Westwood | Kawakubo @ NGV International, Melbourne - A Major Fashion Design Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria

Westwood | Kawakubo 

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 

7 December, 2025 - 19 April 2026

World's End, London (fashion house)

Vivienne Westwood (designer)

Malcolm McLaren (designer) 

Outfits from the Pirate collection, autumn–winter 1981–82 

Pillar Hall, Olympia, London, 31 March 1981

Photo © Robyn Beeche

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 5, from the Break Free collection, 

spring–summer 2024. Paris, 30 September 2023 

Image © Comme des Garçons

Model: Hannah Heise

World's End, London (fashion house)

Vivienne Westwood (designer)

Malcolm McLaren (designer) 

Outfit from the Savage collection, spring–summer 1982 

Pillar Hall, Olympia, London, 22 October 1981 

Photo © Robyn Beeche

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 28, from the 2 Dimensions collection, 

autumn–winter 2012. Paris, 3 March 2012

Image © Comme des Garçons

The NGV’s world-premiere exhibition pairs two global icons – and iconoclasts – of the fashion world for the first time, British designer VIVIENNE WESTWOOD (1941 – 2022) and Japanese designer REI KAWAKUBO (b. 1942) of Comme des Garçons. Born a year apart in different countries and cultural contexts, each brought a rule-breaking radicalism to fashion design that subverted the status quo. Today, their critically acclaimed collections are celebrated globally for questioning conventions of taste, gender and beauty, as well as challenging the very form and function of clothing.

Portrait of Katie Somerville, 

Senior Curator, Fashion and Textiles, NGV 

with VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, London (fashion house)

Vivenne Westwood (designer)

Ensemble, 1987, Harris Tweed collection, autumn-winter, 1987–88

at the announcement of Westwood | Kawakubo on display 

at NGV International 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026

Photo: Eugene Hyland

Portrait of Danielle Whitfield, 

Curator, Fashion and Textiles, NGV 

with COMME DES GARÇONS, Tokyo (fashion house) 

Rei KAWAKUBO (designer) 

Look 9, 2012, 2 Dimensions collection, 

autumn-winter 2012–13

at the announcement of Westwood | Kawakubo on display 

at NGV International 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026

Photo: Eugene Hyland

Through a showstopping display of more than 140 innovative and ground-breaking designs, Westwood | Kawakubo explores the convergences and divergences between these two self-taught rebels of the fashion world. The exhibition brings together important loans from international museums and private collections – including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Palais Galliera, and the Vivienne Westwood archive – alongside 100+ outstanding works from the NGV Collection. The exhibition features more than 80 works that have recently entered the NGV Collection, including nearly 40 outstanding works recently gifted to the NGV by Comme des Garçons especially for this exhibition. 

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 28, from the 2 Dimensions collection, 

autumn–winter 2012. Paris, 3 March 2012

Image © Comme des Garçons

Model: Henna Lintukangas

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 2, from the Smaller is Stronger collection, 

autumn–winter 2025. Paris, 8 March 2025 

Image © Comme des Garçons 

Model: Mirre Sonders

Presented thematically, Westwood | Kawakubo charts the defining collections and concerns of their practices – from the mid-1970s to the present day – inviting audiences to consider the multiple ways that Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo have each rewritten fashion conventions and codes over the course of their careers. These include: the impact and influence of the punk zeitgeist of the 1970s; the reinterpretation and reinvention of historical fashion references; their experimental design methodologies and the interrogation of gender and the idealised body. Alongside fashion, the exhibition also features archival materials, photography, film and runway footage, offering audiences a deep insight into the minds and creative processes of these two legends of contemporary fashion.

Vivienne Westwood, London (fashion house)

Vivienne Westwood (designer) 

Look 49, from the Anglomania collection, 

autumn–winter 1993–94

Le Cercle Républicain, Paris, March 1993

Photo © firstVIEW 

Model: Kate Moss

Exhibition highlights include Westwood’s iconic punk ensembles from the late 1970s, popularised by London bands such as The Sex Pistols and Siousie Sioux; a romantic MacAndreas tartan gown from Westwood’s Anglomania collection (autumn-winter 1993-94), famously worn by Kate Moss on the runway; and the original version of the corseted Wedding dress first shown in the Wake Up, Cave Girl Autumn-winter 2007-08 collection and later worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and The City: The Movie.

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house) 

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 4, from the Blood and Roses collection, 

spring–summer 2015. Paris, 27 September 2014 

Image © Comme des Garçons 

Model: Andrea Hrncirova

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house) 

Rei Kawakubo (designer)

Look 1, from the Blue Witch collection, 

spring–summer 2016. Paris, 3 October 2015

Image © Comme des Garçons 

Model: Maja Brodin

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house) 

Rei Kawakubo (designer)

Look 6, from the Invisible Clothes collection, 

spring–summer 2017. Paris, 9 March 2017 

Image © Comme des Garçons 

Model: Georgia Howorth

In 2017, The Met in New York staged the exhibition, Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçons: The Art of the In-Between, which opened with the pop culture phenomenon the Met Gala. The NGV exhibition features a version of the sculptural petal ensemble worn by Rihanna on the red carpet, as well as key designs from collections of those worn by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Tracee Ellis Ross. Also on display are dramatic abstract works spanning the recent decades which challenge the relationship between the body and clothing, including the playful Two Dimensions, spring-summer 2012, and the abstract forms of Invisible Clothes spring-summer 2017. Striking gingham sculptural forms from Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body collection (spring-summer 1997) also feature.

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house) 

Rei Kawakubo (designer)

Look 6, from the Body Meets Dress–Dress Meets Body collection, 

spring–summer 1997 

Image © Comme des Garçons

Major showstopping moments in the exhibition include a dramatic, spotlit gallery highlighting how both designers have been influenced by fashion history; Westwood’s sweeping silk taffeta ball gowns inspired by 18th century court dress are presented alongside Kawakubo’s punk interpretations in pink vinyl and rich floral jacquard. A further dynamic display juxtaposes the bold, red tartans, English tweeds, grey plaids and navy pinstripes of Kawakubo with Westwood’s iconic tailoring. Sculptural, deconstructed, cinched and exaggerated silhouettes demonstrate their exacting approaches to cutting and textile traditions.

The exhibition design presents the two distinct voices of Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo as parallel yet fundamentally unique forces in fashion. The design uses symmetry as its cornerstone concept, presenting these designers like left and right hands; symmetrical but not identical.

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 1, from the 18th Century Punk collection, 

autumn–winter 2016. Paris, 5 March 2016

Image © Comme des Garçons 

Model: Anna Cleveland

The exhibition explores Westwood and Kawakubo’s practices across five themes. Punk and Provocation considers how punk, both aesthetically and conceptually, crystallized in the early collections of each designer and has remained a touchstone, if not a design manifesto, throughout their careers. Highlight Vivienne Westwood works in this section convey some of the key aspects of punk clothing – offensive graphics, bondage trousers, distressed knitwear, tartan, leather, safety pins and chains. In dialogue, four notable works by Rei Kawakubo demonstrate the influence and ethos of punk in her practice.

World's End, London (fashion house)

Vivienne Westwood (designer)

Malcolm McLaren (designer) 

Outfit from the Nostalgia of Mud collection, 

autumn–winter 1982–83. 

Pillar Hall, Olympia, London, 24 March 1982 

Photo © Robyn Beeche

Rupture explores the unique design lexicons of Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, revealing how each have been driven by the desire to break free of convention and reinvent the rules of dress. Early highlights here include displays of Westwood’s Pirate (spring-summer 1981) and Nostalgia of Mud (autumn-winter 1983) collections that encapsulated the New Romantic and Buffalo movements of 1980s London, contrasted by recent works from Kawakubo’s Not Making Clothes collection, spring-summer 2014, which saw her negate the boundaries between body and garment.

Vivienne Westwood, London (fashion house)

Vivienne Westwood (designer) 

Fragonard, evening dress, 

from the Cut, Slash & Pull collection, 

spring–summer 1991 

116 Pall Mall, London, October 1990 

Photo © Robyn Beeche 

Model: Sara Stockbridge

Reinvention looks at the way both designers have referenced the past or looked to the future, looking to sources of inspiration that include fashion history, tailoring traditions, decorative arts and textiles. For Vivienne Westwood art history has been a constant influence, most notably in her Portrait collection (autumn-winter 1990), which featured prints of famous eighteenth century paintings by Boucher and Fragonard emblazoned on the corsetry. For Rei Kawakubo, breaking the rules of taste has resulted in collections that bring together clashing pattern, ruffles and frills.

The Body: Freedom and Restraint explores the ways in which both Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo have consistently challenged existing conventions related to ideal and idealised female bodies and rallied against objectification. Beginning with iconic works from Westwood’s Erotic Zones collection (spring-summer 1995) and Kawakubo’s The Future of Silhouette (autumn-winter 2017-18), this section considers the ways in which both designers have redefined the female body.

Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house)

Rei Kawakubo (designer) 

Look 13, from the Uncertain Future collection, 

spring–summer 2025. Paris, 28 September 2024 

Image © Comme des Garçons

Model: Astrid Wagemakers

The final section of the exhibition, The Power of Clothes, considers fashion as a tool to convey a message, personal or political, and the powerful individual female voice. It concludes with recent Westwood collections – Propaganda (autumn-winter 2025) and Chaos Point (autumn-winter 2008-09) – that utilise clothing and fabrics as a canvas for messaging about the environment, social inequity of political freedoms in an echo of her early punk days. These are seen in context with the self-reflective power of Kawakubo’s recent collections (Uncertain Future, spring-summer 2025) which express her emotional response to the state of the world.

Portrait of Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV 

with VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, London (fashion house)

Vivenne Westwood (designer)

Gown, 1998, Dressed to Scale collection, autumn-winter 1998-99 

at the announcement of Westwood | Kawakubo on display 

at NGV International 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026

Photo: Eugene Hyland

Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV said: ‘This exhibition celebrates two leading female fashion designers from different cultural backgrounds, who both had strong creative spirits and pushed boundaries. Through more than 140 designs from the NGV Collection and key international loans, Westwood | Kawakubo invites audiences to reflect on the enduring legacies of these groundbreaking designers and contemplate the ways in which fashion can be a vehicle for self-expression and freedom."

The exhibition will be accompanied by an ambitious world-first publication, also titled Westwood | Kawakubo, exploring the intersecting histories of Westwood and Kawakubo with new reflections from industry experts including Jane Mulvaugh, Valerie Steele, Stephen Jones, Akiko Fukai and Dame Zandra Rhodes.

FASHION DESIGNER VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Glossop, Derbyshire on 8 April 1941. In 1961, she married Derek Westwood, later divorcing and partnering with Malcolm McLaren. The couple became creative collaborators and proprietors of a retail outlet at 430 Kings Road Chelsea, going on to have a radical influence on international fashion over the next decade. Westwood and McLaren stocked the store with a combination of their own designs and purchased items, changing the name every few years to reflect the tenor of the clothing. Over subsequent years the store became; Let it Rock (1971), Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die (1972), Sex (1974), Seditionaries (1977) and World’s End (1980).  

In 1980, Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren’s interests began to diverge and by 1984 Vivienne Westwood was designing independently, moving her business to Italy for production with her new business partner Carlo d’Amario. Over the next two decades, Vivienne Westwood redefined her practice, embracing and reimagining Saville Row tailoring techniques and British textiles. She also began conducting regular archive research of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and The Wallace Collection. In 1990 she launched her first full menswear collection and structured her business into a variety of labels, including Gold Label and its diffusion line, Red Label. Twice-awarded British Designer of the Year, in 1992 Vivienne Westwood was granted an OBE, and in 2006, a DBE. Vivienne Westwood died in London on 29 December 2022.

FASHION DESIGNER REI KAWAKUBO

Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo was born in Tokyo in 1942 and graduated from Keio University in 1964 with a degree in Literature and Fine Art. After working first as a stylist, she began designing her own clothes and established Comme des Garçons in 1969. The label was incorporated in 1973, coinciding with the presentation of her first major women’s collection. Despite her lack of formal training, Rei Kawakubo courted critical and commercial success. A new Tokyo boutique was launched in 1975, followed by a dedicated menswear line, Homme Comme des Garçons, in 1978. Rei Kawakubo debuted on the Paris runway three years later, in 1981, where she continues to show her two main collections twice-yearly. Her work is known for its conceptual and avant-garde leanings, and for a groundbreaking approach to form and function. Many subsequent projects and ready-to-wear lines have since been introduced and include knitwear, furniture and perfume. 

Rei Kawakubo’s work has been featured by museums in solo and group exhibitions and she has received numerous honours including the Mainichi Fashion Award in 1983 and 1988, Fashion Group Night of the Stars Award in 1986, the French Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993 and, most recently, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Excellence in Design Award in 2000. In 2017, her work was the subject of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçons: The Art of the In-Between.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA

NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, 3004 VIC

www.ngv.vic.gov.au

Emily Kam Kngwarray @ Tate Modern, London

Emily Kam Kngwarray 

Tate Modern, London

10 July 2025 – 11 January 2026

Emily Kam Kngwarray 

near Mparntwe  / Alice Springs in 1980

Photograph © Toly Sawenko

Tate Modern presents Europe’s first major solo exhibition dedicated to one of the most extraordinary figures in international contemporary art, Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914-1996). A senior Anmatyerr woman from the Sandover region in the Northern Territory of Australia, Kngwarray translated her ceremonial and spiritual engagement with her ancestral Country, Alhalker, into vivid batik textiles and monumental acrylic paintings on canvas. Taking up painting in her 70s and devoting her final years to creating a large body of art, Emily Kam Kngwarray forged a path for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, women artists and Australian artists, and continues to entice audiences around the world three decades after her passing. Organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia, this extensive survey brings together over 80 works from across her extraordinary career. Showing many pieces outside Australia for the first time, the exhibition offers European audiences a once in a lifetime chance to experience Kngwarray’s powerful batiks, paintings and vibrant legacy.

Emily Kam Kngwarray began experimenting with new art media at Utopia Station in the 1970s. After learning the technique of making batik, in the late 1980s she transitioned to painting in acrylic on canvas. Her practice was shaped by her intimate knowledge of her Country and by her role in women’s ceremonial traditions of ‘awely’, which encompass song, dance and the painting on bodies with ground ochres. She sat on the ground when she painted, much in the same way she would sit to prepare food, dig yams from the earth, tell stories by drawing on the sand or ‘paint up’ for awely ceremonies. Her deeply personal approach to painting was developed in isolation from the European and North American artistic practices of her time. This exhibition presents Kngwarray’s work through the lens of her own world, showcasing her as a matriarch of her community, storyteller, singer, visual artist, and custodian of Country.

Encapsulating the ecology of her homeland, Kngwarray’s work features motifs derived from native plants, animals and natural forms. She regularly depicted the pencil yam (anwerlarr) and its edible underground tuber and seedpods (kam), after which she is named, as well as the emu (ankerr), reflecting the animal’s significance to Aboriginal Peoples. The exhibition opens with three acrylic paintings acquired for Tate’s collection in 2019 - Untitled (Alhalker) 1989, Ntang 1990, and Untitled 1990 - featuring densely layered fields of dots representing native seeds. These are accompanied by Awely 1989, inspired by designs women paint on each other’s bodies before performing awely. Two of Kngwarray’s early batiks join Emu Woman 1988, her first ever work on canvas that attracted widespread national attention. These introductory rooms trace the evolution of the artist’s visual language, grounded in her detailed knowledge of the desert ecosystems of Alhalker.

Works from the early phase of Kngwarray’s painting career are shown alongside a striking display of batiks on silk and cotton that hang from floor to ceiling and immerse visitors in the artist’s vivid evocations of her Country. These works are often rooted in the Dreaming (Altyerr), the eternal life force that created the land and its myriad living forms and defined the social and cultural practices of people. Ntang Dreaming 1989 depicts the edible seeds of the woollybutt grass (alyatywereng), while Ankerr (emu) 1989 maps a path of emu footprints travelling between water sources. Larger canvases, including the three-metre Kam 1991, demonstrate how Emily Kam Kngwarray began working on monumental paintings and employing a brighter colour palette.

At the heart of the exhibition is The Alhalker Suite 1993, one of Kngwarray’s most ambitious works on loan from the National Gallery of Australia. Produced at the height of her painting career, it offers a vibrant portrait of Alhalker Country across 22 canvases. Revealing Kngwarray’s broadened colour spectrum and techniques, bright pastel pinks and blues evoke the wildflowers which carpet the landscape after rainfall, and collections of merging dots represent the rockfaces and grasslands of Alhalker. The artist did not impose any limitations for the configuration of the panels, so a new way of seeing her land is possible each time the work is displayed- an ongoing reminder that the stories and places she painted are very much alive.

In her final years, Emily Kam Kngwarray made an abrupt stylistic change, creating a suite of works comprising bold parallel monochrome lines in her familiar palette of reds and yellows, painted on white paper or canvas. Tate Modern presents Untitled (Awely) 1994, a six-panel work originally shown as the centerpiece of the Australian Pavilion at the 1997 Venice Biennale. The evident tactile quality with which Emily Kam Kngwarray applied the paint evokes the gesture and intimacy of painting on the body for awely ceremonies. Moving away from lines and dots during this late period, Kngwarray developed gestural paintings with fluid brushstrokes that burst with energy. Closing the exhibition, Yam Awely 1995 with its intricately painted twists of white, yellow and red intertwined with linear markings of grasses, yams, roots and tracks signifies the timeless connection between Emily Kam Kngwarray and her Country.

Exhibition organised by Tate Modern and the National Gallery of Australia based on an exhibition curated by Kelli Cole, Warumungu and Luritja peoples and Hetti Perkins, Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples.

Curated by Kelli Cole, Director of Curatorial & Engagement, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia project, with Kimberley Moulton, Adjunct Curator, Indigenous Art, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational; Charmaine Toh, Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern; Genevieve Barton, Assistant Curator, International Art, Tate Modern and Hannah Gorlizki, Exhibitions Assistant, Tate Modern.

Following its presentation at Tate Modern, the exhibition will tour to Fondation Opale, Switzerland in a new iteration developed in collaboration with curator Kelli Cole.

TATE MODERN

Bankside, London SE1 9TG

www.tate.org.uk

Hoor Al Qasimi, Biennale of Sydney 2026, Artistic Director

Hoor Al Qasimi appointed as Artistic Director of the 25th Biennale of Sydney, 2026

HOOR AL QASIMI

Photograph: Daniel Boud

HOOR AL QASIMI has been appointed as the Artistic Director of the Biennale of Sydney, scheduled to take place from 7 March to 8 June 2026. Hoor Al Qasimi will collaborate with local communities, artists and academics, whilst drawing on her own international network, to develop and realise the concept for the 25th edition of the Biennale.

As a curator, Hoor Al Qasimi’s focuses on the histories of each place she works in, creating multidisciplinary programming with a collaborative approach and emphasis on supporting experimentation and innovation in the arts. For more than 20 years, she has worked extensively with various mediums including film, music, performance, publications, to bring together all forms of art in conversation.

‘Sydney has a multicultural community at its core, with people from different cultures from across the world choosing and calling this vibrant city as their home,’ said Hoor Al Qasimi. ‘I’m interested in exploring the multifaceted cultures and perspectives within this city, working with local artists and communities as well as bringing new voices to the Biennale. It is an honour and privilege to be nominated and then selected to be Artistic Director of the 25th Biennale of Sydney, which I have been visiting for over a decade now. I have seen the developments over the years, including the amplification of Indigenous voices both local and global, which has made it an essential platform for rewriting art history.’

Hoor Al Qasimi is the President and Director Sharjah Art Foundation, an organisation she founded in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts around the world. She has been the Director of Sharjah Biennial since 2002, an internationally recognised platform for contemporary artists, curators and cultural producers, and curated Sharjah Biennial 15 in 2023. She was appointed as the President of the International Biennial Association (IBA) in 2017 and serves as the President of The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, Sharjah and President and Director of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Al Qasimi was appointed as the Artistic Director of the sixth Aichi Triennale (2025) last July, becoming the first person to be chosen for the role from outside of Japan. She has also co-curated exhibitions at leading organisations around the world, including the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Source: Sharjah Art Foundation

www.sharjahart.org

Biennale of Sydney 2024 @ The White Bay Power Station - Artists + Artworks

Biennale of Sydney 2024 

@ The White Bay Power Station

9 March - 10 June 2024

Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero

24th Biennale of Sydney 2024 Artistic Directors 

at The White Bay Power Station 

Photograph by Joshua Morris

Biennale of Sydney 2024

Artistic Directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero

Media Launch at The White Bay Power Station

Photograph by Daniel Boud

Biennale of Sydney 2024 

Media Launch at The White Bay Power Station

Photograph by Daniel Boud

The White Bay Power Station was constructed between 1912 ans 1917. It remained in service until 1984. The White Bay Power Station will be one of the locations of the 24th Biennale of Sydney 2024.

The announced artists on view at The White Bay Power Station for the 24th Biennale of Sydney 2024 include Dylan Mooney, Darrell Sibosado, the collective VNS Matrix, Martin Wong.

Dylan Mooney

Photo: Rhett Hammerton. Courtesy of the artist

Dylan Mooney

Grevillea Venusta – Grevillea (from the Intertwined series), 2022

Digital illustration hand-painted with Yuwi ochre, 120 x 88cm

Image courtesy of the artist and N. Smith Gallery, Sydney

Dylan Mooney

Still Thriving (from the Still Thriving series), 2023

Digital illustration hand-painted with Yuwi ochre, 118.9 x 84.1cm

Image courtesy of the artist and N. Smith Gallery, Sydney

Dylan Mooney

Our Islands, Our Homes, 2021

Digital illustration printed on 320gsm cotton paper, 84.1 x 59.4cm

Image courtesy of the artist and N. Smith Gallery, Sydney

Artist DYLAN MOONEY, a Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander man from Mackay (North Queensland). Working across painting, printmaking, digital illustration and drawing, the artist is known for his high-impact illustrative style with bright, saturated colour, creating works influenced by history, culture and family. He will create a large-scale mural celebrating the life of the late queer, First Nations dancer and activist Malcolm Cole, who led the first Aboriginal float at the 1988 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. Through this new commission, Dylan Mooney will commemorate Malcolm Cole’s life and activism in the queer and Aboriginal communities.

Darrell Sibosado

Photography:The National Gallery of Australia

Darrell Sibosado

Aalingoon (Rainbow Serpent), 2019

Corten Steel, 550 x 300 cm 

Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia

Photographer: N. Smith Gallery

Courtesy the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney

© Darrell Sibosado

Darrell Sibosado

Ngarrgidj Morr (the proper path to follow), 2022

Powder-coated steel, LED tubes, fittings, electrical component

300 x 245 x 8 cm (each panel)

Collection of The National Gallery of Australia

Photographer: The National Gallery of Australia

© Darrell Sibosado

Darrell Sibosado

Gulgan (Fishtrap), 2014

Etching printed in red ink on paper

39.7 x 30.3 cm

Courtesy the artist and N.Smith Gallery, Sydney

© Darrell Sibosado

 

DARRELL SIBOSADO is a Bard man from Lombadina, situated on the Dampier Peninsula of the Kimberley coast, Western Australia. His practice explores the innovative potential of the riji (pearl shell) designs within a contemporary context. Passed down over countless generations, the designs represent the detached scales of Aalingoon, the Rainbow Snake, as he rests on the ocean surface, shedding his scales containing traditional knowledge and beliefs. Through his printmaking and installations, Sibosado reflects on traditional Bard lore and is intent on reiterating that Aboriginal culture is a living, adaptive culture that undeniably commands a presence in the contemporary space. For the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Sibosado will create a neon work centred around the meticulous preparations and movements orchestrated in harmony with the rich traditions and deeply rooted networks of kinship, obligations and interpersonal relationships that are fostered within Sibosado’s community.

VNS Matrix

Image courtesy the artists

VNS Matrix

Viral Pleasure World [still] (from ‘VNS Matrix Virtual Theme Parks’),1996

Commissioned by Performance Space Sydney 

in association with the Australian Film Commission 

Image courtesy the artists

VNS Matrix

Corpusfantastica [still] (from ‘Bad Code’), 1997 

Digital image

Image courtesy the artists

 

Australian (Adelaide/Tarntanya) feminist art collective VNS Matrix emerged in 1991 to challenge the male-dominated culture of technology and cyberspace. Their installations, happenings, posters, games, and manifestos explore the sexual, political, and aesthetic dimensions of gendered relationships with technology. They coined the term cyberfeminism to capture their radical vision of empowerment, embodiment, and resistance in the digital age. Notable works including A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century have been widely translated and circulated. Their legacy continues to manifest, inspiring new generations of artists and activists. VNS Matrix is Josephine Starrs, Julianne Pierce, Francesca da Rimini, and Virginia Barratt. 

Chief Executive Officer of Biennale of Sydney Barbara Moore said: “We are thrilled to be hosting the first major event at White Bay Power Station. Admission is free. We are presenting some of the best contemporary art from around the world and across Australia, with a robust program of music and food too, and we can't wait for you to experience it. For 50 years, the Biennale of Sydney has brought people together to think about and talk about the world we live in, infusing art into the very fabric of Sydney and rejuvenated public spaces across the city. In March, we swing the doors to White Bay Power Station wide open, and we can't wait for you to be part of it.”

Minister for the Arts John Graham said: “The Biennale of Sydney at White Bay Power Station will be a major event on the international stage and will draw people from all over the world to view the work of some of the best local, national and international artists in a magnificent new space, with free admission for all.

“The event will harness Bays West’s rich First Nations, multicultural and industrial histories into the iconic location, serving as a world-class destination for people visiting Sydney.”

Chief Executive of Placemaking NSW Anita Mitchell said: “Placemaking NSW is delighted to have secured Biennale of Sydney as the first free public activation at the site.

“The opening of White Bay Power Station is the first step in the transformation of the Bays West precinct in line with the Bays West Place Strategy.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said: “White Bay Power Station was powering Sydney’s trams and dominating the harbour skyline before the Harbour Bridge and then Opera House captured our attention.

“While planning is underway for its long-term future, we are taking this opportunity to let the community immerse themselves in the site, through a program of events and activations, starting with the Biennale of Sydney.”

The White Bay Power Station, Sydney

YouTube Screen Shot

For a short history of The White Bay Power Station since its construction, you can look at a short video on YouTube realized by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment:

https://youtu.be/mKdONUWzxWk

BIENNALE OF SYDNEY

biennaleofsydney.art

The Picasso Century @ NGV, Melbourne - National Gallery of Victoria

The Picasso Century

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

10 June – 9 October 2022

The world-premiere Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, The Picasso Century, charts the extraordinary career of Pablo Picasso in dialogue with the many artists, poets and intellectuals with whom he intercepted and interacted throughout the 20th century, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Françoise Gilot, Valentine Hugo, Marie Laurencin, Dora Maar, André Masson, Henri Matisse, Dorothea Tanning and Gertrude Stein.

Exclusively developed for the NGV by the Centre Pompidou and the Musée national Picasso-Paris, the exhibition features over 80 works by Picasso alongside over 100 works by more than 60 of his contemporaries, drawn from French national collections, as well as the NGV Collection. Audiences will also have the opportunity to discover a rich selection of works by artists rarely exhibited in Australia, including Natalia Goncharova, Julio González, Wifredo Lam, Suzanne Valadon and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva.

Curated by noted scholar of 20th century painting Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, The Picasso Century examines the diverse influences, encounters and collaborative relationships that steered Picasso through many distinct artistic periods, such as his Blue Period, Cubism and Surrealism, and draws lines between Picasso’s famous creations and the world around him.

By exploring Picasso’s career through his personal, artistic and intellectual engagement with his peers, the exhibition provides a unique insight into the artistic legacy of one of the 20th century’s most influential and celebrated artists, as well as the community of artists from which he emerged.

Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson said: ‘The Picasso Century brings together master works from across Picasso’s career, alongside those from other leading artists and innovators of the time. This world-premiere Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition will be an absolute treat for art lovers from across Victoria and beyond, and a massive drawcard to our creative state this winter.’

Laurent Le Bon, President, Centre Pompidou, said ‘Picasso reunited at last with Australia and his fellow accomplices and travellers. I am delighted with this collaboration between two French institutions and the National Gallery of Victoria: this exceptional partnership will allow the Australian public to discover Picasso’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, and the works of the artists with whom he never ceased to interact. I wish to extend a warm thank you to all those who have made this magnificent project possible.’

Cécile Debray, President, Musée national Picasso-Paris, said: ‘The Picasso Century offers an original, broad approach that allows us to grasp the artist’s career in his artistic and cultural context, from his formative years to his posterity. It thus offers an astonishing journey through the Parisian and cosmopolitan art scene of the 20th century. A Picasso, no longer a genius “ex-nihilo” but an artist in the world, with his friendships with poets, cubists, surrealists, his political commitments, his love affairs with artists, his circles of disciples and admirers.’

‘I am delighted by this partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which testifies to the ties of friendship and proximity between France and Australia, but also that the French museums participating in this major exhibition have the opportunity to be ambassadors of French heritage and of a historic artistic scene that was the foundation of Western modernity.’

Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV, said: ‘This exhibition offers visitors an extraordinary insight into the development of modern art and the preeminent figure at its centre, Pablo Picasso. Through more than 170 works of art – including many that have never been seen in Australia – audiences will come to appreciate the many ways in which Picasso influenced – and was influenced by – the artistic community that surrounded him.’

Fifteen thematic sections organise The Picasso Century, which trace the many distinct periods that shaped the artist’s career over more than seven decades, while also situating his work within a broader artistic and geographical context. Each exhibition section provides a nuanced perspective on a rich century of artistic experiment, in which Picasso stands prominently among many innovators.

The beginning of the exhibition explores Picasso’s formative years, which encapsulate significant artistic developments, most notably Cubism, the development of which Picasso led with Georges Braque. Considered by many the ‘experiment’ that most radically transformed 20th century art, Cubism saw Western art move away from representing likeness and, among many innovations, introduced multiple and simultaneous perspectives into a composition, resulting in the style’s recognisable fragmented imagery.

The Picasso Century also examines Picasso’s place within the multicultural crucible that was inter-war Paris, and his interaction with other artists and intellectuals including André Breton, Georges Bataille, Aimé Césaire, Alberto Giacometti and Gertrude Stein. The exhibition is particularly rich with works from Picasso’s Surrealist period, presented alongside works by artists including Kay Sage, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico and André Masson.

The final sections of the exhibition explore Picasso’s work in an increasingly international art world post-1945 and examine the contested artistic output towards the end of his career. His work of the 1950s and 1960s are positioned alongside later generations of painters, including Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning.

The inevitable question of Picasso’s legacy in the 21st century is posed through the inclusion of the 2009 video work I see a woman crying (Weeping Woman), Tate Liverpool by Rineke Dijkstra. This engaging contemporary work invites reflection on Picasso’s position as a point of reference for all who seek to understand the history of 20th century art.

Coinciding with The Picasso Century is a free NGV Kids exhibition titled Making Art: Imagine everything is real featuring a range of hands-on activities and multimedia experiences inspired by methods of working invented by some of the leading European artists included in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition. While learning about some of the leading artists of the twentieth century in Europe, children make their own surprising works as they explore collage techniques, write poetry and play surrealist games and turn everyday materials into large-scale sculptures.

Exhibition organised by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and the National Gallery of Victoria.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA - NVG

180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne VIC 3006 

www.ngv.vic.gov.au

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Margel Hinder @ Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney & Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen - Modern in Motion

Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

30 January – 2 May 2021

Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen

30 June – 10 October 2021

MARGEL HINDER 

Revolving construction 1957

Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1959 

© AGNSW

The Art Gallery of New South Wales presents Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion, the first retrospective of one of Australia’s most important and dynamic, yet underrated, modernist sculptors of the 20th century.

The exhibition, presented in collaboration with Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne, showcases an arresting array of sculptures by Margel Hinder (1905 – 1995) produced over five decades of her career.

From the solidity and volume of her wood carvings in the 1930s, to the ‘space age’ kinetic and wire works of the 1950s and her major public commissions in the 1960s, Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion traces the development of Margel Hinder’s creative vision and her exploration of sculptural languages.

Art Gallery of NSW director Dr Michael Brand said the exhibition aims to rectify Margel Hinder’s profile as one of the most underestimated Australian sculptors of the 20th century.

“Margel Hinder was an agent for cultural change and part of the first generation of abstract artists in Australia. This important retrospective reveals how vital Hinder was in the making of Sydney’s modernism and for asserting the place of sculpture within it,” Brand said.

Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion is co-curated by Art Gallery of NSW senior curator of Australian art Denise Mimmocchi and Heide Museum of Modern Art artistic director Lesley Harding.

Lesley Harding said the exhibition uncovers the expansive nature of Margel Hinder’s creativity, and her skill in giving sculptural form to universal concepts like time and motion in materials expressive of the era.

“Apart from her inclusion in a few surveys of local modernism, Hinder’s vanguard practice and its legacy have largely been overlooked since the 1980s. This exhibition presents her innovative and visually arresting sculpture to new generations and the wide audience it deserves.”

Denise Mimmocchi said the exhibition is an opportunity to explore the breadth and depth of Hinder’s oeuvre.

“Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion brings together major sculptures from public and private collections, immersive representations of public sculptures, maquettes, drawings and archival photographs to present an insightful portrait of the pioneering sculptor’s life and work.”

“The Art Gallery of NSW has a substantial collection of Hinder’s maquettes that reveal incredible details of her creative processes. We are excited to have recently completed conservation on more than 40 of these maquettes so that they can be exhibited,” said Denise Mimmocchi.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Margel Hinder (née Harris) initiated her sculpture studies in Buffalo and Boston. She migrated to Australia in 1934, following her marriage to Australian artist Frank Hinder, where her mature practice flourished.

Exhibition highlights include Margel Hinder’s commanding kinetic works, whose slow rotations encapsulate a sense of the world in perpetual motion, and an immersive installation based on two of Hinder’s major public sculptures.

Created by environment designer and 3D artist Andrew Yip, the life-size digital reconstructions are of two of the most significant public sculptures of Hinder’s career: the Civic Park fountain, Newcastle 1961–66 and the now decommissioned Northpoint fountain 1975. This project allows for a presence of this important component of Hinder’s art within the context of her retrospective while also demonstrating the dramatic shift in the style and scope of Hinder’s art in monumental and water kinetic sculpture.

The exhibition is accompanied by the richly illustrated publication Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion featuring essays by Denise Mimmocchi; Lesley Harding; Art Gallery of NSW object conservator Melanie Barrett; and Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University assistant professor of immersive media, Dr Andrew Yip; and a foreword by University of Oxford professor of the history of art Dr Geoffrey Batchen.

Margel Hinder: Modern in Motion is presented at the Art Gallery of NSW and will tour to Heide Museum of Modern Art.

ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

HEIDE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen VIC 3105

www.heide.com.au

Cartier: The Exhibition @ NGA - National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Cartier: The Exhibition
NGA - National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
March 30 — 22 July, 2018

Cartier Paris

Two crocodile brooches 1975

gold, 1023 brilliant-cut fancy intense yellow diamonds,

two navette-shaped emerald cabochons, 

1060 emeralds, two ruby cabochons

30 cm and 27 cm (l. each)

Collection Cartier © Cartier 

Photo: Nick Welsh

The unmissable Cartier: The Exhibition features more than 300 examples of masterpieces by Cartier, charting the prestigious Paris jewellery house throughout 20th century history. The exhibition provides a window into the intimate world of Cartier’s famous international clients, including royalty, aristocrats and global socialites, to movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor whose platinum, gold and Burmese ruby necklace (1951) is synonymous with the iconic jeweller.

Cartier Paris  

Stomacher brooch 1907

platinum, one pear-shaped sapphire,

seven cushion-shaped sapphires,

round old- and rose-cut diamonds,

millegrain setting

21 x 13 cm 

Collection Cartier © Cartier 

Photo: Vincent Wulveryck

The exclusive exhibition features pieces from turn-of-the-century opera star Dame Nellie Melba—Australia’s first global superstar—who was a major client of the Maison Cartier, which supplied other incredibly intricate ‘garland-style’ jewellery popular with European aristocracy.

Cartier Paris 

Brooch 1907

platinum, round old- and rose-cut diamonds, 

millegrain setting

3.8 x 3.8 cm 

Collection Cartier © Cartier 

Photo: Vincent Wulveryck

Art Deco swept the world in the 1920s and Cartier’s designs led the way with its innovative style, such as the Duchess of Windsor’s trend-setting Flamingo brooch (1940) and original ‘It Girl’ DaisyFellowes’ Tutti Frutti necklace (1936). Their spectacular designs took cues from sources around the world: including East Asia, India and Ancient Egypt. Cartier combined these influences into some of their most exotic jewellery designs.

Cartier London 

Rose clip brooch 1938

platinum, baguette-, round-old- and 

single-cut diamonds

7 x 4 cm 

Collection Cartier © Cartier 

Photo: Nick Welsh

During the Age of Glamour of 1930s to 1960s, the social, political and historic events demanded a new approach from the agile Cartier designers. That creativity continued with seminal femme fatale María Félix’s flamboyant Crocodile necklace (1975).

Cartier Paris

Necklace, bracelet and pair of earrings 1951 

platinum, gold, brilliant-, baguette-, 

modified baguette- and fancy-cut diamonds, 

cushion-shaped and round faceted Burmese rubies

37 cm (l. necklace); 6.2 cm (l. bracelet at c.); 

6 cm (l. earrings)

Collection Cartier © Cartier 

Photo: Marian Gérard

Central to the NGA’s Cartier exhibition is a group of beautiful items from the Royal collection, including a selection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s personal favourites. Even the Queen’s Halo Tiara which she leant to Kate Middleton for her wedding to HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, are on display in Canberra.

The exhibition also includes many items that belonged to an array of European monarchs who were amongst Cartier’s most valued clients, including Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco whose 10.48-carat diamond engagement ring (1956) was made by Cartier Paris.

Cartier London  

Halo tiara 1934

platinum, round old- and baguette-cut diamonds

4 cm (height)

Collection Cartier © Cartier

Photo: Nils Herrmann

Cartier is credited with creating the modern wristwatch made popular by some of the world’s leading men. A variety of the Maison Cartier’s iconic watch designs are shown in the context of other ingenious items designed specifically for men. Insight into the inner workings of these intricate, ground-breaking designs is also explored through the workshop space.

The NGA exhibition demonstrates Cartier’s flexibility as it continues to be the purveyor of innovation and style, building a contemporary bridge from its iconic past into the future.

Exhibition organised in association with the Denver Art Museum.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA - NGA

Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra ACT 2600
nga.gov.au