The twenty-first century has seen the beginning of a new cycle in contemporary American art with artists taking self-expression and the artistic process into uncharted territory.
For the first time in 47 years Australian audiences will have the chance to witness such contemporary American art in ‘Stars + Stripes: American Art of the 21st Century from The Goldberg Collection,’ a major touring exhibition premiering at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery this month.
In 1967, Australian audiences were introduced to a groundbreaking touring exhibition with the New York Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Two Decades of American Painting.’ The exhibition showcased works by a new generation of American artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
It was this period of the 1960-70s where radical experimentation gave rise to many of the practices and aesthetics underpinning contemporary art today, providing countless blueprints for artistic innovation by younger generations.
‘Stars + Stripes: American Art of the 21st Century from The Goldberg Collection’ introduces us to a new generation of equally groundbreaking American artists through this group exhibition. Curator Richard Perram OAM, and the Director of Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, expresses how significant it will be to see these works ‘in the flesh’ and not just through reproductions in print.
Drawn from the private collection of Sydney-based Lisa and Danny Goldberg, the exhibition brings together 57 works across the mediums of painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. Perram describes the exhibition as “a fascinating snapshot of recent contemporary art from North America and provides a unique opportunity to present works and artists not easily accessible to Australian audiences.”
The 33 exhibiting artists are primarily based in New York and Los Angeles, but recognised internationally as having a strong influence on the emerging art world in the United States and Europe alike. Notable exhibiting artists include Tavares Strachan, Haim Steinbach, Richard Aldrich, Sterling Ruby, Allora & Cazadilla, Davina Semo, Dylan Lynch, Elad Lassry, Cory Arcangel, Jeff Elrod, Seth Price and Walead Beshty.
This new generation of American artists engage the world and their audiences in vital and surprising ways informed by the trajectory of late twentieth century abstraction and the emergence of sophisticated software and print technologies.
With breadth of media at their disposal, artists are able to draw on sources ranging from pop culture, politics, ethnicity, nationhood, environmentalism and social conditions and personal experiences. Exploring the psychological, aesthetic, cultural and ritualistic aspects of objects as well as their context, these artists radically redefine the status of the object in art and push it to its full potential, as seen with Dylan Lynch’s Sucked in Juice Box (2013).
This exhibition demonstrates the American exploration of artistic styles across a variety of disciplines and its impact on both local and international audiences. A new generation of contemporary American artists who push the boundaries further than their predecessors, testing their creative limits – continually changing, redefining and shifting their technique – to investigate the nature of our perception and the meaning of the contemporary image.
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
3 October to 16 November, 2014
New South Wales
Mike Bouchet, Refresh Everything, 2010, artist produced diet cola on cotton, 120.02 x 240.03cm
Dylan Lynch, Sucked in Juice Box, 2013, acrylic on steel, 53.3 x 66 x 71.1cm
Courtesy the artists, The Still House Group, Marlborough Gallery, New York, and Hauser & Wirth
