Primavera: Young Australian Artists
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s annual Primavera: Young Australian Artists exhibition showcases the work of Australian artists aged 35 years and under. In its 32nd year, Primavera has been guest curated by Talia Smith, who considers what artists are creating to challenge society’s prescribed structures.
Through works of various media, including installation, video, painting, sculpture, mark-making and text, the six artists – Tiyan Baker (b. 1989, Garramilla/Darwin), Christopher Bassi (b. 1990, Meanjin/Brisbane), Moorina Bonini (b. 1996, Naarm/Melbourne), Nikki Lam (b. 1988, Hong Kong), Sarah Poulgrain (b. 1992, Thul Garrie Waja/Townsville) and Truc Truong (b. 1987, Tarndanya/Adelaide) – draw on their lived experience to disrupt the dynamics of power and deliver compelling alternatives to the status quo.
Primavera was initiated in 1992 by MCA Australia in collaboration with Dr Edward Jackson AM and Mrs Cynthia Jackson AM, in memory of their daughter Belinda. Since its inception, Primavera has played an influential role in the development of contemporary art in Australia, introducing a generation of artists at an early stage of their careers to a broader public. Each year the curator of Primavera undertakes extensive research, travelling across the country to meet young artists.
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"What brings these artists together is the way they reckon with the perils of history, education, culture, and language to question authoritative structures and systems. They assert that there is more than one way of living and offer impressions of how it might look."
— Talia Smith
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Talia Smith is an artist and curator from Aotearoa who is now based in Sydney, Australia. She has curated exhibitions for organisations such as the Singapore International Photography Festival, IMA, UTS Gallery, Ballarat Foto Biennale and Cement Fondu among others. Her writing has appeared in various publications such as Memo Review, Art New Zealand and artist catalogue essays and books. She has completed research residencies in Singapore and Germany and currently works as the curator at Granville Centre Art Gallery.
Talia Smith with her exhibition Don’t be bashful, wear the flower behind your ear, installation view Murray Art Museum Albury, NSW, 2022. Photo Jeremy Weihrauch
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tiyan Baker is a Malaysian Bidayǔh-Anglo Australian artist who works with installation, photography, video, and sculpture. Her practice draws on historical research, language, digital processes, and material play to trace unseen relationships between words, place, and stories.
Christopher Bassi is an artist of Meriam, Yupungathi and British descent. Working with archetypal models of representational painting, his work engages with the medium as sociological and historical text and as a means of addressing issues surrounding cultural identity, alternative genealogies, and colonial legacies in Australia and the South Pacific.
Moorina Bonini is a descendant of the Yorta Yorta Dhulunyagen family clan of Ulupna and the Yorta Yorta, Wurundjeri, and Wiradjuri Briggs/McCrae family. An artist whose works are informed by her experiences as an Aboriginal and Italian woman, her practice attempts to disrupt and critique Eurocentric ideas of the Indigenous, especially within western institutions.
Nikki Lam is a Hong Kong-born artist, curator and producer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Working primarily with moving images, her work explores hybridity and memory through the contemplation of time, space and impermanence.
Sarah Poulgrain’s practice draws on self-sustainability and artist-led pedagogy to expand what art institutions can do. Though they produce sculptures, their practice is primarily concerned with building and sustaining respectful and non-hierarchical relationships.
Truc Truong is a visual artist based on Peramangk and Kaurna Country, Adelaide. Her art practice is primarily focused on assemblage and installation.
Image: Christopher Bassi, 2021. Image courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery © the artist. Photograph: Rhett Hammerton
ITINERARY
The Condensery | Somerset Regional Art Gallery, QLD – 13 July -1 September 2024
Noosa Regional Gallery, QLD – 14 September – 3 November 2024
Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW – 15 December 2024 – 2 February 2025
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW – 14 February – 22 March 2025
Bank Art Museum Moree, NSW – 4 April – 31 May 2025
Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW – 21 June – 10 August 2025
Wangaratta Art Gallery, VIC – 23 August – 19 October 2025
Latrobe Regional Gallery, VIC – 31 October 2025 – 15 February 2026
Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA – 16 May – 19 July 2026
READ MORE
- Primavera 2023, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2023
- Primavera Pathways 2023, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2023
- MCA Australia announces a three-year regional tour of Primavera: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, February 2024
- Celina Lei, Primavera: Young Australian Artists receives three-year regional tour, Artshub, February 2024
- Visions of Australia to showcase Australian art across the country, Australian Arts Review, February 2024
- Visions of Australia to showcase Australian art across the country, The National Tribune, February 2024
A Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Museums & Galleries of NSW touring exhibition curated by Talia Smith. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
