Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art Surveys 21st Century International Art

BRISBANE, Australia, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- An ambitious exhibition of contemporary international art from the first decade of the twenty-first century will be presented at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Brisbane, Australia from December 18, 2010 to April 25, 2011.

  Queensland Art Gallery Director Tony Ellwood said '21st Century: Art in the First Decade' would showcase over 180 works by more than 100 senior and emerging artists from 40 countries, with most of the work from the Gallery's own collection.

  'The Queensland Art Gallery has forged new territory in contemporary art over the past 20 years with its Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) exhibition series and Asian and Pacific collections. '21st Century' signals a commitment to be truly international in contemporary art collection development,' Mr Ellwood said.

  The exhibition highlights the Gallery's acquisitions over the past decade with works from Australia, Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North, South and Central America.

  It will present a series of commissions, loans from Australian and international institutions, and a curated children's program of interactive works.

  An exhibition blog, www.21Cblog.com will feature commentary from international curators and writers including co-curators for the 2011 Istanbul Biennial Jens Hoffman (USA) and Adriano Pedrosa (Brazil) and Tom Vanderbilt (USA).

  'The '21st Century' project will explore artistic responses to the impact of global political, economic, environmental and technological change, and current ideas about contemporary art and the role of museums in the tumultuous first decade of the new millennium.

  'Some works respond specifically to issues which have preoccupied us during the decade, while others address broader social and political themes, or find new expressions for longstanding aesthetic and philosophical concerns,' he said.

  'The exhibition will introduce audiences to works that represent key moments of impact in recent contemporary art that would have been unthinkable in previous decades.

  'The Gallery is delighted to be working with Stockholm-based artist Carsten Holler to produce an ambitious new commission that will see the installation of two spiral-shaped slides in GoMA's foyer. The slides will have an elegant, sculptural presence at the entrance to the exhibition and will send visitors hurtling between the Gallery's third floor and ground level.

  'Other exhibition highlights include Leandro Erlich's astounding trompe l'oeil sculpture, Swimming pool, which represented Argentina at the 2001 Venice Biennale; Turner Prize winner Martin Creed's Half the air in a given space, in which half the volume of one of GoMA's galleries will be filled with purple balloons; and a major new sound work by French artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot in which visitors will share a gallery with live zebra finches.

  'Other important commissions include Untitled (NASDAQ) 2003 by Claude Closky (France), a wallpaper work that prefigured the financial crisis of 2009, Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou's installation of thousands of plastic bags that form an enormous colourful sculptural form, and a new wall drawing by Mexican artist Jorge Mendez Blake.

  '21st Century' will showcase film and video works, including major works by Shaun Gladwell (Australia), Isaac Julien (UK), Robin Rhode (South Africa), Aernout Mik (The Netherlands) and Ryan Trecartin (USA).

  New acquisitions being unveiled include work by Romuald Hazoume (Benin), Frederic Bruly Bouabre (Cote d'Ivoire), Mitra Tabrizian (Iran), Guy Tillim (South Africa), Olaf Breuning (Switzerland), SUPERFLEX (Denmark) and Sharif Waked (Palestine).

  '21st Century' will be complemented by two major cinema programs, extensive public programs and a publication featuring critical texts by Australian and international writers and curators.

   For more information please visit www.qag.qld.gov.au

   MEDIA INQUIRIES:

   Amelia Gundelach,

   Queensland Art Gallery

   tel: +61-(0)-7-3840-7162

   e: [email protected]

SOURCE Queensland Art Gallery

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