Art Comes Alive

Brisbane stands up to be counted

BRISBANE can now count itself among the global cities with a captivating Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) to call their own. This brand new five-storey ode to art boasts an artistic quality and design aesthetics to appeal to everyone, from the art connoisseur and architect, to even the youngest budding sculptor, painter or filmmaker.

Built at a cost of more than a AU$100 million dollars, GoMA is located at Kurilpa Point, on the south bank of the Brisbane River. Situated only 150m from the Queensland Art Gallery, the public opening of GoMA in December 2006 marked its status as the largest art museum in Australia solely dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

The design of the building, by Sydney-based company Architectus, exploits Queensland’s light and sub-tropical climate with its striking overhanging roof, open verandahs, timber batten screening, monumental glass features and black anodised aluminium cladding. Designed and shaped by the character and display needs of modern artworks, the result is a true synergy between art and architecture.

The focus of GoMA is the collection displays, which integrate works across all media from Australia, Asia, the Pacific, UK, USA and Europe. They largely feature modern and contemporary art works post-1970, including innovative sculptures by Rachel Whiteread, Tobias Putrih, Gabriel Orozco, Roman Signer, and Australian artist Mike Parr.

GoMA’s dedication to spotlighting Australian works has led to several significant art acquisitions, including Tracey Moffatt’s Adventure Series (2004); Fiona Hall’s Tender (2003-6), consisting of dozens of ‘birds’ nests’ fashioned from shredded US one-dollar bills, and Echo (2005), a large-scale work by Chinese/Australian artist Guan Wei.

The opening exhibition, The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT5), is currently on display until 27 May and is notable for being twice the scale of previous Triennials. APT5 features around 270 works by 37 individual artists, filmmakers and performers, plus two collaboratives.

Another highlight is The Australian Cinémathèque; it’s the first of its kind in an Australian art museum. Already the two cinemas and adjoining gallery for film-related exhibits have become one of the most popular aspects of GoMA. We recommend taking the time to experience the specially curated film programme Hong Kong, Shanghai: Cinema Cities, screening from 2 March to 27 May, a chronological journey through the interconnected histories of these two cities.

There are also two galleries dedicated to Australia’s rich and diverse contemporary Indigenous art. One gallery shows work from 1970s Papunya boards to contemporary urban artists, and the other focuses on Far North Queensland’s Indigenous art.

And for the little ones, there’s a great Children’s Art Centre, which specialises in artist-run, activity-based programmes.

WORDS JASON SINTOME