The digital realm is filled with ways to enjoy art, from online exhibitions and videos to podcasts and lectures. Each week one of the Art Guide editors brings you a curated selection of art online.
Indigenous stories in art
To mark Reconciliation Week, QAGOMA have collated dozens of stories based on works by Indigenous artworks held in their collection; highlighting the diversity of contemporary practice. These short stories turn the spotlight on a wide range of artists including Shirley Macnamara, Danie Mellor, Wawiriya Burton, Nellie Ngampa Coulthard, Judy Watson, and Dale Harding.
QAGOMA’s stories also touch on the legacy of historical figures such as Albert Namatjira and Dick Roughsey.
Seeing all these stories together is a timely reminder of the strength and versatility of Indigenous artists.
Jumaadi invites children to think about special things
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) reopened to the public this week, but their online #Together in Art programs are still going strong.
In the second project for their Together in Art Kids program, Jumaadi has chosen the theme Special to me. Children between five and 12 years old are invited to use whatever materials they already have at hand to “make an artwork about or for someone, something or somewhere that is special to you”. Kids can make 2D or 3D artworks.
Artworks for Jumaadi’s Special to me project can be submitted until 5pm (AWST), 12 July. Selected entries will feature in an online exhibition which will open on 27 July.
You can see the online exhibition from Del Kathryn Barton’s earlier project here.
Watch Catherine Bell’s silent film The Artists
Artists Catherine Bell, who is also a curator and academic, and Cathy Staughton, who makes work at Arts Project Australia, have collaborated since 2009. In 2017 they undertook a residency together at Norma Redpath House, University of Melbourne.
Bell’s short silent film, The Artists, documents their time together there and records both their nonverbal communication and intimate friendship.
A touring exhibition curated by Bell, FEM-aFFINITY, which features Staughton and 13 other female artists, was unable to open at Benalla Art Gallery due to Covid-19. Instead, NETS Victoria and the gallery have made The Artists available to watch online until 28 June. You can also watch Bell talk about curating FEM-aFFINITYhere.
Craft Victoria explores The Meaning of Things
Craft Victoria also reopened on 1 June, but their exhibition The Meaning of Things continues in the virtual realm.
In this inclusive group show, lovers of things were invited to share the stories behind objects that have meaning for them. The result is an eclectic online cabinet of curiosities featuring everything from tools to family heirlooms.
The project is still ongoing and readers can submit their own treasured objects here.
360 view of Manta Nganampa Tjukurpa Pulkatjara: Stories from Our Land
OLSEN gallery in Sydney offers audiences everywhere a 360 degree virtual tour of their current group show, Manta Nganampa Tjukurpa Pulkatjara: Stories from Our Land, which features bright dynamic paintings by Indigenous artists Wawiriya Burton, Yaritji Young, Barbara Moore, and Sylvia Ken. A slideshow of the works is also available here.
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
Bringing together 70 artists from 30 countries, the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art fosters connections across cultures and borders, and translates cultural knowledge for the present day.
Now showing at Home of the Arts (HOTA), the sophomore Gold Coast Triennial, Here and Now, brings together 42 contemporary artists to represent the depth and dynamism of the city’s artistic community.
For Lardil and Yangkaal writer and curator Maya Hodge, Archie Moore’s presentation at this year’s Venice Biennale is a powerful symbol of reckoning—one that asks the world to bear witness to the long shadows of colonial violence and clears space for possibilities ahead.
