In our new world of hibernating and social distancing, galleries are full to bursting with virtual exhibition tours, podcasts, interviews with artists and curators, videos, and more. Stay tuned, each week one of the Art Guide editors will bring you a selection of online art highlights.
AGWA TV: Hannah Gadsby
Most of the big public galleries have come up with special hashtags to keep audiences connected to their collections. Recently the Art Gallery of Western Australia launched theirs, #agwayourway, which includes their AGWA TV channel.
Here, nestled among videos about artists and exhibitions, you will find three art history lessons led by Hannah Gadsby. The comedian — who also holds a degree in art history and curatorship — turns her attention to paintings by Hilda Rix, Jeffery Smart, and E Phillips Fox.
Gadsby doesn’t so much unpack these paintings as cut them to shreds with her trademark laconic wit. There are some real LOL moments and this is art criticism at its hyper-accessible best. It’s a cliché, but Gadsby really does offer something for everyone.
Carriageworks Journal: Giselle Stanborough
Each week Carriageworks will post both new and archived interviews, performances, essays, films and photographs to an online Journal.
As many people find themselves isolated and working from home, more and more artists are allowing audiences intimate access to their private spaces and thoughts. In her diary entry for the Carriageworks Journal, ‘Our phones were never private anyway,’ Giselle Stanborough presents behind-the-scenes images and notes which she used to develop Cinopticon, her installation which is currently in limbo while the gallery is closed. The artist will continue to update her diary entry and share parts of her process that were not initially meant to be public.
Michael Cook: Livin’ the dream
Photographer Michael Cook is making the most of the virtual exhibition space with two iterations of his show Living the dream, a suite of black and white images which put an alternative, decolonial spin on Australian history. THIS IS NO FANTASY offers both still images and a video tour of the show with a haunting soundtrack, while Andrew Baker Art Dealer allows an audience to whiz around Living the dream via a 360° virtual tour.
A double dose of Patrick Pound
The online artworld is also serving up a double dose of Patrick Pound.
In A Collection of Stranger Things Pound responds to works held by the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG). Check out the artworks and listen to the artist talk about his curatorial rational in a short video, and for a more in-depth discussion tune in to a podcast interview between Pound and MPRG senior curator Danny Lacy.
And from 25 April Pound presents an online-only exhibition, The museum of there, not there, via STATION gallery.
QAGOMA: Noel McKenna crossword
Exercise your brain and test your knowledge of local art history with artist Noel Mckenna’s painting Australian Art History 1933–1978; a jumbo crossword puzzle in the shape of our continent. QAGOMA have made both the questions and answers available on their blog. Some of them are pretty tricky, so this might be a good one for a virtual artworld trivia night with friends.
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.
“Heat and gravity were as much the materials as the glass itself,” says Rosalind Lemoh on her latest show at Canberra Glassworks that explores new mediums and influences for the Gundaroo-based artist.
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.
In 1841, the women aboard a British convict ship crafted a large-scale quilt known as ‘The Rajah quilt’. It’s one the most requested items from the National Gallery of Australia’s collection—and it’s now showing alongside a further 21 quilts, many crafted by women.
