Tag: Art Gallery of South Australia
Jacobus Capone
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024 Blog,In 2007, at the age of 21, Jacobus Capone took a scoop of water from the Indian Ocean, walked across Australia, and emptied it in the Pacific. The journey took five-and-a-half months and killed off any relationship he ever had with his native country. “That was my last university project,” he recalls. “I was very […]
Ramsay Art Prize 2023
Tuesday, June 13th, 2023 Sydney Morning Herald Column,To the best of my knowledge, until late last month there had never been a major Australian art prize awarded to a performance piece. It had to happen eventually, and the breakthrough moment came at the Art Gallery of South Australia, where local girl, Ida Sophia, took out the $100,000 Ramsay Art Prize, for her […]
Adelaide Biennial 2022: Free/State
Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Sebastian Goldspink is pioneering a new model of curatorship – the sensitive, caring custodian. At the opening of the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Goldspink seemed to waver on the brink of tears every time he had to make a speech, which, as guest curator, was pretty […]
Tarnanthi 2021
Tuesday, December 21st, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,If there’s an image that stays in the mind after seeing Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia, it’s a pale, ghostly Wandjina by Angelina Karadada Boona. This mysterious spirit figure, whose origins disappear in the mists of prehistory, has been reinvented as an elusive portrait. It’s here and not-quite-here; captured in the act […]
Ramsay Art Prize 2021
Tuesday, June 1st, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Still basking in the success of its Clarice Beckett survey the Art Gallery of South Australia is now pushing hard in the field of contemporary art. The Beckett exhibition was a major feat of historical restitution but the 2021 Ramsay Art Prize is focused on the future. The $100,000 first prize is awarded not simply […]
Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment
Tuesday, March 30th, 2021 Sydney Morning Herald Column,On a rainy day in Sydney it feels completely appropriate to be writing about Clarice Beckett. She was an artist for whom the ideal atmospheric conditions were overcast, a bit misty. Her work is all about the weather. As a subject it couldn’t be more commonplace but it transports us into a realm of indistinct […]
Adelaide Biennial 2020: Monster Theatres
Saturday, March 7th, 2020 Sydney Morning Herald Column,“Monster” is a word that invites the most contradictory responses. We think of a monster as something hideous, out-of-the-ordinary, dark and dangerous, but given the opportunity to see one we come running. This is borne out by the popularity of horror movies, the freak shows that drew audiences to carnivals and fairs, the perennial fascination […]
Tarnanthi 2019
Thursday, October 24th, 2019 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Since its inception in 2015, Tarnanthi has rapidly become one of this country’s essential art events. The word, in the Kaurna language of the Adelaide Plains means “to rise, come forth, spring up or appear,” but a more appropriate verb might be: “to mushroom”. The major attraction of this sprawling festival of indigenous culture is […]
Colours of Impressionism
Thursday, April 26th, 2018 Sydney Morning Herald Column,Impressionism is probably the most popular art movement of all time – which would have been a surprise to those who participated in the first ‘Impressionist’ salon of 1874. The group was actually called Le Société anonyme des artistes, peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs, and included no fewer than 30 artists. The term “Impressionism” was drawn […]
The 2018 Adelaide Biennial: Divided Worlds
Friday, March 9th, 2018 Sydney Morning Herald Column,It’s a time-honoured tradition that large museum surveys of contemporary art should have titles so vague and all-encompassing as to be effectively meaningless. Yet it may be that with Divided Worlds, Erica Green, the curator of the 2018 Adelaide Biennial, has found a title that actually feels relevant. Two decades into the 21st century the […]