Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Australian Aboriginal Artists Goes on View at The Met August 11

Gunybi Ganambarr (Australian, born Yirrkala, 1973). Buyku (detail), 2011. Ocher on incised laminate board, 35 7/8 x 71 1/4 in. (91 x 181 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi, 2016

Exhibition Dates:
August 11, 2017–December 17, 2017

Exhibition Location:
The Met Fifth Avenue, Modern & Contemporary, Gallery 918

An exhibition featuring six spectacular works of contemporary art by leading Australian Aboriginal artists will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning August 11. Monumental in both scale and ambition, the paintings are part of a 2016 gift that introduces an electrifying new dimension into The Met's representation of global contemporary art. On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift explores aspects of nature and the elements—the flow of water, the shine or shimmer of rain or lightning—and its relationship to time and the ancestral landscape. Mastering dynamic resonance, or shimmer, and finding ways to capture it on canvas is a highly valued visual effect in Australian Aboriginal art, and one on which these Aboriginal artists have built international reputations.

The exhibition is made possible by The Modern Circle.

The artists featured in the exhibition are Doreen Reid Nakamarra (b. Warburton, ca. 1955–2009), Dorothy Napangardi (b. Yuendumu, ca. 1950–2013), Kathleen Petyarre (b. Utopia, ca. 1940), Abie Loy Kemarre (b. Utopia, ca. 1972), and Gunybi Ganambarr (b. Yirrkala, 1973). Highlights of the works on view include Napangardi's dynamic Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa (2002), which features a delicate grid of intersecting lines whose lively proliferation evokes spiritual depth and vitality; and Kathleen Petyarre's Sandhills in Atnangkere Country (1999) and Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming-Sandhill Country (after Hailstorm) (2000), which showcase the artist's highly distinctive layering technique, in which multiple fields of intricate dots work as visual metaphors to actively invoke and stimulate epic dreaming narratives.

On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift is organized by Dr. Maia Nuku, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Associate Curator for Oceanic Art, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The exhibition will be featured on the Museum's website, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.