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a Talbot Sunset/sunrise 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 209 x 150 cm

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MAY – JUNE 2016

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Comic Tragics: the exploding language of contemporary comic artCurated by Robert Cook

UNTIL 25 JULY | FREE #ComicTragics

Beyond the superhero to the super personal

Comic Tragics takes you inside the minds of nine leading contemporary comic artists from around the world. Curated by AGWA and exclusive to Perth, this is comic art on a human level - personal, poignant, witty and idiosyncratic. Words and pictures collide with self and society to weave layers of richly imaginative and sometimes quite fantastical work.

The exhibition presents work by some of the best comic artists practising today: Gabrielle Bell (US), Stephen Collins (UK), Aisha Franz (Ger), Anders Nilsen (US), Tommi Parrish (AUS), John Porcellino (US), Ron Regé Jr (US), Dash Shaw (US) and Emma Talbot (UK). These artists are pushing the medium of printed comics in new and challenging directions.

GURU GUIDED TOURS | FREE 2 – 3pm, Sundays in May & June Laugh or cry? Who knew comics could do that?

12.15 – 12.45pm, Wednesdays in May & June Art Snack (lunch time tour)

Sacred and Profane Coordinating curator by Robert Cook

UNTIL 22 AUGUST | FREE #SacredandProfane

This majestic display of three international large-scale works sees Public Notice 2 2007 by Jitish Kallat installed along the entire length of a gallery wall. For Kallat, this 58-metre version of Ghandi’s famous 1930s speech is a resurrection of Ghandi’s words in anticipation of finding new meaning within them, for our current troubled times.

Alongside Kallat’s work is Chinese Bible 2009 by Chinese artist Yang Zhichao. Over 3,000 diaries and notebooks created during the first five decades of communism tell the personal stories of day-to-day life under an oppressive regime.

These works are partnered with AGWA’s significant acquisition The sacred and the profane 1998 by Indian artist Nalini Malani.

The three international works weave together the detailed and personal, the sacred and profane, into breathtaking pieces that inspire immediate awe through their sheer scale.

GURU GUIDED TOURS | FREE 1 – 2pm, Mondays in May & June How art moves us - grappling with the big issues

1.15 – 1.45pm, Thursdays in May & June Art Snack (lunch time tour)

Year 12 PerspectivesCurated by Dunja Rmandić

UNTIL 13 JUNE | FREE #Year12Perspectives

Year 12 Perspectives is your yearly taste of art by some of the best, brightest and most talented graduating high school artists in the State.

A Gallery favourite, the exhibition is an annual barometer of what our youth are thinking and feeling, as well as a rich celebration of the role the arts play in the development of individual identities.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD Vote for the work by your favourite artist in this year’s People’s Choice and you could win a $50 Gallery Shop voucher. The winning artist will receive a $250 Gallery Shop voucher.

Voting closes 5pm, Monday 6 June (WA Day). The winning artist will be announced on Wednesday 8 June.

2. Tommi Parrish ‘I was just trying to be alive’ 2014. 3. Nalini Malani The sacred and the profane 1998 (detail). 4. Darcey Schouten Swan Christian College Timber 2015.

WA FocusCoordinating curator Jenepher Duncan

The Gallery’s annual program dedicated to displaying the works of WA artists.

Rebecca Baumann28 MAY – 22 AUGUST | FREE #WAFocus

Rebecca Baumann’s work spans sculpture, installation and performance.

For WA Focus, Baumann has developed a new light installation that creates pulsating colour waves around the gallery space and a series of works on paper. Complementing these new works, is an interactive paper work Mixed Feelings 2012, on show in Perth for the first time.

ARTIST TALK | FREE 2pm, Saturday 28 May Imagination Room

Hear from Rebecca Baumann on how she developed her WA Focus installation work informed by colour waves, and insights into new work created during her artistic residency in Helsinki.

Screen SpaceCoordinating curator Robert Cook

A different filmic work from the WA State Art Collection is screened every two months.

Mary Reid Kelley Priapus Agonistes4 JUNE – 25 SEPTEMBER | FREE #ScreenSpace

One of a group of works made by young American artist Mary Reid Kelley that re-examine aspects of Greek mythology.

Combining humour and tragedy, the film focuses on a minotaur roaming a labyrinth beneath a gymnasium, waiting for members of the losing team to be sent down as food, and the posturing of one of the players, Priapus who, at the film’s end, will descend to destroy the creature. As in all mythology nothing is black and white, and plot and sub plot weave over each other in this playful and inventive work.

Your Collection 1800 – today Works from the State Art Collection are on display through the Your Collection 1800-today galleries. This chronological arrangement starts in the Centenary Galleries found at the rear of the building in the restored courthouse, through to the displays on the entire ground floor of the main Gallery building.

GURU GUIDED TOURS | FREE Join one of our AGWA Guru Guides – our passionate volunteers who bring the AGWA collections to life with informative and entertaining free tours – on a free guided tour. Now bookable in advance.

MAY & JUNE TOURS

11am – 12pm, Mondays Figurative or abstract?

1 – 2pm, Mondays Sacred and Profane

11am – 12pm, Wednesdays & 1 – 2pm, Fridays Diverse & Dynamic – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works

12.15 – 12.45pm, Wednesdays Art Snack: Comic Tragics

11am – 12pm, Thursdays Off the wall – 3D works

1.15 – 1.45pm, Thursdays Art Snack: Sacred and Profane

12.30 – 1pm, Saturdays & Sundays Take One – one artist, one work

2 – 3pm, Saturdays Fast Forward – the Australian identity

2 – 3pm, Sundays Comic Tragics

Book at artgallery.wa.gov.au/guidedtours

5. Rebecca Baumann Mixed Feelings 2012 (detail). 6. Mary Reid Kelley Priapus Agonistes 2013 (still detail). 7. Queenie McKenzie Lajibany 1998.

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COVER Mary Reid Kelley Priapus Agonistes 2013 (still detail). Single-channel HD video with sound, made with Patrick Kelley, duration: 15 minutes, 9 seconds. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2015. 2. Gouache, watercolour and fine liner, 21 x 29.7 cm (each). Collection the artist. © Tommi Parrish. 3. Synthetic polymer paint on Mylar, steel, nylon cord, electric motors, lights and hardware, 300 x 500 x 1100 cm (overall installation). State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2001. 4. Driftwood, screws, wire, steel, 215 x 60 x 170 cm (variable). 5. Paper, feed tray, Arduino microcontroller, drive circuits/electronics, remote control, IR receiver, dimensions variable. Technology build and design: Cake Industries. Photography: Chloe Callistemon. Commissioned by GoMA for ‘Contemporary Australia: Women’. 6. Single-channel HD video with sound, made with Patrick Kelley, duration: 15 minutes, 9 seconds. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2015. 7. Natural earth pigment, ochre and binder on linen, 120 x 80 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Gift of John Catlin and Seva Frangos under the Commonwealth Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2012. 8. Oil on canvas, 139.5 x 80 cm (sight) 185.3 x 115 cm (framed). State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Sir Claude Hotchin Art Foundation, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 1994. © Hilda Rix Nicholas c1913.

OPENING HOURS10am-5pm, Wednesday – Monday. Closed Tuesdays, Good Friday, Anzac Day and Christmas Day.

AGWA Perth Cultural Centre | artgallery.wa.gov.au | admin@artgallery.wa.gov.au | +61 8 9492 6600 Info: +61 8 9492 6622PRINCIPAL PARTNER

Annual Sponsors

Year 12 Perspectives

Comic Tragics Big Day In FREE & TICKETED 11AM-4PM, SUNDAY 5 JUNE

A day jam-packed with comic delights. Sign up to AGWA artmail or follow us on Facebook for the full program announcement.

Highlight events:

11.30am – 12.30pm, Comic workshop with Campbell Whyte

11.30am – 2.30pm, AGWA Talks - comics as art

3 – 4pm, Creating the exhibition with Curator Robert Cook

In May, we revealed a whole new look and welcomed new spaces

The Imagination RoomThe Imagination Room is a multi-purpose space offering a range of opportunities to explore and discuss AGWA’s lively programs. Featuring a stunning mural about the very process of creativity by US artist Ron Regé Jr this is a place to engage with AGWA’s artistic manifesto to See Things Differently.

The evolving program will include artists in conversation, art workshops based on current exhibitions, debates on topical cultural issues, artist networking events in association with Artsource, video hook-ups with cultural travellers here and abroad, plus a place to catch up with AGWA TV. Families and children will be excited by a regular program of workshops and special events including Aggie the latest Guru Guide.

The StratosphereStratosphere is a new point of departure for special guided tours by the acclaimed AGWA Guru Guides. These passionate volunteers bring AGWA’s collection to life with informative and entertaining free tours, now bookable in advance. Located at the top of the building, this lounge is a dramatic setting from which to survey the many galleries that await you.

AtmosphereExperience a Virtual Reality tour of three extraordinary sculptures, selected from the closed vaults of the State Art Collection.

RiseRise is AGWA’s newest exhibition experience - a sound gallery built into an atmospheric vertical space connecting the two Micro Galleries. You can journey up or down the multi-channel soundscape for an unforgettable encounter with sonic creativity. WA artist Mei Saraswati has created a 5-channel piece Swamp Gospel based on the idea of a slice of vertical nature from underwater to the sky, loosely inspired by the wetlands which were originally on the Gallery site.

New spaces, new experiencesOpening in mid June: Arthouse DineArthouse Dine is AGWA’s lively addition to the buzzing Northbridge scene, brought to you by the team behind The Standard, Halford and Saint Larry. Open early for fresh breakfasts, the all-day menu will feature sensational WA produce, along with good coffee, a respected wine list and signature cocktails. Open for coffee, breakfast and lunch 7 days, and dinner or drinks Thursday to Saturday. 

Essence of AGWA – a stunning new gift card collection, exclusive to AGWAFeaturing 12 renowned works from the State Art Collection, this beautiful new card collection is a great souvenir of the Gallery and the perfect gift. Taking AGWA’s credo of Seeing Things Differently as a theme, it has been curated as pairs, by AGWA Curator of Historical Art Melissa Harpley, showing very different treatments of classic genres including still life, the nude and Australian landscape.

8. Hilda Rix Nicholas La robe Chinoise [The Chinese dress] c1913.

The creation of the Micro Galleries, Nano Galleries, the Rise and the Imagination Room have been made possible through the visionary support of Wesfarmers Arts.

Aggie and Atmosphere Virtual Reality are created in partnership with Smartbots.

Introducing Aggie the AGWA RobotAGWA has a new robotic friend who is joining the Gallery team as a special Guru Guide. You can join Aggie on a guided tour at 11am on the fourth Saturday of every month. Then stay on for a fun hands-on art activity at 1pm.Aggie’s first tour focuses on women in art during 1930-1960 and takes an informative, entertaining and sometimes humorous look at key works in the WA State Art Collection.

First tour and workshop – 28 May Guided tour, suitable for all ages, free Workshop suitable for 16 years and under, gold coin donation

The Micro Galleries: Garden and SkyThe Micro Galleries are two new spaces showcasing large works from the Wesfarmers Collection. The contrast between the giant works and the dimensions of the Micro Galleries creates an exciting dynamic. The opening displays begin with a conversation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists, and include works such as Brook Andrew’s Australia 1 2013 and William Delafield’s A Haystack 1983 in the Garden Gallery and Richard Bell’s work Omega (Bell’s Theorem) 2013 in the Sky Gallery.

The Nano GalleriesTwo new Nano Galleries are tardis-like spaces which offer intimate multimedia experiences, giving you a chance to learn more about AGWA exhibitions. Located within the Micro Galleries, the Nanos feature digital briefing pods which allow AGWA Curators to reveal exhibition insights through short videos.

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