GOMA Turns Five

Posted: 31 Jan 2012  |  By: Louise Martin-Chew

The much trumpeted statistic that recorded Brisbane’s GOMA as the nation’s most visited art gallery complex (with 1.8 million visitors in 2010) was achieved short of the institution’s fifth birthday. A programme of exhibitions will celebrate this milestone and ensure that this significant moment is not missed by anyone interested in art and culture. It puts GOMA’s stamp on the kind of programming it does best – strongly contemporary, something for everyone, hip but with international cachet, and not forgetting the serious scholar. You may make up your own mind which exhibition fits which category, but summer, usually a big season for Brisbane’s culturati, offers GOMA’s trademark spectacle and variety.

A big international drawcard is de rigeur for such occasions. Matisse: Drawing Life includes works on paper from one of the masters; cut-outs, drawings, prints and artist books from the Bibliotheque National de France. Over 300 works make this exhibition amongst the most comprehensive of works on paper from Matisse seen to date. Queensland Art Gallery director Tony Ellwood said, “Many people know Matisse as the master of colour but this exhibition will reveal why he was also the master of line.”

Contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, now in her early 80s, is the subject of Look Now, See Forever. New works from her studio are highly engaging and include Flowers That Bloom at Midnight, a towering garden in three dimensions seen against her abstract paintings. Kusama’s much admired pumpkin sculptures are seen in a new incarnation, Dotted Pumpkin, combined with convex mirrors. Australian audiences are familiar with her work through the Asia–Pacific Triennials and internationally she is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Modern, also touring to Europe and New York.

Exhibiting the James C Sourris AM Collection is an acknowledgement of the importance of patronage. Sourris is active in Brisbane’s cultural life and this exhibition of contemporary Australian art is lively in its description of his interests. Strong contemporary Indigenous art by Queensland-based talents Gordon Bennett, Richard Bell, Judy Watson and Vernon Ah Kee are included, in addition to significant works by Madeleine Kelly, Robert Hunter and Peter Kennedy.

Contemporary textiles from Australia are exhibited with those from the Pacific and Asia in Threads. Cultural narratives are woven through these fabrics, some of which will be displayed to immerse viewers installation-style. They include a new commission, a twenty-two-metre-long Tongan ngatu ta’uli (black barkcloth). Ellwood said, “This sumptuous work hovers in the centre of the gallery, evoking the idea of a journey through time and space.”

And greeting viewers, in the gallery foyer, is a series of new works by iconic Australian team Dinosaur Designs. The resin champions have created their largest works for this commission, comprising eight large and colourful, disc-shaped forms for GOMA’s foyer cabinet.

Dinosaur Designs
15 October 2011–25 March 2012
Threads: Contemporary Textiles and the Social Fabric
1 October 2011–5 February 2012
Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever
19 November 2011–11 March 2012
Matisse: Drawing Life
3 December 2011–4 March 2012
Ten Years of Contemporary Art: The James C Sourris AM Collection
12 November 2011–19 February 2012
Gallery of Modern Art
Brisbane

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