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FROM THE
DIRECTOR
Chris Saines speaks at the QAGOMA
Members’ Christmas Party at GOMA /
December 2015 / Photograph:
Chloë Callistemon
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery
of Modern Art presented an insistently
contemporary program in 2015. We
featured solo exhibitions of ambitious
scale, took advantage of our parallel
visual art and cinema spaces and saw
sustained progress toward our goal
to be the leading institution for the
contemporary art of Australia,
Asia and the Pacific.
Australian artist Robert MacPherson’s
2400-sheet
1000 FROG POEMS:
1000 BOSS DROVERS
1996–2014
dramatically occupied the full height
of GOMA’s largest wall, and New
Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai’s
monumentally scaled stainless steel
portrait of Captain Cook,
The English
Channel
2015, was pressed into a
two-story replica 1930s Art Deco
house that greeted visitors to the
Fairfax Gallery. Meanwhile, artist
and auteur David Lynch animated
the deep connection between his
life-long practice as an artist and the
transcendent vision of his screen work.
These three exhibitions resulted from
direct collaboration with the artists,
and we are grateful for their support.
Another highlight was ‘GOMA Q’, our
first exhibition in many years of recent
work by some of Queensland’s most
prominent emerging, mid-career and
senior artists. It won’t be the last
time we engage with the local in this
way, just as we do with regional and
international programming.
The project that most consumed us,
as it does every three years, was
‘The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of
Contemporary Art’, our flagship
exhibition and convergence of art,
performance and public programs.
The APT energises the entire
organisation and our audiences
flooded QAG and GOMA in record
numbers for the opening night and
weekend events. It’s also a vital
cog in our collection development
machine, with 70 per cent of its
250 artworks brought into the
contemporary Australian, Asian
and Pacific art collections.
APT8 saw institutional innovations
too, with the return of a scholarly
conference, and the initiation of
a research collaboration with the
tertiary education sector in the
Brisbane Consortium for the Visual
Arts. We also launched the Asia
Pacific Council — a new organisation
committed to working with government
and industry to build an enduring
platform for the APT — and introduced
the stimulating APT8 Live sequence
of performances throughout
the exhibition.
The APT, indeed all of our
programming, would simply not
be possible without the support of
the Queensland Government. I wish
to very warmly thank Premier and
Minister for the Arts, the Honourable
Annastacia Palaszczuk,
mp
, and the
Department of Premier and Cabinet,
along with Arts Queensland and
Tourism and Events Queensland.
We’re also privileged to have the
backing of a deeply committed
sponsorship family, and the
generosity of many wonderful
donors through the Gallery’s
Foundation.
The Gallery is guided by an astute
Board, among whom I especially thank
Chair, Professor Susan Street,
ao
, and
Deputy Chair Philip Bacon,
am
, and an
engaged Executive Management
team and staff.
In 2016, we will present major
exhibitions by the late Queensland
painter Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda
Sally Gabori and acclaimed New
York artist Cindy Sherman. We will
explore four decades of art from
our neighbours Papua New Guinea
and honour the generosity of our
remarkable benefactor Tim Fairfax,
ac
.
We will also mark, with a swathe
of exhibitions, acquisitions and
commissions, the tenth anniversary
of our second building, the Gallery
of Modern Art, a landmark not just
for its iconic riverside presence,
but for its role as a meeting place
for ideas in Brisbane.
As we head into another exciting
year,
Review
takes a broad look back
at our achievements in 2015 and
acknowledges the many people within
the organisation and surrounding it
that bring these projects to life:
artists and audiences, stakeholders
and staff. My thanks go to them all.
CHRIS SAINES,
CNZM
DIRECTOR
QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY
GALLERY OF MODERN ART
PAGE
07
REVIEW
2015
REVIEW
2015
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FROM THE DIRECTOR
FROM THE DIRECTOR