Toledo, 30 November 2012
Aboriginal Australian art will be on show at the Toldeo Museum of Art in Ohio from 11 April to 14 July 2013, on occasion of a unique exhibition titled “Crossing Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art from the Hood Museum of Art”. It will be the first one for the region.
The exhibition will feature over 100 works of contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, spanning fifty years, by artists from Desert communities and cities. Collectors Will Owen and Harvey Wagner gathered these objects before donating their collection to the Hood Museum of Art. The museum mentions among artists exhibited Michael Riley, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Danny Gibson Tjapaltjarri, Destiny Deacon and Walangkura Napanangka.
“Crossing Cultures” shows by no doubt a great artistic diversity, and unveils the richness of Aboriginal contemporary art – the last major movement of the 20th century. Under the curatorship of Stephen Gilchrist, the exhibition reveals the variety of mediums and materials used by Aboriginal contemporary artists: painting, sculpture, photography, etc. The works presented reflect the Aboriginal history, iconography, tradition and heritage. For art historian Henry F. Skerrit, who took part in the making of the catalogue, “Crossing Cultures” offers a perfect illustration of why Australian Aboriginal art is at the vanguard of international contemporary art”.
Many artists from the 1970s are involved in this exhibition, and stand as symbols of an artistic generation that tried to lead a new life while recalling ancient stories. They are part of collective memory, colonisation, and displacement of their ancestors in the middle of Australian land.