Look! New Perspectives on the Contemporary Collection

• 17 July–26 October 2008
• Free Entry
• The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Anne-Marie May
born Australia 1965
Untitled (Construction of coloured rays) 1993
coloured felt
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Margaret Stewart Endowment, 1994
© Anne-Marie May

A fresh take on the NGV’s extensive holdings of contemporary art will be brought together in a new exhibition opening 17 July 2008. Look! New Perspectives on the Contemporary Collection will be the first NGV exhibition curated by Dr Alex Baker, the recently appointed Senior Curator of Contemporary Art.

The exhibition will comprise of almost 40 works from the early 1970s to today, including painting, works on paper, sculpture, photography and video.  Many of the works in Look! have not been seen for many years. Several of the works are recent additions to the Collection, including works by David Jolly and Blair Trethowan.

Drawn entirely from the NGV Collection, Look! brings together a wide range of works from contemporary artists exploring the cultural and social issues of contemporary life.

The exhibition will explore themes such as death, identity, technology and mass media, and the culture of consumption.

Artists include:  Luigi Fusinato, James Morrison, Luke Parker, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Richard Bell, David McDiarmid, Nick Mangan, Eamon O’Toole, Damien Hirst, Blair Trethowan, Narelle Jubelin, Kate Rohde, Ant Farm, and many more. While most of the works featured are by Australian artists, several are by British, American, and New Zealand artists.

Highlights of the exhibition include Jake and Dinos Chapman’s Exquisite Corpse etchings; Richard Bell’s Lingua Franca which reads “I am Not Sorry,” taking former Prime Minister John Howard to task for refusing to apologise to Aboriginal people; and the late Blair Trethowan’s painted sticker-collage portrait of a woman entitled Sweating Logos, a clever comment on consumerism.

Dr Baker, who has come to the NGV from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, said selecting the artworks for Look! was a great way to get to know the NGV Collection.

“Getting to know the contemporary Collection, especially the Australian works, has been a very rewarding experience. This has been the most exciting way for me to receive a crash course on Australian contemporary art.”

“Incorporating both recently acquired art from the new century and works from as far back as the 1970s, the exhibition explores how gallery collections are fluid entities that generate new meaning over time. All of the works featured in Look! are highly subjective and their significance will differ for each viewer,” said Dr Baker.

Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director, NGV said: “The array of works in Look! demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of the NGV’s Contemporary Collection. This exhibition will provide viewers with a different, international view on contemporary art in Australia; we expect it will stimulate debate and discussion amongst gallery goers.”

Look! New Perspectives on the Contemporary Collection is on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square from 17 July – 26 October 2008.