Contemporary Australia:
Women
‘Contemporary Australia: Women’ was the second in the Gallery’s series
of contemporary Australian art exhibitions and showcased new and
recent works by artists and artist groups across a range of media —
from sculpture and painting to installation, and from photography,
film and video to performance. Many works were commissioned for
the exhibition including spectacular large-scale ephemeral works.
‘Contemporary Australia: Women’
celebrated the way senior,
established and emerging Indigenous
and non-Indigenous women artists
have reshaped, and continue to shape
the landscape of contemporary
art in Australia through their
critical, provocative, unexpected
and illuminating contributions. The
project included the exhibition, a
performance program, a Children’s
Art Centre artist project, films and
public programs.
Female artists work across a range
of ideas and media with enormous
confidence, commitment and energy.
This creative energy is expressed
in many surprising ways — the
importance of cross-generational
exchange was evident in the
collaborative paintings from the
Tjala Arts Centre in South Australia’s
Amata community; a group of
performative works, collectively
entitled Embodied Acts, emphasised
the enterprising ways that many
younger artists are acting in and on
the world; and Fiona Hall’s interactive
Children’s Art Centre exhibition ‘Fly
Away Home’ highlighted the potential
for openness in artists’ dialogue with
audiences of all ages. ‘Contemporary
Australia: Women’ featured more
than 70 new and recent works, by
33 artists and collectives, a total of
56 visual artists.
Contemporary Australia: Women in
Film — a substantial and innovative
cinema program considering
representations of women in
Australian films by both female
and male directors — was integral
to this project. Renowned Australian
producer and critic Margaret
Pomeranz,
AM
was the guest curator
of this free film program which
also acknowledged the growing
representation of women behind the
scenes in such key production roles
as scriptwriters, cinematographers
and producers.
The exhibition was also
complemented by a series of art
talks, performances, workshops and
discussions. During ‘Contemporary
Australia: Women’, GOMA Talks,
presented in partnership with ABC
Radio National, tackled some of
the most topical questions about
contemporary Australia.
21 APRIL – 22 JULY 2012
GOMA
VISITORS
TOTAL TO GOMA DURING EXHIBITION
153 837
METROPOLITAN BRISBANE 54%
QUEENSLAND (EXCLUDING
METRO BRISBANE) 13%
INTERSTATE 17%
OVERSEAS 16%
Artist Hiromi Tango performing with
her work
X chromosome
2012 during
the opening weekend of ‘Contemporary
Australia: Women’ at the Gallery of
Modern Art, April 2012 / Photograph:
Brad Wagner
24
// REWIND
/ REVIEW 2012
