Page 30-31 - Annual Review 2009

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Relive
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Tim Johnson:
Painting Ideas
13 June – 11 October 2009, GoMA
‘Tim Johnson: Painting Ideas’ spanned four
decades of work, from the artist’s early
experimental practice to his mature paintings,
where eclectic cultural and spiritual sources
converge. The selected works reflected
Johnson’s well-known engagement with
Aboriginal culture, his belief in collaboration
and his search for spiritual meaning, influenced
by Buddhist and other philosophies.
Organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales
and the Queensland Art Gallery.
This exhibition was supported by the Contemporary
Touring Initiative through Visions of Australia, an
Australian Government program, and the Visual
Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian,
State and Territory Governments.
The exhibition showed at the Art Gallery of New South
Wales, 13 March – 17 May 2009. It also showed at The Ian
Potter Museum of Art (The University of Melbourne),
11 November 2009 – 14 February 2010.
I want to paint pictures that
tell little-known stories about
my people — and there is no
limit to the number of those
personal histories.
Ron Hurley, 1994
Nurreegoo: The Art and Life
of Ron Hurley 1946–2002
8 August – 25 October 2009, GoMA
In recent decades, Brisbane has become
the seeding-ground for an exceptional
community of urban Indigenous artists,
performers, dancers, musicians, writers and
cultural activists, a group that is always early
to articulate the contemporary passions and
concerns of Indigenous Australians. The late
Ron Hurley — artist, activist, advocate — was
certainly one of the strongest voices in this
rich community. From his first exhibition in
Brisbane in 1966 to his early passing in 2002,
Hurley was at the centre of this increasingly
influential group, which consciously set
out to work with the life experiences of
Australia’s most numerous Indigenous
communities — those living in its urban
centres. This exhibition highlighted Hurley’s
distinguished career as one of the early
leaders of the urban political movement in
Aboriginal art.
This exhibition and publication were supported by
the Queensland Government, Australia through Trade
Queensland’s Queensland Indigenous Arts Marketing
and Export Agency (QIAMEA). QIAMEA promotes
Queensland’s Indigenous arts industry through
marketing and export activity throughout Australia
and internationally.
Ron Hurley with works from the ‘Stop Play Dreaming’ (Eddie Gilbert) series
(detail) / Image courtesy: Hurley Family, Brisbane
Artist Tim Johnson signing copies of the catalogue at the exhibition’s opening.
Below: Visitors in the exhibition space at the opening of ‘Tim Johnson: Painting Ideas’.