Ocula Report Havana Biennial 2019: Constructing the Possible 17 Apr 2019 : Federica Bueti for Ocula I first visited Havana in November 2016, a few days after Fidel Castro died, and just under a year before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba in September 2017. Since then, much has changed, including the hand-painted signs that punctuate the journey from the airport to the city centre, which today do not celebrate the revolution so much as the 'Unidad y...
Ocula Conversation Andrew Stahl and Guo Xiaohui The exhibition Beyond Boundaries at Somerset House in London (12 March–2 April 2019) marked the historic contributions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on the occasion of their 100th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. Spread across several rooms of Somerset House's...
Ocula Report The National 2019: New Australian Art 13 Apr 2019 : Elyse Goldfinch for Ocula The National 2019: New Australian Art features work by 70 contemporary Australia-based artists split across three venues: the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) (29 March–21 July 2019), as curated by Isobel Parker Philip, curator of photographs at AGNSW; Daniel Mudie Cunningham,...
Bold, painterly and conceptually rich, Vincent's work has been shortlisted in significant awards including the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards (finalist: 2013, 2014), the John Fries Memorial Award (finalist: 2013) and the Outback Art Award, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery. His work is held in collections including the British Museum, Artbank, and Flinders University Art Museum and Queensland Art Gallery.
Ocula Conversation Vincent Namatjira Artist Vincent Namatjira relishes painting famous people who are humorously redeployed across vivid canvases and depicted in his community in remote Indulkana in South Australia. His powerful paintings are part portraiture and part caricature, in which politicians are placed side by side in wryly preposterous juxtapositions, such as Donald Trump and Kim...
Ocula Report Melbourne Art Shows to See: The Lowdown 27 Jul 2018 : Carol Que for Ocula Melbourne Art Week returns to much fanfare this year, taking place between 30 July and 5 August 2018 with the biennial Melbourne Art Fair holding centre stage after its hiatus in 2016 (2–5 August 2018). Situated across two venues within the Southbank Arts Precinct and presenting 40 new and established galleries from Australia, New Zealand and...
Ocula Insight Vincent Namatjira at THIS IS NO FANTASY + Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne By Laura Thomson Bold, painterly and conceptually rich, Vincent Namatjira's work has gained significant recognition in Australia and abroad. In 2015, his work was curated into the 10th Mildura Palimpsest Biennale, and Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, where he exhibited a series of...
Related Press Art Basel's buzziest exhibit makes fun of global despots Quartzy : 9 December 2018 It came as a serious shock to me when I rounded a corner at Art Basel Miami Beach, the world's largest contemporary art fair, and came face-to-face with Donald J. Trump.
Related Press Photos | Weapons for the Soldier exhibition opening at Hazelhurst The Leader : 15 November 2018 On New Year's Eve 1915, 31-year-old William Joseph Punch from North Queensland joined up and went to war.Sent to northern France he was wounded twice, finally ending up in a military hospital in Britain. There on August 29, 1917, he died from pneumonia.
Related Press 'Youngfellas': artists come to grips with legacy of Indigenous servicemen The Guardian : 9 November 2018 Vincent Namatjira and Kamurin Young are two of the "youngfellas" who belong to one of the most remote artistic collectives on earth, spanning a vast proportion of central Australia, larger than many European countries.
Related Press Review: Speed north to Darwin to see the latest, most dynamic Indigenous art The Sydney Morning Herald : 24 August 2018 A remarkable thing happened at this year's 35th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT): the stand-out work actually won the major prize. The annual circus of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman may have given me a jaundiced view of art prizes, but it was pleasing...
