National Gallery announces 2022 Program
MEDIA RELEASE
09 02 2022
The National Gallery has announced its artistic program for 2022 which includes a range of exhibitions, contemporary projects from around the globe and freshly curated collection displays.
National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich said this year’s program reinforces the Gallery's commitment to First Nations and gender equity representation across the artistic program.
‘The National Indigenous Art Triennial is a part of the Gallery’s DNA and has showcased more than 100 artists over 15 years – helping bring new understanding and audiences to the work of First Nations artists’ said Mitzevich.
The fourth iteration, Ceremony, curated by Hetti Perkins, Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, will present the work of 35 artists as they explore how ceremonial acts continue to be a prevalent forum for artmaking in First Nations communities today.
The Gallery’s gender equity initiatives continue with exhibitions Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now and Cressida Campbell, the most comprehensive survey exhibition of Campbell's work – highlighting the depth and virtuosity of one of Australia's most significant contemporary artists.
Following the launch of the Contemporary Project Series in 2021 with Project 1: Sarah Lucas, contemporary art practices are a highlight of the year with three new projects by Angelica Mesiti (Aus), Kara Walker (US) and Justene Williams (Aus).
When the Gallery opened four decades ago, the vision was to collect art from around the world, and in its 40th year, we celebrate this with Worldwide – a major display drawn from the collection and inspired by the Gallery's founding history.
The National Gallery’s purpose is to collect, preserve, promote and share Australia’s collection of art nationally. Mitzevich says, ‘the national collection is owned by every Australian and our wish is to bring the collection closer to everyone. It is about putting the collection to work to help inspire communities. We will continue to share art with the widest possible audience in diverse and accessible ways, including onsite, online and on tour.’
See below for the full 2022 program.
Images available here.
Media enquiries:
Jessica Barnes | Communications Officer
m. 0431 731 140 | e. jessica.barnes@nga.gov.au
Diena Georgetti, SUPERSTUDIO 2015–2017, installation view, Know My Name: Australian Women Artists: 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2021. Diena Georgetti, SUPERSTUDIO
Major exhibition
KNOW MY NAME: AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ARTISTS 1900 TO NOW
PART TWO: until 26 Jun 22
Free, National Gallery, Level 1
'Know My Name is the start of an extraordinary era of collecting, exhibiting and presenting the work of women artists.’ – Natasha Bullock
The National Gallery continues to highlight the extraordinary contribution of women artists with part two of Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now. The exhibition looks at moments in which women created innovative forms of art. It examines cultural commentary, such as feminism, and highlights the creative and intellectual relationships that have existed between women artists throughout time.
Sarah Lucas, SUGAR 2020, installation view, Project 1: Sarah Lucas, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2021 © the artist.
Project 1
SARAH LUCAS
Until 18 Apr 22
Free, National Gallery, Level 1
‘I think art should be amateur … It should be done for love. I’ve neverseen art as a career—and I still don’t.’– Sarah Lucas
Project 1: Sarah Lucas brings together recent work by one of England’s most influential and unapologetic artists. Known for her use of crude and humorous imagery, this exhibition explores the representation and experience of gender and confronts the realities of bodily existence.
Project 1: Sarah Lucas is the first of the National Gallery’s Project Series and a Know My Name project.
Jeffrey Smart, Holiday (detail) 1971, private collection, courtesy of Menzies Art Brands, © The Estate of Jeffrey Smart.
Major exhibition
JEFFREY SMART
Until 15 May 22
Ticketed, Level 1
'Suddenly I will see something that seizes me—a shape, a combination of shapes, a play of light or shadows, and I send up a prayer because I know I have seen a picture.’ – Jeffrey Smart
The year 2021 marked one hundred years since the birth of acclaimed Australian artist Jeffrey Smart. This major exhibition celebrates and commemorates this significant centenary.
One of Australia’s most celebrated artists, Smart sought inspiration from the world around him – looking to the environment of urban and industrial modernity – which he transformed through his imaginative sense of theatre and intimate understanding of geometry and composition. These potent and intriguing images have become emblematic of 20th and 21st century urban experience.
Judy Watson, Waanyi people, joyce with queensland tenure map 2021, © Judy Watson/Copyright Agency.
Balnaves Contemporary Series
JUDY WATSON & HELEN JOHNSON:
the red thread of history, loose ends
19 Feb - 5 Jun 22
Free, Level 2
'It is that idea of breaking through and peeling back ignorance, looking at concealed history, at what lies beneath the ground; bringing that up to the viewer.' – Judy Watson, Waanyi people
Presenting new work by two of Australia’s leading artists – Judy Watson and Helen Johnson. Watson, a Waanyi woman, based on Jagera/Yuggera and Turrbal Country of Meanjin/Brisbane and Johnson, a second-generation immigrant of Anglo descent based in Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country in Naarm/Melbourne, have each developed new works that explore complex and varied perspectives on colonisation, with an emphasis on the experience of women.
Judy Watson & Helen Johnson is a Know My Name project and part of The Balnaves Contemporary Series.
Architect Col Madigan’s renders of the National Gallery of Australia building
Balnaves Contemporary Series
DANIEL CROOKS
4 — 14 Mar 22
Free, National Gallery façade daily from 8pm
‘One of the things I’m trying to do with my work is to offer another way of looking at the world.’ – Daniel Crooks
Naarm/Melbourne based artist Daniel Crooks has been commissioned to illuminate the National Gallery’s façade for the 2022 Enlighten Festival.
Held in the 40th anniversary year of the National Gallery, Crooks’ project celebrates the design of the original gallery building by architect, Col Madigan. Using the architect’s original geometric language as a point of departure, Crooks has created a suite of visual manipulations spanning geometry, architecture and perspective. The work culminates in a series of vignettes that visually manipulate the gallery façade through volume, colour, light and sound.
Presented in partnership with Events ACT. Daniel Crooks is part of The Balnaves Contemporary Series.
Hayley Millar Baker, Gunditjmara and Djabwurrung people, Nyctinasty (still, detail), 2021, image courtesy and © the artist.
Major exhibition
4TH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ART TRIENNIAL: CEREMONY
26 Mar — 31 Jul 22
Free, National Gallery, Temporary Exhibition Galleries
‘Ceremony transforms, celebrating what was and what will be. Like my work, it is a reminder that everything changes, but we forever hold our past, present and future within.’ – Robert Fielding, Western Arrernte, Yankunytjatjara people
Ceremony is the fourth iteration of the National Indigenous Art Triennial.
From the intimate and personal to the collective and collaborative, ceremonies manifest through visual art, film, music and dance. This immersive exhibition and program of events will challenge and unsettle; animate and heal. Through the work of 35 artists from around Australia, Ceremony reveals how the practice of ceremony is at the nexus of Country, culture and community.
Robert Rauschenberg, Booster; from Booster and 7 studies 1967,National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. © Robert Rauschenberg. VAGA/Copyright Agency.
Exhibition
RAUSCHENBERG & JOHNS: SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
11 Jun — 30 Oct 22
Free, National Gallery, Level 1
‘Jasper and I used to start each day by having to move out from Abstract Expressionism. We were the only people who were not intoxicated with [them].’ – Robert Rauschenberg
In the early 1950s, at the height of the Abstract expressionist movement, a new avant-garde began to emerge from a relationship between two young artists. From their run-down New York studios, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns began a private creative dialogue that introduced everyday signs, objects, and media into their work, collapsing the distinction between art and life. While their relationship would end after seven years, their art would continue to radiate the new ideas of their creative exchange.
This exhibition will draw upon the National Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler Collection and holdings of key works by their predecessors and contemporaries.
Kara Walker, © the artist.
Project 2
KARA WALKER
13 Aug — 5 Feb 23
Free, National Gallery, Level 2
‘Heroes are not completely pure, and villains are not purely evil. I’m interested in the continuity of conflict, the creation of racist narratives, or nationalist narratives, or whatever narratives people use to construct a group identity and to keep themselves whole.’ – Kara Walker
Race, slavery and sexuality are explored in the art of leading North American artist Kara Walker. The moving image work, Testimony: narrative of a negress burdened by good intentions 2004, which was acquired for the national collection in 2021, will form the centrepiece of the first monographic presentation of Walker’s art to be held in Australia.
Walker has been recognised for over two decades for her graphic work with black paper silhouettes. Her narratives subvert the racist imagery that was popularised during the era of slavery.
Angelica Mesiti, ASSEMBLY (still, detail) 2019, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts on the occasion of the 58th La Biennale di Venezia, courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, © the artist, photo by Bonnie Elliot.
Project 3
ANGELICA MESITI: ASSEMBLY
6 Aug 22 — 29 Jan 23
Free, National Gallery, Lower Ground
'In ASSEMBLY, I explore the space where communication moves from verbal and written forms to non-verbal, gestural and musical forms. The latter creates a sort of code upon which meaning, memory and imagination can be overlaid.’ – Angelica Mesiti
A leading voice of her generation, Angelica Mesiti represented Australia at the 58th Venice Biennale with the three-channel video installation ASSEMBLY.
In ASSEMBLY, Mesiti probes the nature of connection. She uses a stenographic machine to transpose into shorthand Australian writer David Malouf’s To Be Written in Another Tongue (1976). These notes become the basis of a musical score by Australian composer Max Lyandvert and a dance performance by the First Nations choreographer Deborah Brown. In the work, these are performed by musicians and dancers who represent the many ancestries that make up contemporary Australia.
Project 3: Angelica Mesiti: ASSEMBLY was commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts and is a Know My Name project.
Cressida Campbell, Japanese Hydrangeas (detail) 2005, private collection, © Cressida Campbell.
Major exhibition
CRESSIDA CAMPBELL
24 Sep 22 — 29 Jan 23
Ticketed, Temporary Exhibition Galleries
‘My main inspiration comes from what is directly around me in the house or garden, I remember combinations of colours I see in houses, pictures, gardens, buildings or sculptures here and round the world.’ – Cressida Campbell
Cressida Campbell is among Australia’s most significant contemporary artists working with painting and printmaking. Directly inspired by her surroundings, for over 40 years the Gadigal/Sydney-based artist has transformed commonplace experiences from her life into single edition prints and painted woodblocks.
Combining keen observation with a delicacy of line, Campbell’s woodblock paintings and prints capture the overlooked beauty of the everyday. Through her views of a working harbour or burnt bushland, an arrangement of nasturtiums or a plate of ripening persimmons, the artist celebrates the transitory moments of life.
The survey exhibition will present the depth and virtuosity of Campbell's work, extending from intimate interior views through to panoramic coastal landscapes.
Cressida Campbell is a Know My Name exhibition.
Ramingining artists, The Aboriginal memorial (detail) 1987–1989, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra.
Collection
WORLDWIDE
From 10 Sep 22
Free, National Gallery, Level 1
‘Art is a cultural expression; a history of a people; a statement through a series of life experiences of self-definition; a recounting of an untold story; the bringing to light of a truth of history — a statement possibly unable to be made in any other way.’ – Djon Mundine, Bandjalung people
This major collection display is structured around pivotal works in the collection, at the heart of which is The Aboriginal Memorial of 200 dupun (hollow log coffins). One of the most significant installations in Australian art history, together these dupun stand as a memorial to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives lost to colonial and ongoing conflict and trauma in Australia from 1788–1988.
Working across time, place and media, Worldwide charts aspects of modern art, the cultural traditions of Australia, Asia and the Pacific, the centrality of First Nations art to understanding place, and the radical experimentation of each era. It celebrates the diversity of art and cultures across the globe and shows how fundamental ideas such as landscape, abstraction, memory, the body and the power of art itself continue to resonate, demonstrating the interconnectedness of culture and our experience of the world.
Justene Williams, Selected costumes from Victory over the Sun, 2016, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 2021 © Justene Williams. Image courtesy of the artist and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Gadigal Nura/Sydney
Project 4
JUSTENE WILLIAMS:
VICTORY OVER THE SUN
Oct 22
Free, National Gallery
'I say it looks Baroque Grunge. I came from the 90s grunge scene that was big in Sydney, and I don’t think I’ll ever lose its influence: that free-play messiness, that Arte Povera aesthetic.’ – Justene Williams
Justene Williams’ performance Victory over the sun reimagines the futurist opera that caused a riot in the streets of Saint Petersburg in 1913.
Williams' adaptation of Victory over the sun recasts the opera with diverse bodies and reinterprets the costume designs originally made by the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. The performance depicts the revolutionary overthrow of the sun, with characters trapping it in a black box to stop time and reimagine civilisation. Meanjin/Brisbane-based artist Williams has been making and exhibiting work since the 1990s. Her work utilises video, photography, sculpture and performance, often fused into high-energy environments.
Justene Williams is a Know My Name project.
Patricia Piccinini, Skywhale 2013 and Skywhalepapa 2020, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, © Patricia Piccinini.
Touring exhibition
SKYWHALES: EVERY HEART SINGS
Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW | 15 JAN 22
Walkway Gallery, SA | 19 FEB 22
Adelaide Festival, SA | 5 MAR 22
MPavilion, VIC | 2 APR 22
Hamilton Art Gallery, VIC | 14 MAY 22
Art Gallery of Ballarat, VIC | 9 JUL 22
Cairns Art Gallery, QLD | 3 SEP 22
Araluen Arts Centre, NT | 24 SEP 22
Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW | 22 OCT 22
'The Every Heart Sings project exists to bring people together, whether it is to celebrate the skywhales taking off, or help with putting them away, or just see them randomly as they fly overhead.’ – Patricia Piccinini
Communities across Australia have the chance to see Skywhale take flight with Patricia Piccinini’s latest addition to the family, Skywhalepapa, during a national tour of these much-loved works from the national collection.
Skywhales: Every Heart Sings is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition and the third instalment of The Balnaves Contemporary Series. The tour has been made possible thanks to the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and Visions of Australia.
Ethel Spowers, School is out (detail) 1936, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra.
Touring exhibition
SPOWERS & SYME
Canberra Museum and Gallery, ACT | Until 12 Feb 22
Western Plains Cultural Centre, NSW | 26 Feb — 1 May 22
Geelong Gallery, VIC | 16 Jul — 16 Oct 22
'Is it too great a truism to repeat that the best art is always the child of its own age?’ – Eveline Syme
Celebrating the artistic friendship of Naarm/Melbourne artists Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, the touring exhibition Spowers & Syme presents the changing face of interwar Australia through the perspective of two women artists.
The exhibition offers rare insight into the unlikely collaboration between the daughters of rival media families. Spowers & Syme showcases the artists’ dynamic approach to lino and woodcut techniques through prints and drawings. The rhythmic patterns of these works reflect the fast pace of the modern world through everyday observations of childhood themes, overseas travel and urban life.
Spowers & Syme is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition and Know My Name project.
Michael Cook, Bidjara people, Broken dreams #2 (detail) 2010, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, © the artist.
Touring exhibition
EVER PRESENT: FIRST PEOPLES ART OF AUSTRALIA
Art Gallery of Western Australia | until 18 Apr 22
National Gallery, Singapore | 27 May – 25 Sep 22
‘"Ever present” is a very powerful statement. It reminds me that my culture has been here for countless generations. I am a result of my ancestors who walked before me and I am a vessel that will continue to teach the generations to come so that our culture, our people, will be forever present.’ – Alick Tipoti, Kala Lagaw Ya people
Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia surveys historical and contemporary works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia. Drawn from the collections of the National Gallery and The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, the works bridge time and place and are interconnected through story and experience.
Ever Present is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition in partnership with Wesfarmers Arts and the Australian Government through the Office for the Arts.
Yayoi Kusama, THE SPIRITS OF THE PUMPKINS DESCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS 2017, installation view, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, © YAYOI KUSAMA.
Touring exhibition
YAYOI KUSAMA: THE SPIRITS OF THE PUMPKINS DESCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS
Art Gallery of South Australia, SA | 2 Apr 22 — 23
‘The world I see is endless space.’ – Yayoi Kusama
Described as ‘the world’s most popular artist’, 92-year-old Japanese-born Yayoi Kusama is best known for her immersive polka-dot and mirror installations. Over the course of her 60-year career, she has engaged with an expansive idea of space and the human body. She uses several recurring motifs—dots, eyes, nets and pumpkins—to investigate repetition and to create sensory experiences that hint at the infinite.
Yayoi Kusama: THE SPIRITS OF THE PUMPKINS DESCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition made possible with the support of Andrew and Hiroko Gwinnett.
Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, still from Terminus 2018, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra.
Touring exhibition
TERMINUS: JESS JOHNSON & SIMON WARD
Hamilton Gallery, VIC | 8 Apr — 5 Jun 22
Hazelhurst Art Gallery, NSW | 25 Jun — 28 Aug 22
Western Plains Cultural Centre Dubbo, NSW | 8 Oct — 4 Dec 22
Western Plains Cultural Centre Dubbo, NSW | 8 Oct — 4 Dec 22
‘It will be artists who will harness technology and use it in ways we can’t even imagine yet, opening up new genres in storytelling, communication, expression and exploration.’ – Jess Johnson
Inspired by sci-fi, comics and fantasy movies, Jess Johnson & Simon Ward: Terminus is a virtual reality installation that transports the viewer into an imaginary landscape of colour and pattern. Terminus is in the third year of its 12-venue national tour.
Part of The Balnaves Contemporary Series, Terminus is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition made possible thanks to the Australian Government through its Visions of Australia and National Collecting Institutions Outreach Program.
Robert Fielding, Western Arrernte, Yankunytjatjara people, Graveyards in between 2017, image courtesy the artist and Mimili Maku Arts © the artist.
Touring exhibition
4TH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ART TRIENNIAL: CEREMONY
From Aug 22
‘Ceremonies have always been and will always be the backbone of my life.’ – Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu, Dhuwala people
The 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony will tour the country as a National Gallery Touring Exhibition made possible thanks to the Australian Government through its Visions of Australia and National Collecting Institutions Outreach Program.
Helen Johnson, A feast of reason and a flow of soul (detail) 2016, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Tate, with support from the Qantas Foundation in 2015, purchased 2018, courtesy the artist.
Touring exhibition
JUDY WATSON & HELEN JOHNSON: the red thread of history, loose ends
From Sep 22
‘It is that idea of breaking through and peeling back ignorance, looking at concealed history, at what lies beneath the ground; bringing that up to the viewer.’ – Judy Watson, Waanyi people
Judy Watson & Helen Johnson: the red thread of history, loose ends will tour the country as a National Gallery Touring Exhibition.
Judy Watson & Helen Johnson is part of The Balnaves Contemporary Series. The national tour is made possible thanks to the Australian Government through its National Collecting Institutions Outreach Program.
Jasper Johns, Bent “Blue” from Fragments - according to what 1971, © Jasper Johns. VAGA/Copyright Agency.
Touring exhibition
RAUSCHENBERG & JOHNS: SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
Hazelhurst Art Gallery Gymea, NSW | 7 Nov 22 – 5 Feb 23
‘The kind of exchange we had was stronger than talking. If you do something, then I do something.’ – Jasper Johns
Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others will tour the country as a National Gallery Touring Exhibition made possible thanks to the Australian Government through Visions of Australia.
Various works featured in the National Gallery Art Cases Touring Program.
Touring exhibition
ART CASES
Various locations throughout 22
The Art Cases program is a core part of the National Gallery’s Touring Exhibitions program. The program comprises five art-filled cases that travel to schools, libraries, community centres, galleries and aged care homes, where the works are discovered and handled by adults and children of all ages for both exhibition and hands-on programs such as art making and story-telling.
After three decades of touring thanks to the generosity of Jim and Elaine Wolfensohn, the program was expanded in 2021 thanks to the generous support of the Neilson Foundation. Five cases now tour Australia with revised artworks and themes inspiring creativity, inclusivity and learning.
