EXHIBITIONS

Soda_Jerk, 'TERROR NULLIUS', 2018, HD Video, 54 mins, courtesy the artists

Just Not Australian
18 January – 28 April

Just Not Australian brings together 19 artists across generations to deal broadly with the origins and implications of contemporary Australian nationhood. This timely thematic show will showcase the sensibilities of larrikinism, satire and resistance to interrogate presenting and representing Australian national identity. Included in the exhibition is the recent long-form video TERROR NULLIUS from Soda_Jerk, dubbed as part political satire, eco-horror and road movie - a political revenge fable that offers an unwriting of Australian national mythologies.

Just Not Australian will feature works by: Abdul Abdullah, Hoda Afshar, Tony Albert, Cigdem Aydemir, Liam Benson, Eric Bridgeman, Jon Campbell, Karla Dickens, Fiona Foley, Gordon Hookey, Richard Lewer, Archie Moore, Vincent Namatjira, Nell, Raquel Ormella, Ryan Presley, Joan Ross, Soda_Jerk, Tony Schwensen

Abdul Halik Azeez for 52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS, September, 2018, courtesy the artist

52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS
17 May – 4 August

52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS surveys Artspace’s ambitious, year-long online project running from January 2018 – January 2019 highlighting artistic practice across Asia. The project commissioned 52 artists and collectives to stage actions in unique locations throughout the region and share them with global audiences online. The exhibition brings this rich collection into the Artspace galleries to address the social, cultural and political implications of working in the region and consider how art as action has the power to invoke change. Key to the project is an engagement with Asia and its diaspora as an endlessly evolving region with sub-cultures and subjectivities that defy traditional or rigid narratives.

With 52 artists and collectives from 31 countries. 

Mel O'Callaghan, 'Centre of the Centre', concept image, courtesy the artist

Mel O'Callaghan
Centre of the Centre
21 August – 27 October

Centre of the Centre is a major new commission for Artspace that traces the origins of life and its regenerative forces, iterated through video, performance and sculpture. The catalyst for this new body of work is one small mineral given to the artist by her grandfather, renowned mineralogist Albert Chapman. The mineral contains a small pocket of water, possibly millions of years old, which holds traces of the elemental forces responsible for all life on earth. Inspired by the potentialities and extreme conditions within this primordial liquid, the exhibition submerges the audience in a highly visceral experience through sensory breathing techniques and experiential performance.

NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship, installation view, Artspace, Sydney, 2018. Photo: Zan Wimberley

2019 NSW Visual Arts
Emerging Fellowship
14 November – 15 December

The NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship is awarded annually by Create NSW and presented in partnership with Artspace. Each year Create NSW convenes an independent judging panel of artists and industry professionals to determine the finalists from a highly competitive pool of NSW-based applicants. These artists then undertake a period of development with the Artspace curatorial team, working towards an ambitious group exhibition, from which one artist is awarded $30,000 to contribute to a program of professional development.

INTERNATIONAL VISITING CURATORS PROGRAM 

The 2019 Artspace and UNSW Art & Design International Visiting Curators Program: Jay Pather, Director, Institute for Creative Arts, Cape Town; Laura Raicovich, independent curator and writer, New York; Pavel S. Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Wonseok Koh, Chief Curator and Head of Exhibition Division, Seoul Museum of Art; and Jamillah James, Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.