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director’s overview
/ QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06
11
to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI),
Melbourne, for a ten-day showing in December.
‘Made for this World’ proved to be another successful exhibition
for children, and included three major interactive works for kids
by Yayoi Kusama, Cai Guo-Qiang and Olafur Eliasson.
In February, a new Gallery travelling exhibition, ‘Queensland
Live: Contemporary Art on Tour’, commenced an eight-venue
tour. Featuring works by 11 of the state’s leading artists, the
exhibition forms part of the regional Queensland opening
celebrations program for GoMA.
During the year the Foundation held a successful appeal for
funds to purchase Charles Blackman’s 1952 painting
City
lights
. Individual and corporate members of the Foundation
generously supported this appeal, and I extend a warm
thanks to all whose contribution ensured this significant
painting entered our Australian art collection. I also take the
opportunity to thank all Foundation members, as well as
individual donors and sponsors, for their support of broader
Gallery projects and acquisitions during the year.
As the Gallery approaches the opening of the GoMA, APT5,
and the refurbished Queensland Art Gallery, I thank Wayne
Goss, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and the dedicated
Board members. I also acknowledge the Gallery’s staff who
continue to demonstrate dedication and commitment to
providing the best possible experiences and services to our
expanding audiences.
Doug Hall,
AM
, Director
DIRECTOR’S OVERVIEW
During the year the Gallery’s curatorial team finalised the artists to be included in
‘The 5th Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT5) — 37 individual artists
and 2 multi-artist projects. With over 300 works of art to be featured across both
the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), APT5 will be
twice the scale of past Triennials — a suitably ambitious project for the inaugural
exhibition of our two-site institution.
The Triennial continues to distinguish itself from other
international art events by its collecting focus. Reflecting the
Gallery’s intensive acquisitions program in the area of
contemporary Asian and Pacific art over the past decade,
previously unseen Collection works will make up the majority
of the exhibited works in APT5. Acquisitions made in this
area during the reporting year included works by John Pule
(Niue/New Zealand), Sima Urale (Samoa/New Zealand) and
Yang Zhenzhong (China).
As part of preparations for the event, several artists came to
Brisbane to develop their projects for the Triennial. In July and
August 2005, the Gallery hosted Japanese artist Tsuyoshi
Ozawa; curator Lu Jie of China’s Long March Project; and
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who has been commissioned to
produce a major site-specific installation for the exhibition.
Highlights of the exhibition program during the year included
the Gallery’s concurrent presentation of two major Australian
travelling exhibitions — ‘Margaret Preston: Art and Life’ from
the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and ‘Grace Cossington
Smith: A Retrospective Exhibition’ from the National Gallery
of Australia. Audiences also enjoyed a survey of the work of
leading Australian contemporary jeweller Barbara Heath,
who has been practising in Brisbane for over two decades.
From November 2005 to January 2006, two major exhibitions
were presented under the auspices of new GoMA initiatives
— the Australian Cinémathèque’s ‘Kiss of the Beast’, and the
Children’s Art Centre’s ‘Made for this World: Contemporary Art
and the Places We Build’. For ‘Kiss of the Beast’, the Gallery
worked with South Bank Cinemas to present a ten-day film
program alongside an exhibition of more than 100 works at
the Gallery. The ‘Kiss of the Beast’ film program then travelled
eX de Medici
Australia b.1959
The theory of everything
2005
Watercolour and metallic pigment on
Arches paper, 114.3 x 176.3cm
Purchased 2005