CONTENTS 04 FROM THE DIRECTOR 06 2018 SNAPSHOT 08 2018 IN REVIEW EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS, ARTWORK 48 EXHIBITION PROGRAM 52 2019 PREVIEW COVER | Jonathan Jones, Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi peoples, with Dr Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM / (untitled) giran 2018 / Bindu-gaany (freshwater mussel shell), gabudha (rush), gawurra (feathers), marrung dinawan (emu egg), walung (stone), wambuwung dhabal (kangaroo bone), wayu (string), wiiny (wood), 48-channel soundscape / Sound design: Luke Mynott, Sonar Sound / Purchased 2018 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the QAGOMA Foundation / Photograph: Natasha Harth Pannaphan Yodmanee / In the aftermath (installation view, detail) 2018 / Found objects, artist-made icons, plaster, resin, concrete, steel, pigment / Site-specific installation / Commissioned for APT9 / Proposed for the QAGOMA Collection / Photograph: Natasha Harth 5 FROM THE FROM THE DIRECTOR DIRECTOR The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of celebration of cinema. On top of all of this, Modern Art (QAGOMA) saw out 2018 on a we celebrated a number of extraordinary gifts, high note, with ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial staged a range of innovative new programs of Contemporary Art’ attracting large and welcomed 1.46 million visitors. numbers of visitors across both buildings For the support to do all of this and more, following weeks of intense construction the Gallery thanks Premier Annastacia and installation, not least including the Palaszczuk and Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch, onsite production of several large-scale the Department of Premier and Cabinet, commissions. APT9 has drawn consistent Department of Environment and Science and praise for its thoughtful response to the art Arts Queensland. We acknowledge too our of the region and is, by increasing critical diverse supporters, committed sponsors and agreement, one of the best to date. generous donors. I would like to thank our Looking back, 2018 opened with exhibitions Chair, Professor Ian O’Connor AC, and Deputy by two of the world’s most celebrated artists, Chair Rick Wilkinson, the Board of Trustees, Yayoi Kusama and Gerhard Richter, which QAGOMA Foundation President Tim Fairfax AC made way for major solo exhibitions by two and the Foundation Committee, alongside the leading Australian artists: the brilliantly Gallery’s indefatigable Executive Management revealing text-based assemblages of Team and staff. Queensland prodigal son Tony Albert and Most importantly, I want to acknowledge the fantastical, challenging creations of the the wider community, those that bring our renowned Patricia Piccinini. The activation buildings to life in many ways: the artists, of James Turrell’s landmark architectural visitors and supporters who make possible light work Night Life 2018 transformed the this vital cultural sanctuary. banks of the Maiwar (Brisbane River) in July and gave new life to GOMA at night. We were thrilled to present, for the first time, the CHRIS SAINES CNZM Brisbane International Film Festival, a global DIRECTOR, QAGOMA Prof Ian O’Connor AC, Chair, Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees; Dr Zara Stanhope, Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, QAGOMA; The Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for Trade; The Hon. Leeanne Enoch MP, Minister for the Arts; and Chris Saines CNZM, Director, QAGOMA at the Official Opening of APT9 / Photograph: Joe Ruckli 35 367 PARTICIPANTS 2 739 VOLUNTEER- FROM STUDENT GUIDED TOURS FOR GROUPS 13 671 VISITORS 7 ATTENDANCE 556 2018 OF 1.46 MILLION ARTWORKS SNAPSHOT ACQUIRED QAG: 659 000 18 464 WORKS IN THE GOMA: 803 000 COLLECTION CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER: 263 500 Students inside Patricia Piccinini’s Pneutopia 2018 / Site-specific installation for ‘Curious Affection’ / May / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon 79 TOURS FOR Descriptive tours for visitors with low or no vision included a PEOPLE WITH tactile experience / October / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon DISABILITY 14 887 VISITORS TO 134 PUBLIC PROGRAMS QAGOMA SOCIAL MEDIA FANBASE 104 000 FACEBOOK LIKES 41 616 VIEWERS TO 53 400 TWITTER FOLLOWERS 719 SCREENINGS OF 434 FILMS AT 57 000 INSTAGRAM THE AUSTRALIAN FOLLOWERS CINÉMATHÈQUE 53 228 VISITORS TO EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS An exclusive Chairman’s Circle screening of George Melford’s desert fantasy QAGOMA Members Meet and Make with Fancy Free IN REGIONAL The Sheik 1921 was accompanied by organist David Bailey on the Gallery’s (Patience Hodgson and Rachel Burke) / October / Visitors take in the glow of James Turrell’s Night Life 2018 during historic 1929 Wurlitzer organ / February / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon Photograph: Joe Ruckli QUEENSLAND the opening event / July / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon Cloud Control perform at Up Late during ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’, GOMA / July / Photograph: Joe Ruckli SUMMER 2017–18 GERHARD RICHTER THE LIFE OF IMAGES 14 OCTOBER 2017 – 4 FEBRUARY 2018 | GOMA YAYOI KUSAMA LIFE IS THE HEART Summer Up Late included performances from Sydney’s Lupa J OF A RAINBOW (pictured) and US musician Laurel Halo, alongside the artwork of Richter and Kusama / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon 11 4 NOVEMBER 2017 – 11 FEBRUARY 2018 | GOMA Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, Curatorial Manager, International Art, 2018 QAGOMA and QUT’s Professor Andrew McNamara discuss representing the unrepresentable, with reflections on Richter’s four-part painting IN In adjacent exhibitions, the Gallery’s program for Birkenau 2014 / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon REVIEW summer 2017–18 celebrated two of the world’s most prolific and respected artists. A focused survey of the vast career of senior Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama explored her engagement with the body and conception of space, including in her globally popular immersive infinity rooms. Co-curated with the National Gallery Singapore, ‘Life is the Heart of a Rainbow’ went on to be shown at Museum MACAN, Indonesia. Exclusive to Brisbane, ‘The Life of Images’ was the first major survey in Australia forGerhard Richter. It chronicled the renowned German artist’s inimitable vicissitude across abstract, portrait and landscape paintings, and the lifelong rigour of his archival Atlas project. The monthly Kusama Sundays program, including Art Therapy Lounge sessions, were held during ‘Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow’ / Photograph: Joe Ruckli Opera Queensland’s Reprise program saw performances of influential and iconic German compositions by Bach, Schubert, Richard Strauss and Henze, Gerhard Richter’s Atlas overview 1962–ongoing was an with newly commissioned songs by Paul Grabowsky and Megan Washington excerpt of 400 panels from the artist’s painstaking and written in response to ‘Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images’ and performed sustained archival project / Photograph: Joe Ruckli alongside the exhibition / Image courtesy: Opera Queensland QAGOMA’s Art and Dementia program offered bespoke experiences for visitors with dementia and their carers throughout 2018. JANUARY & FEBRUARY The program creates a space to socialise, reminisce and create artworks in response to the Collection, within a dementia-friendly community environment. QAGOMA’s Art and Dementia program receives valued support from Kevin Dick and Kylie Hunt, of Brisbane’s 20/20 Optical, and the Morgans Foundation. Photographs: Chloë Callistemon QAGOMA Members made the most of their 13 year-round program, including regular Lunch and 2018 Lecture events and Meet and Mingle opportunities. Members expanded their understanding of colour IN REVIEW in a day-long painting workshop with artist John Honeywill in February. Photographs: Chloë Callistemon and Joe Ruckli The reimagined Australian Collection display, freshly installed in late 2017, has allowed visitors to rediscover highlights of QAGOMA’s holdings across historical, contemporary and Indigenous Australian art, including through this Drawing Workshop led by artist Katie O’Dempsey in February. Photograph: Brad Wagner PATRICIA PICCININI CURIOUS AFFECTION 24 MARCH – 5 AUGUST 2018 | GOMA ‘Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection’ was the most expansive solo exhibition to date for an Australian artist at QAGOMA. The artist’s fantastic creatures and other-worldly landscapes inhabited all of GOMA’s ground floor as Piccinini combined the recognisable with the unfamiliar in surprising and deeply affecting ways that speculated about the convergence of worlds. Unburdened by cultural assumptions, the works in ‘Curious Affection’ proposed new, more mutable laws of nature and elicited an overwhelming sense of empathy. Attracting over 100 000 visitors, the 15 exhibition was complemented by an extensive film The artist takes visitors into The Grotto 2018 during the exhibition program, Up Late, GOMA Talks and a standalone media preview / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon 2018 Children’s Art Centre experience, ‘Patricia Piccinini: IN Curious Creatures’. REVIEW The Observer (installation view, detail) 2010 / Photograph: Brad Wagner Curious Creatures encouraged children in imaginative play as they discovered strange creatures The artist at the Official Opening with her children that inhabited a burrow-like environment. Roxy and Hector / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon Photograph: Joe Ruckli The deluxe exhibition publication included installation photography and contributions from exhibition curator Peter McKay, women’s studies pioneer Professor Rosi Braidotti, and Dr Elizabeth Finkel (Editor, Cosmos Magazine), alongside a short story by award-winning author China Miéville. Patricia worked closely with the Gallery team, including graphic designer Sarah Newport. Photograph: Chloë Callistemon Up Late