In a time of global unrest and mass migration, Travellers looks, with a philosophical eye, at the way humans have moved around the world. In the 17th and 18th centuries, ‘the grand tour’ was seen to complete the education of privileged young gentlemen while, in recent years, travel has been made more accessible than ever before.
While travel may offer change and new experiences and opportunities for discovery for Australian travellers, the forced migration of the hundreds of thousands of people in Europe is also acknowledged in a selection that includes artists as diverse as JMW Turner and Craig Koomeeta.
McKay says, “I wanted to balance the idea of being empowered and wandering the world, to contrast this perception with forced migration, and those who are vilified for it. These travel experiences might reshape a sense of identity, and give a stronger insight into who we are. Together they raise questions of independence and limitation; the mutability of identity; and the potent experience of encounter and the element of chance in existence.”
Paintings by Jeffrey Smart, Jan Senbergs, Elwyn Lynn and Dadang Christanto, sculpture by Koomeeta and Gwyn Hansson Pigott, and film by Liam O’Brien, are further extended by netsuke, Japanese watercolours by Takahashi Hiroaki and the Chinese burial jar earthenware tradition. Travel may be within the home, between this world and the next, forced or recreational, traumatic or pleasurable. These concepts and more are explored in an exhibition that is diverse and stimulating.
Travellers
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
1 July – 29 October
The National Gallery of Victoria has unveiled their summer blockbuster exhibition for 2024–2025. Yayoi Kusama’s signature polka dots and pumpkins, along with world-premiere work, will appear in Australia’s largest retrospective exhibition of the Japanese artist.
Annika Harding’s latest work at NorthSite Contemporary Arts, focuses on the Atherton Tablelands, exploring the tension between natural beauty, relentless meteorological forces, and the built environment that supports local agricultural communities.
Parrtjima—the Northern Territory’s annual festival of lights at the Alice Springs Desert Park—is entering its ninth year, and this time the immersive festival’s focus is interconnectedness.
“Everybody has their own sense of truth.” The acclaimed photographer Steve McCurry, particularly known for his iconic photograph of an Afghan girl with green eyes which featured on the cover of National Geographic, has been travelling and documenting the world for over 40 years.
Congratulations to Marikit Santiago, who has won the 2024 La Prairie Art Award for her two works A Seat at the Table (Magulang) and A Seat at the Table (Kapatid).
Two years after Josh Muir’s untimely passing at the age of 30, the Koorie Heritage Trust celebrates his work and legacy in an exhibition co-curated by his mother and partner.
