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Culture Juice – The Rise of Sneaker Culture

exhibition

On display are shoes from the archives of Adidas, Converse, Nike and Puma, as well as private collectors such as legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC, sneaker guru Bobbito Garcia (Kool Bob Love) and Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder. Also featured are sneaker collaborations between celebrities, artists and high-end fashion houses, including Kanye West, Damien Hirst, Prada, and Lanvin.

After popular showings in Toronto, Brooklyn and Atlanta, the international exhibition The Rise of Sneaker Culture is on display at AGWA for its only Australian presentation. 

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Heath Ledger: A Life in Pictures

exhibition

Discover a passionate film-maker – admire a screen legend – celebrate a local hero – Health Ledger.

Film legend Heath Ledger was a charismatic movie star who pushed the boundaries of acting in his iconic roles. This unique exhibition has been curated by the WA Museum in partnership with AGWA.

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A Window on Italy – The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence

exhibition

Featuring Renaissance and Baroque paintings by Italian artists such as Botticelli, Tintoretto, Caravaggio and Pontormo – these extraordinary works of art have been preserved over centuries, surviving the devastation of World War II and the great flood of Florence.

Featuring Renaissance and Baroque paintings by Italian artists such as Botticelli, Tintoretto, Caravaggio and Pontormo – these extraordinary works of art have been reserved over centuries, surviving the devastation of World War II and the great flood of Florence.

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2017 Black Swan Prize for Portraiture

media releases

A strong diversity of styles was showcased in this year’s selection, from photographic realism to abstractionism. Self-portraits and studies of family members sat alongside high-profile subjects including cricketer Nathan Lyon, Academy Award-winning animator Adam Elliot, and performance artist Stelarc.

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Encyclopedia of Buddhist Art Gifted to the Art Gallery of WA

media releases

The prestigious multi-volume Encyclopedia of Buddhist Art was ceremonially presented to the Art Gallery of WA chairman Sam Walsh on 25 October by a party of twenty dignitaries from Australia’s preeminent Buddhist temples led by the Venerable Hui Kuan, visiting from Beijing. 

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Private Art Collection of a Florentine Family to Come to Perth

media releases

Western Australians are set to receive a fascinating glimpse into the art and lives of a princely Florentine family when the exhibition A Window on Italy – The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence opens at the Art Gallery of WA on Saturday 24 February 2018.

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Bill Henson

media releases

This exhibition presents recent photographs by Bill Henson, selected by the artist, and encompasses translucent portraits and nudes, lush museum interiors and haunting landscapes, to create an intimate space where the viewer’s imagination can roam

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The Rise of Sneaker Culture is a Runaway Success

media releases

The Art Gallery of WA’s fascinating exhibition, The Rise of Sneaker Culture, is entering its home stretch. Closing in less than two weeks, the international display has proven to be immensely popular, drawing a crowd of more than 8,000 visitors on its opening weekend. Now, two weeks before it closes, the exhibition has attracted 67,000 visitors.

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WA Now – Julie Dowling: Babanyu (Friends for Life)

exhibition

The exhibition takes a step back in time to a period (1993–2005) when First Nation Badimaya artist, Julie Dowling, was emerging as one of the most important artists in Western Australia and the country.

In this period, the real-life stories she shared about First Nations peoples’ experience in this country were abrupt, brutal and challenging. Many of the stories she shared were, and still are, largely unknown or acknowledged in mainstream Australian society. 

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Year 12 Perspectives 2017

exhibition

Year 12 Perspectives showcases work by some of the best, brightest and most talented graduating high school artists in WA, and is a barometer of what our youth are thinking and feeling.

In 2018, fifty-five works will be displayed by students from across Western Australia. This year’s judging panel comprised of: Leith Elliott, President of the Art Teachers Association of WA; Nathan Beard, Artist; and Dunja Rmandic, Associate Curator Projects, AGWA. 

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Tom Malone Prize 2018

exhibition

Our annual showcase of contemporary Australian glass.

Glass is one of the most exciting and dynamic art forms in this country. It is a uniquely captivating medium, capable of almost endless transformation. Glass provides a perfect vehicle for the exploration of a range of themes, from the personal to the observational, and Australian makers are some of the world leaders in the medium.

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Gregory Pryor Puts a Manifying Glass to the WA Landscape

media releases

WA artist Gregory Pryor has created an immersive new work Looking Glass 2017, which draws upon his investigations into isolated landscapes of Western Australia. These can be read as meditations upon the residues of country as well as explorations of the role that environmental and cultural loss plays in shaping the landscape.

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Matters of the Heart in Indigenous Art Launches AGWA's New Six Seasons Gallery

media releases

The new Six Seasons Gallery (named after the Noongar six seasons) is a space dedicated to the display and interpretation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from the State Art Collection. Opening on 29 July, the first display Outside: Matters of the heart in Indigenous art presents works conveying the beauty and importance of the land and environment to Aboriginal people. 

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Screen Space Returns with Works by Jesper Just and Richard Bell

media releases

After a brief hiatus, Screen Space returns with the compelling work Sirens of Chrome by Danish-American video artist, Jesper Just. Following on from Sirens of Chrome in August is Richard Bell's Scratch an Aussie. One of Bell’s most defining works, Scratch an Aussie, is a playful, serious and challenging video piece that explores racism in Australia.

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New Artwork Commissions as Part of the Desert River Sea Project

media releases

Kimberley Aboriginal arts centres are working on new collaborative artworks which will form the heart of an Aboriginal art exhibition to go on display at AGWA. These artworks and exhibition will mark the culmination of AGWA’s six-year Desert River Sea project. 

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Hal Take up Residency at AGWA

media releases

Alongside the international exhibition The Rise of Sneaker Culture, AGWA are presenting WA sneaker collector displays that pay homage to the passion, knowledge and pride of West-side sneakerheads. Opening this Wednesday will be the next display in the series by local sneaker retailer Highs and Lows / HAL with A Collaborative Collection a Decade of Design.

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Sneakerheads Make Tracks to AGWA

media releases

The Art Gallery of WA’s much-anticipated exhibition, The Rise of Sneaker Culture, drew big crowds on its opening weekend, with more than 8,000 visiting the Gallery and Sneaker Saturday activations across the Perth Cultural Centre.

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Celebrate Sneaker Culture at AGWA

media releases

The Rise of Sneaker Culture is the first museum exhibition in North America, and now in Australia, to examine the sneaker's complex and fascinating social history, from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century to its role in the present day as a status symbol of urban culture.

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Sneakerheads Season Launches 5 April

media releases

The SNEAKERHEADS season at the Art Gallery of WA lets audiences explore sneaker culture across design, sport, fashion and music... through collaborations with the Curtin University School of Design, the Department of Sport and Recreation, WA Fashion Council, West Australian Music and iconic sneaker retailer Highs and Lows. 

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Diamantes and Death Masks

media releases

The 2017 WA Focus program begins with an exhibition of new and recent work by one of Western Australia’s most talented young artists, Nathan Beard. Based on an exploration of his Thai-Australian background, Beard’s work bridges the personal and the political. 

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Gallery Looks to the Sky for Big Anniversary

media releases

AGWA has announced plans to embark on an exciting development of its expansive unused rooftop for cultural and commercial purposes in time for its 125th anniversary in 2020. The project, dubbed ‘AGWAElevate2020’ will be its first capital development for 25 years since the old Perth court was converted to the ‘Centenary Galleries’ in the Beaufort Street wing. 

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Glass Art Celebrates 15 Year Milestone

media releases

Now in its fifteenth year, the Tom Malone Prize is a highly respected national event for contemporary Australian glass artists. An acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entry becomes a part of the State Art Collection.

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Powerful exhibition Plain Speak opens as part of AGWA's Indigenous Project – Six Seasons

media releases

In 2017 AGWA focuses on Indigenous art through its major project Six Seasons (tentatively titled). This multi-tiered program will see the implementation of a new permanent dedicated Indigenous art gallery, the ambitious plan to digitise the entire Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection, and the presentation of temporary exhibitions that explore Indigenous art and thematic issues.

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AGWA'S Annual Celebration of Glass Art

media releases

Now in its sixteenth year, the Tom Malone Prize is a highly respected national event for contemporary Australian glass artists. An acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entry becomes a part of the State Art Collection and the winner artist is awarded a prize of $15,000. This year, and for the next four years, the Prize is supported by Art Gallery of Western Australian Benefactor, Sheryl Grimwood.

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The Corsini Collection arrives in Perth with a Florentine Festival Day

media releases

The only Australian showing of A Window on Italy – The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence will open at the Art Gallery of WA on Saturday 24 February 2018 with a Florentine Festival Day. Experience Italian life with an opening day celebration featuring Florentine and Italian history, Italian food and wine, art-making activities and special performances.

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WA Now - Julie Dowling - Babanyu (Friends for Life)

media releases

The first WA Now display for 2018 explores the various pictorial techniques that First Nation Badimaya artist, Julie Dowling, has used for more than twenty years to movingly bring together the personal, the political and the familial. 

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Screen Space – Kimsooja

exhibition

The work is comprised of bundles of clothes and sewn cloth, a large-scale projection and a stack of three monitors. This showing at AGWA twins with her solo presentation at the Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts for the Perth International Arts Festival. 

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Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series

exhibition

Ned Kelly seen through Sidney Nolan’s rebel masterpiece series, explores themes of identity, individuality, a strong sense of place and vivid brushwork, which have cemented this series of outlaw Ned Kelly in Australia’s psyche of national identity.

Ned Kelly seen through Sidney Nolan’s rebel masterpiece series explores themes of identity, individuality, a strong sense of place and vivid brushwork, which have cemented this series of outlaw Ned Kelly in Australia’s psyche of national identity.

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Artist Talk | WA Now – Biomess

event

Meet in the gallery space to hear from Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, the creators behind the Biomess exhibition. 

Based at the University of Western Australia, SymbioticA hosted the research of The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr). The artists have been exploring the intersections of science and art since 1996.

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Pathfinders Lecture | spaced 3

event

Delve into Australia’s long love of the anti-authoritarian, explorer psyche with the Rebels, Radicals & Pathfinders 3-part lecture series. 

Following an introduction by AGWA Associate Curator Projects Dunja Rmandic, join Dr Marnie Badham in conversation with fellow IAS Board member Kelda Free, as they discuss the spaced 3: north by southeast exhibition. 

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Meet Me In The Members Lounge | Ned Kelly

event

Ned Kelly seen through Sidney Nolan’s rebel masterpiece series explores themes of identity, individuality, a strong sense of place and vivid brushwork, which have cemented this series of outlaw Ned Kelly in Australia’s psyche of national identity.

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spaced3: north by southeast

exhibition

Artistic explorers of a different kind are celebrated in spaced 3: north by southeast. Six Australian artists completed artistic residencies in the Nordic heartlands of Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden, and five Nordic artists find their place in Western Australia’s rural and remote communities.

Organised by the WA-based International Art Space, spaced 3: north by southeast brings together 11 artists from Australia and the Nordic region.

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WA Now – Biomess: The Tissue Culture & Art Project

exhibition

Based at the University of Western Australia, SymbioticA hosted the research of The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr). The artists have been exploring the intersections of science and art since 1996.

Based at the University of Western Australia, SymbioticA hosted the research of The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr). The artists have been exploring the intersections of science and art since 1996.

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Culture Juice – Beyond Bling!

exhibition

Building on the success of The Rise of Sneaker Culture and Heath Ledger: A Life in Pictures, AGWA presents the next exhibition in its Culture Juice program: Beyond Bling! celebrating, exploring and making jewellery and adornment.

Centred on 300 varied pieces from the State Art Collection from the 1800s to today, Beyond Bling! unlocks the vaults to showcase the best, the bizarre and the most sophisticated jewels in its historical and contemporary collections.

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Black Swan Prize for Portraiture 2018

exhibition

The Black Swan Prize for Portraiture is celebrating its twelfth anniversary in 2018 and its third year at the Art Gallery of WA. 40 finalists from across Australia have been chosen from over 500 artists who entered this year's prestigious prize, the second largest total since ARTrinsic Inc conceived the event 12 years ago.

Amongst this year's finalists 25% were Western Australian artists, 38% were from VIC, 28% from NSW, with the remaining 9% from SA and TAS. Many of the finalists' works involve subjects that play a significant part in their lives or they have chosen to look within and present a self-portrait.

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Chinese Ceramics Revealed, 5th Century BC – 1983: Highlights From the Yuen Collection

exhibition

The seventy-six objects on display comprise a selection from the extensive collection of Chinese ceramics belonging to Albert Yuen, a Perth-based Hong Kong native with a longstanding passion and knowledge for this particular aspect of Chinese art.

The works range from the 5th century BCE to the late 20th century, covering all important moments for Chinese ceramics under the Warring States, Han, Jin, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as the People’s Republic of China. 

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Micro Galleries – Sky & Garden

exhibition

Wesfarmers own one of the best corporate art collections in Australia, featuring works from early colonial period to today. The breadth of the collection, which began in 1977, includes early views of Australia as a European colony, bark, pole and canvas paintings from remote communities, works by contemporary Western Australia and national Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists as well as artists from New Zealand.

Wesfarmers own one of the best corporate art collections in Australia, featuring works from early colonial period to today.

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On Saturday 27 August, the Gallery is open 10am-3pm only as we prepare for the AGWA Foundation Gala supporting women in the arts. Some exhibition access will be disrupted with two Tracks We Share ground floor galleries closed. AGWA Rooftop bar will be closed, reopening at 2pm Sunday. Details