Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett
Gordon Bennett voraciously consumed art history, current affairs, rap music and fiction, and processed it all into an unflinching critique of how identities are constituted and how history shapes individual and shared cultural conditions. This exhibition showcases Bennett’s key series in depth, his most important and admired works, and includes many works which have rarely, if ever, been exhibited.
Gallery of Modern Art
7 November 2020 to 21 March 2021
Queensland
Gordon Bennett (Australia 1955-2014), Abstraction (Migrant), 2011, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 183 x 152.3 x 3.2cm. © The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Taylor Family Collection, Brisbane. Courtesy The Estate of Gordon Bennett and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Steve Gough: Open Spaces 2020
These works, created as the world was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, depict the unrestricted breadth and vitality of the natural world. From the ancient escarpments linking waterfalls, rivers and floodplains, to the detail of nectar-filled flowers, and the expanses of space, ‘Open Spaces 2020‘ serves to remind us of the many ways in which the flora and fauna inhabit the natural world regardless of the concerns of humankind.
Outstation Gallery
31 October to 29 November 2020
Northern Territory
Steve Gough, Pair of Brolgas, oil on board with gold leaf. Courtesy the artist and Outstation Gallery, Northern Territory
Olga Cironis: Forest of Voices
Olga Cironis extends an invitation to the public to anonymously share their own stories about intimacy, touch and connection. Gathered by the artist as audio recordings and presented as a sound installation, ‘Forest of Voices’ gives form to a collective archive of voices. Cironis’ work recognises the possibilities contained in collective acts and asserts the importance of understanding how we live together.
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
3 November to 10 January 2021
Western Australia
Courtesy Olga Cironis and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Kirsten Coelho: Ithaca
A new installation of porcelain vessels influenced by the canonical Western text The Odyssey by Ancient Greek poet Homer. Drawing on the physicality of Grecian ceramics, Coelho reflects on Odysseus’s journey, specifically the concept of returning home, through a series of serene, graceful ceramic vessels of soft white porcelain.
Samstag Museum of Art
16 October to 28 November 2020
South Australia
Kirsten Coelho, Ithaca, 2019, porcelain matte glaze. Photograph: Grant Hancock. Courtesy the artist, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
Mish Meijers: Abacus Wars
Mish Meijers has long toyed with the threshold of the screen and the stage, her command of the uncanny subverting the audience’s gaze and prompting the self-conscious realisation that we too are performers in the gallery. The Abacus Wars is no exception, exploding its own inescapable present; global pandemic, fake news, nuclear fallout, the 2020 zoom-apocalypse death of mass gatherings, live theatre, and interstellar travel for artists and their audiences… the bead-clicking-background-countdown to climate catastrophe… but equally these works are buoyant and uncapturable, they document resilience, resistance and the solidarity of the bodies that refuse reduction to the body politic.
Bett Gallery
20 November to 12 December 2020
Tasmania
Mish Meijers, Peachy keen fever dream (Mexico), 2020, oil on reverse glass (Hinterglasmalerei), Tasmanian oak frame, acrylic and mixed media on paper, 100 x 130 x 4cm. Courtesy the artist and Bett Gallery, Tasmania
