Opening on 30 March 2017 and running simultaneously as a unified exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), The National 2017: New Australian Art is the first edition of a six-year initiative, presented in 2017, 2019 and 2021, exploring the latest ideas and forms in contemporary Australian art.

The AGNSW, Carriageworks and MCA have collaboratively selected emerging, mid-career and established Australian contemporary artists – living across the country and abroad – to present work as part of a single curated program at the three institutions.

Connecting three of Sydney’s key cultural precincts – The Domain, Redfern and Circular Quay, The National: New Australian Art represents the only large-scale, multi-venue exhibition in the city to be focused solely on contemporary Australian art.

Curators for the 2017 edition of The National: New Australian Art are Anneke Jaspers, Curator Contemporary Art and Wayne Tunnicliffe, Head Curator Australian Art, AGNSW; Lisa Havilah, Director and Nina Miall, Curator, Carriageworks; and Blair French, Director, Curatorial & Digital, MCA.

Blair French, Director, Curatorial & Digital at the MCA commented: “This unique collaboration enables us to explore the themes and concerns of artists making work today in a way that a single organisation couldn’t undertake. The works reflect the diversity of subjects preoccupying artists and all Australians from a cultural, political and social perspective. Taking the form of sculpture, painting, installation, video, drawing and performance, this exhibition provides a snapshot of Australian art at this particular moment in time.”

At the AGNSW, The National 2017 presents contemporary artists who are engaging with marginal narratives and contested histories, including how these are shaped by uneven power relations and conflicting value systems.

Anneke Jaspers, Curator of Contemporary Art at AGNSW said: “The works at the Art Gallery of NSW have mostly developed from archival or field research, and are underpinned by social engagement. These artists navigate and reinterpret various histories – aesthetic, social, economic, environmental – to offer new readings of the present and the future. Many of the works offer an Indigenous perspective, or draw out connections to other geographic locations and cultures.”

At Carriageworks, the curatorial approach focuses on the current fluidity of identity – individual and collective, real and imagined. Works presented in The National 2017 at Carriageworks address the fractures and contingencies of Australian identity, with a strong cross-generational and crossdisciplinary focus.

Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah commented: “Artists at Carriageworks examine the self in the context of history, exploring questions of individualism, shared experience and relationally. Many of the artists will be making works that are created collaboratively and works across disciplines including contemporary performance.”

At the MCA, The National 2017 includes artists working with key concerns through time, pulling history through and beyond the present; in particular artists working with repeated gestures and processes, or returning to actions, images or motifs consistently through time in their practice.

The National 2017: New Australian Art opens on 30 March 2017 at AGNSW, Carriageworks and 31 March 2017 at the MCA. Entry to the exhibition is free at the three institutions.

Exhibition dates

Art Gallery of New South Wales, 30 March – 16 July 2017
Carriageworks, 30 March – 25 June 2017
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 30 March – 18 June 2017

Media contacts

Hannah McKissock-Davis, Art Gallery of New South Wales
02 9225 1671 | hannah.mckissock-Davis@ag.nsw.gov.au

Claire Johnson, MCA Australia
02 9245 2417 | claire.johnson@mca.com.au

Kym Elphinstone, Articulate for Carriageworks
0421 106 139 | kim@articulatepr.com.au

Artist list

Khadim Ali

Zanny Begg

Richard Bell

Gordon Bennett

Chris Bond & Wes Thorne

Matthew Bradley

Gary Carsley

Erin Coates

Megan Cope

Karla Dickens

Atlanta Eke

Emily Floyd

Heath Franco

Marco Fusinato

Gunybi Ganambarr

Alex Gawronski

Ghenoa Gela

Agatha Gothe-Snape

Julie Gough

Alan Griffiths

Dale Harding

Taloi Havini

Gordon Hookey

Ronnie van Hout

Helen Johnson

Jess Johnson

Richard Lewer

Peter Maloney

Nicholas Mangan

Karen Mills

Archie Moore

Claudia Nicholson

Tom Nicholson

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

Nell

Rose Nolan

Raquel Ormella

Alex Martinis Roe

Stieg Persson

Elizabeth Pulie

Khaled Sabsabi

Yhonnie Scarce

Keg de Souza

Simon Ward

Justene Williams

Jemima Wyman

Tiger Yaltangki