New Artspace Exhibition Examines The Evolution Of Self-Portraiture

Nora Heysen’s Self-portrait 1938 is part of the QAGOMA’s Looking Out, Looking In: Exploring the Self-Portrait exhibition at Artspace Mackay from July 3^rd.

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People’s persistent interest in the self-image is explored in a new exhibition of work from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Collection, opening at Artspace Mackay on Friday 3^rd July.

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Drawing from QAGOMA’s Australian, Indigenous Australian, Asia Pacific and International collections, Looking Out, Looking In: Exploring the Self-Portrait highlights richly diverse approaches to the timeless artistic genre.

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QAGOMA Director Chirs Saines CNZM said ‘Looking Out, Looking In’ had been devised against the backdrop of contemporary “selfie” culture.

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“We have become increasingly attuned to the self-image through the ubiquity of handheld digital devices, social media and reality TV, all of which create a new context for self-portraiture,” Mr Saines said.

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“While some artists look inwards to reflect on themselves in self-effacing ways, others project a more flamboyant image,” he said.

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“Together, the artworks situate self-portraiture as a dynamic genre responsive to larger societal concerns and linked to the collective desire to picture and comprehend ourselves.”

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Artists featured include Abdul Abdullah, Davida Allen, Fiona Foley, James Gleeson, Nora Heysen, George W. Lambert, Tracey Moffatt, Yasumasa Morimura, Vincent Namatjira, Luke Roberts, Cindy Sherman and Madonna Staunton, among others.

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Mayor Greg Williamson said the exhibition, in Artspace Mackay’s Main Gallery, was an exciting addition to the region’s cultural calendar.

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“Artspace Mackay continues to deliver outstanding exhibitions that connect our community with nationally significant collections,” Mayor Williamson said.

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“We are proud to welcome this engaging and thought-provoking exhibition from QAGOMA, which invites visitors to reflect on identity and the ways we see ourselves,” he said.

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Also opening at Artspace Mackay on June 27 is Archie Moore’s Mīal in the Foyer Gallery, and Katelyn-Jane Dunn’s You sound just like your mother in the Foundation Gallery.

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Archie Moore’s Mīal is a National Portrait Gallery touring exhibition.

Mīal is an abstract, conceptual self-portrait that continues Archie Moore's practice exploring the politics of identity, racism and languages systems. 

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It is composed of multiple geometric paintings, each representing a part of the artist's body and replicating shades of his skin colour. To create the work, Moore used the same technology that makes commercial paint samples to convert scans of his skin into the Pantone colour scale.

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Katelyn-Jane Dunn is a local artist and writer who developed her exhibition You sound just like your mother, following the untimely death of her mother.

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The work is a meditation on mother-loss and the mother-daughter relationship and is deeply rooted in the visual landscape of regional Queensland and the regional woman’s perspective.

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The work is a love letter to her mother and the complex mother-daughter bond and includes archival images, poetic text, written memories, recipes, notes and documentary images taken at significant sites of the artist’s mother’s life and passing, namely the farm ‘Sunnyside’ in Bundaberg (where she grew up and is buried) and the family home in Mackay, Queensland.

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These three exciting new exhibitions will be on display at Artspace Mackay until September 20^th.

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Artspace Mackay is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am. For more information on the exhibitions visit artspacemackay.com.au

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