Western Plains Cultural Centre.
In a rare interview, alongside her showing in the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Tracey Moffatt talks about her penchant for the staged and surreal, going beyond identity, growing up in Brisbane and moving to New York in her thirties, and the importance of imagination.
