Exhibitions and Exhibition Catalogues by Our People
Exhibitions and exhibition catalogues are major contributions to our understanding of art and visual culture. Many of the art historians at UQ are also practicing curators, and believe in the broad public engagement that exhibitions enable. Here is a sample of their work.
Banner image artwork credit: Georgina Hooper
2018
Robert Smithson: Time Crystals
Curation and catalogue by: Amelia Barikin and Chris McAuliffe
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:728526
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/past-exhibitions/2018/robert-smithson-time-crystals
Details: The first exhibition in Australia dedicated to the work of American artist Robert Smithson (1938–1973). Smithson is now widely recognised as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Inspired by ideas of crystalline geometry and non-biological time, he redefined abstraction and challenged art history, declaring that ‘Nature gives way to the incalculable cycles of nonduration.’
2017
Ecstasy: Baroque and Beyond
Curation and catalogue by: Andrea Bubenik
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:688497
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/ecstasy-baroque-and-beyond
Details: Understanding ecstasy to encompass states of exaltation beyond the sensuous suffering of Bernini's sculpture, Ecstasy: Baroque and Beyond brings together older depictions of ecstasy with more recent works. From representations of saints and mystics, to dreamscapes and images of bacchanalian revels, this exhibition explores how Baroque style – characterised by exaggeration, high drama, extravagance, frenzy, and excess – continues to inform contemporary art.
2015
Pierre Huyghe: TarraWarra International
Curation and catalogue by: Amelia Barikin and Victoria Lynn
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:699012
Exhbition profile: https://www.twma.com.au/exhibition/tarrawarra-international-2015-pierre-huyghe/
Details: The curatorial starting point for the exhibition is Huyghe’s founding of The Association of Freed Time in 1995, a collaborative proposal for liberating temporal horizons.
2014
Five Centuries of Melancholia
Curation and catalogue by: Andrea Bubenik
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:336273
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/past-exhibitions/2014/five-centuries-melancholia.
Details: The exhibition, attended by over 12,200 visitors, was a celebration of the 500th anniversary of Albrecht Dürer's enigmatic engraving Melencolia I, and an exploration of melancholy as a condition, mood and aesthetic that has affected the visual arts from the Renaissance to today.
Remembering Brian and Marjorie Johnstone's Galleries
Curation and catalogue by: Nancy Underhill
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/past-exhibitions/2014/remembering-brian-and-marjorie-johnstones-galleries
Details: The exhibition comprises artworks shown at The Johnstone Gallery, along with scrapbooks, photographs and other gallery records drawn from The Johnstone Gallery Archive, one of the treasures of the State Library of Queensland’s Australian Library of Art collection.
2013
Marioni/MacPherson
Written and compiled by: Rex Butler
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:350402
Exhbition profile: https://issuu.com/uqartmuseum/docs/m_m_publication_small_file
Details: Marioni/MacPherson reflects upon the role of aesthetics in art today. Is beauty something to be aimed at directly or can it only be arrived at inadvertently? Or, on the contrary, is beauty to be avoided and is this really possible?
2010
Before time today: Reinventing tradition in Aurkun Aboriginal Art
Curation and catalogue by: Sally Butler
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:229451
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/past-exhibitions/2010/time-today-reinventing-tradition-aurukun-aboriginal-art
Details: Explains how Aurukun art production absorbed the colonial impact of mission and government cultural intervention throughout the 20th century, shifting through demands for cultural display to outsiders a arts and crafts initiatives, and then providing the powerful visual symbols for the political struggles of Aurukun's Wik people.
2007
Our way: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Lockhard River
Written and compiled by: Sally Butler
Espace link: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:136381
Exhbition profile: https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/past-exhibitions/2007/our-way-contemporary-aboriginal-art-lockhart-river
Details: Introduces art lovers to the art of a group of young Aboriginal artists from the Lockhart River Community in Northern Queensland - Australia's only youth-driven Aboriginal art initiative. This book demonstrates how these young artists have captured the history, community, and wilderness of their surroundings.