By Haema Sivanesan, AGGV Curator
I was “back home” in Sydney in early March, just before the COVID-19 pandemic was announced, and was gratified -– more than 30 years later — to be attending the opening of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, titled Nirin. For the first time in its history, the Biennale was being curated by an Aboriginal artist, Brook Andrew, a Wiradjuri man, whose ancestral lands are in central New South Wales.
When the print media became a preferred medium for many First Nations artists, the artists practicing in the Northwest Coast developed a distinctive aesthetic culture that grew over the past 60 years. This is what is generally termed Coast Salish art.
To Talk With Others responds to the minutes of a meeting in August of 1977 between Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and five Yukon First Nations leaders regarding the then-approved Mackenzie Pipeline.
With the AGGV currently involved in a multitude of collaborations with artists and organizations, locally and internationally, Family Sunday kicked off the new season with amazing guest artists associated with exhibitions currently on show and in the works.
By Marina DiMaio, AGGV Curatorial Assistant
Dylan Thomas’s work has been deeply influenced by a lifelong passion for Northwest Coast art, as well as, Vajrayana Buddhist mandalas, Celtic knots, Islamic tessellations, and many other ancient geometric art traditions.
Matriarchs: Prints by First Nations Women is an exhibition that aims to build relationships with First Nations artists and is guest-curated by Margaret August, a Two-Spirited, Coast Salish artist from Shíshálh Nation.
The artists involved in Imagining Fusang: Exploring Chinese and Indigenous Encounters were invited for a panel discussion in early July, where they revealed the motivation behind their individual interest in the concept of Fusang.
The realm of mythical beasts spans every culture and exists in all our folklore. We not only find them in our intangible heritage, but also in contemporary literature, art, film, science and culture. In the AGGV’s extensive collection of European, North American, First Nations and Asian art, a menagerie of fantastic beasts reveal countless stories.
By Audrey Wang, AGGV Volunteer For the exhibition Form As Meaning: First Nations Prints from the Pacific Northwest, the AGGV […]
By Audrey Wang, AGGV Volunteer Party For Our People is a public event celebrating the artists featured in the exhibitions […]