IMANTS TILLERS

This is Imants Tillers fourth solo exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney. It is entitled Metafisica Australe and presents a new body of work which attempts to find common ground between contemporary Western Desert painting and the metaphysical paintings of the 20th Century Italian master, Giorgio de Chirico. It continues the premise of the exhibition Dreaming: Aboriginal Australia art meets de Chirico curated by Ian McLean and Erica Izett at the Carlo Bilotti Museum in Rome last year, in which 7 of his works (from 1986 to 2014) formed a kind of bridge between the 20 works Giorgio de Chirico, which are on permanent display in the museum and the exhibition of Western Desert paintings from the Sordello Missana Collection from Antibes, France. His exhibition in Sydney also includes several landscapes and two self-portraits.

Imants Tillers has exhibited widely since the late 1960s, and has represented Australia at important international exhibitions, such as the Sao Paulo Bienal in 1975, Documenta 7 in 1982, and the 42nd Venice Biennale in 1986. Major solo surveys of Tillers’ work include Imants Tillers: works 1978 – 1988 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1988); Imants Tillers: 19301, at the National Art Gallery, Wellington (1989); Diaspora, National Art Museum, Riga, Latvia (1993); Diaspora in Context at the Pori Art Museum, Pori (1995); Towards Infinity: Works by Imants Tillers, Museum of Contemporary Art (MARCO) in Monterrey, Mexico (1999); Imants Tillers: one world many visions, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2006); The Long Poem, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth (2009) and Dreamings: Aboriginal Australia art meets de Chirico, Carlo Bilotti Museum, Rome (2014).

Tillers has been the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, such as The Gold Award, Rockhampton Art Gallery (2014), the Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2013 and
2012), the Osaka Triennale Prize (Gold in 1993, Bronze in 1996, and Silver in 2001), and the inaugural Beijing International Art Biennale Prize for Excellence (2003). Major commissions include Avenue of Remembrance, a tapestry commissioned by The Australian War Memorial to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign (2014), the Federation Pavilion, Centennial Park (1985 – 87); the Founding Donors Painting, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1991), and two key sculptures for Sydney Olympic Park (2002). Tillers was a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney from 2001 – 2009. In 2005 he was awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa for ‘his long and distinguished contribution to the field of arts’, by the University of New South Wales. Metafisica Australe is Imants Tillers’ fourth solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.