JUNE 2024
AMALA GROOM’s and ANDREW BURRELL’s ‘can’t buy me love’ is currently showing until the 29th June at ISEA2024 EVERYWHEN in Meanjin (Brisbane) during the 29th International Symposium of Electronic Art.
Presented through the lens of virtual reality, ‘can’t buy me love’ is an immersive experience that purports to sell the audience the intangibility of spiritual enlightenment. It brings “reality” into a space that is “unreal” and where the item that is for sale is one that cannot be bought. ‘can’t buy me love’ was developed with support from The UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and the UTS Faculty of Law and as part of the 2021 UTS Artist in Residence Program.
More info here
AMALA GROOM’s collaboration with Nike was showcased at Mudgee Arts Precinct in Mudgee New South Wales. Amala’s artwork was made in consultation with and written support from “do it” curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Named after an amalgamation between the Nike slogan coined by Dan Wieden (deceased 2022) of the advertising firm Wieden and Kennedy, ‘JUST DO IT’, and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s ongoing international instructional art project ‘do it’, this work seeks to act as an invitation for the audience to participate in sharing the legacy of Wiradyuri culture to follow their feelings over their intellect. "The answers to everything are in our culture".
BILLY BAIN is for the second year in a row a finalist in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a work titled “The Fighters”.
‘In the wake of the referendum and with ongoing global conflicts pertaining to colonisation, I have found that art has been my coping mechanism,’ says two-time Wynne finalist Billy Bain. ‘This group of characters embody the unwavering intergenerational fighting spirit of First Nations peoples, particularly the grassroots physical protestors that I have encountered since moving into the city.’
The work will be displayed at the AGNSW until the 8th September.
More info here
ROBERT FIELDING is a first time finalist in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a work titled Mayatja (keeper of song and culture). Robert Fielding’s subject, Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, is a senior Pitjantjatjara Elder and artist committed to passing on her Aṉangu cultural knowledge. She was a finalist in the 2023 Wynne Prize.
‘Ngintja is my nanna, a cultural leader, a boss, an artist and a storyteller. She has been a teacher to our kids, a teacher to me. She is a person of beauty, power and significance, passing on tjukurpa (story) and inma (songs)’. The work will be displayed at the AGNSW until the 8th September.
More info here
ROBERT FIELDING is also a finalist in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a work titled Nganampa Manta which represents an expanse of country found on the edge of Mimili within the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia. Robert Fielding, a first-time Wynne and Archibald Prize finalist, has returned to this place many times over the past 30 years. ‘When I first moved to Mimili, I was just learning my culture’s ways,’ says Fielding. ‘This was a place from which I could watch, observe, learn, and sit in silence, listening to country, listening to inma (ceremonial song and dance), watching from afar.’
The work will be displayed at the AGNSW until the 8th September.
More info here
ROBERT FIELDING’s exhibition titled NYARU, curated by Erin Vink and Aimee Frodsham, is currently on display until the 21st July at Canberra Glassworks. In the words of curator Aimee Frodsham, NYARU is “...a two-year collaboration resulting in a residency and the exhibition (Nyaru) and would be a continuation of his work with cars salvaged from Country. The title reflects Fielding’s desire to look forward as well as acknowledging the past – he sees the regrowth on burnt-out country. Fielding’s collaboration with Canberra Glassworks would also provide an opportunity to include Erin Vink (Ngiyampaa) as our Writer in Residence. Vink and Fielding have a trusted and deeply connected working relationship. She joined Fielding in Canberra and together they inspired each other and worked side by side. This convergence of talent, enthusiasm, and drive to share stories would result in the creation of this remarkable body of work and catalogue".
More info here
BETTY CAMPBELL is a second time finalist in the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (Natsiaa) in Darwin. Now in its 41st year, the exhibition will be on display from 22nd June 2024 until 27th January 2025 with the awards ceremony and official opening to be hosted on 9th August.
More info here