EIGHT ARTISTS RE-EXAMINE IDENTITY FOR THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AUSTRALIA'S PRIMAVERA 2018: YOUNG AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS - Museum of Contemporary ...
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EIGHT ARTISTS RE-EXAMINE IDENTITY
FOR THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
AUSTRALIA’S PRIMAVERA 2018: YOUNG
AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS
9 November 2018 – 03 February 2019
FREE ENTRY
[Sydney, 18 July 2018] Featuring the work of eight artists aged 35 years and under from the Left: Ryan Presley,
Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, Primavera 2018: Young Blood Money – Infinite
Australian Artists, opens on 9 November 2018. Curated by Megan Robson, the 27th annual exhibition Dollar Note – Dundalli
Commemorative (detail),
brings together artists working with archival materials, installation, painting, performance, 2017, image courtesy and
photography, sculpture and video. © the artist, photograph:
Carl Warner
Each year, the MCA’s annual Primavera exhibition showcases the work of exceptional Australian artists
at the early stages of their careers. The Primavera 2018 artists are: Hoda Afshar (VIC), Caroline Garcia Right: Caroline Garcia,
(NSW), Hayley Millar-Baker (VIC), Spence Messih (NSW), Phuong Ngo (VIC), Jason Phu (NSW), Ryan Tropical Hypeisms, 2016,
image courtesy and © the
Presley (QLD), and Andrew Tenison (ACT). artist, photograph: Dexter
Cornelius
Primavera 2018 asks why ‘is identity important today?’ The participating artists consider, explore and
re-examine the politics of identity, visibility and representation. Working across a range of media, the
artists examine the complex, social, political and cultural frame-works that underpin the construction and
interpretation of personal and collective identity.
MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, said: “Primavera provides an important platform for young
artists to share their voices and ideas, while introducing MCA audiences to the most exciting artists
working in Australia now. Primavera 2018 is a timely and thought-provoking exhibition, showcasing eight
artists, many of whom will be presenting new works.”
Primavera 2018 Curator Megan Robson comments: “The artists in this year’s Primavera exhibition employ
a range of different methodologies including abstraction, collection, fiction, humour and performativity,
amongst others, to explore and engage in wider discussions around culture, media, history and politics.”
Robson adds: “Drawing on personal experiences, invisible histories, post-colonial and queer theory, and
technology, the participating artists’ consider identity as a concept that is complex, shifting, manifold and
self-reflective.”
Primavera 2018 will take place in the MCA’s Level 1 South Gallery and is free to the public. Public
Programs including curator and artist talks, performance events and tours will accompany the exhibition,
plus a detailed exhibition catalogue featuring commissioned texts on each of the artists.
Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists runs from 9 November 2018 – 3 February 2019.
Media images accessible on Dropbox here.
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Pirrie.
T: 02 9245 2417 – M: 0430 517 722 – E: stephanie.pirrie@mca.com.au
PRIMAVERA ���8
9 November 2018 – 03 February 2019
– Artist Biographies
HODA AFSHAR (VIC)
Born 1983, Tehran, IRN. Lives and works in Melbourne, VIC.
Hoda Afshar explores the nature and possibilities of documentary image-
making. Working across photography and moving-image, the Melbourne-based
artist considers the representation of gender, marginality and displacement. In
her artworks, Afshar employs processes that disrupt traditional image-making
practices, play with the presentation of imagery, or merge aspects of conceptual,
staged and documentary photography.
Hoda Afshar began her career as a photographer in Iran in 2005 and has
exhibited and published widely internationally. Her major photographic series
Behold was exhibited at Horsham Regional Art Gallery, VIC in 2018 and Centre
for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne in 2017. Recent group exhibitions
include The Inner Apartment, Nishi Gallery, Canberra; Khalas, UNSW Galleries,
University of New South Wales, Sydney; Waqt al tagheer: Time of Change,
ACE Open, Adelaide (all 2018) and William and Winifred Bowness Photography
Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne (2017). She received the 2015 National
Photographic Portrait Prize for the work Portrait of Ali (2015). In 2018, the
artist submitted her PhD in Creative Arts to Curtin University, Perth. Afshar is
a member of the eleven collective, a group of contemporary Muslim Australian
artists, curators and writers.
CAROLINE GARCIA (NSW)
Born 1988, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney, NSW.
Caroline Garcia’s live performance and video artworks draw on diasporic politics,
dance and performance history, popular culture and colonial imagery. The artist
frequently assumes the role of the shape-shifter in her works to draw attention
to the representation of peripheral bodies in mainstream media. Recent projects
have explored forgotten choreographies, liminal spaces and the ‘ethnographic
image’.
Caroline Garcia has exhibited and performed widely nationally and
internationally. Recent projects include Performance x 4A, Art Central, Hong
Kong; BARRIO // BARYO SOUND SYSTEM (with Lucreccia Quintanilla), Next
Wave Festival, Melbourne; OPENCITY2018, Manila Biennale, Manila (all 2018);
Moving Histories // Future Projections, dLUX Media Arts, Sydney and Museums
& Galleries of NSW (touring nationally 2017–19); Performance Contemporary,
Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney (2017); and Bayanihan Philippines
Art Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2016). Garcia was a resident
at Parramatta Artists Studios, Sydney in 2017–18. She holds a Bachelor of Design
in Photography & Situated Media (First Class Honours) from the University of
Technology Sydney. Garcia will commence a Masters of Fine Arts at The New
School / Parsons School of Design, New York in late 2018.
Government Partners Supporting Partners
PRIMAVERA ���8
9 November 2018 – 03 February 2019
– Artist Biographies
HAYLEY MILLAR-BAKER (VIC)
Born 1990, Melbourne, VIC. Lives and works in Melbourne, VIC. Gunditjmara
people.
Working with digital technologies, Melbourne-based artist Hayley Millar-
Baker connects contemporary audiences with storytelling culture. Her photo
assemblage artworks engage in wider discussions around culture, family,
Country, identity, displacement and survival. In these works, the artist reflects
on personal and collective histories of Aboriginal communities in south-east
Australia. Merging fact and fiction, Millar-Baker both reveals and re-imagines
shared past, present and future realities.
Hayley Millar-Baker’s work has recently been included in the exhibitions
Unsettlement, Monash University Museum of Art; Monochrome: Empty & Full,
Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts (all 2018); TELL,
International Ballarat Foto Biennale, Ballarat and UNSW Galleries, University
of New South Wales, Sydney (2017/2018). The artist also participated in the
2017 Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Art with her solo exhibition Peeneeyt Meerreeng (Before/Now/Tomorrow),
FELTspace, Adelaide. Forthcoming projects include Dark Country (with James
Tylor), Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne (2018). In 2017, Millar-Baker received
The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize Special Commendation Award. She
received a Masters of Fine Art from RMIT University in Melbourne in 2017. Millar-
Baker is currently an artist-in-residence at The SUBSTATION, Melbourne.
SPENCE MESSIH (NSW)
Born 1989, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney, NSW.
Spence Messih explores the potential of forms and materials to communicate
trans(gender) experiences and histories. Working across a range of mediums,
the Sydney-based artist’s multi-disciplinary practice encompasses installation,
performance, photography, sculpture and text-based artworks. Recently,
Messih has been re-examining processes and materials historically associated
with abstraction and minimalism to create artworks that communicate plural
experiences of gender.
Since 2009, Spence Messih has exhibited, performed and contributed texts
to a range of projects nationally and internationally. Recent solo and group
exhibitions include Wayfind, Next Wave Festival, West Space (2018); Unfinished
Business: Perspectives on Art and Feminism, Australian Centre for Contemporary
Art, Melbourne; Superposition of Three Types, Artspace, Sydney; and THE LOOK
BACK, Alaska Projects, Sydney (all 2017). Forthcoming projects include Power &
Imagination: Conceptualism 1966–1976, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;
and a solo exhibition at Auto Italia South East, London. In 2017, the artist was
a finalist in the NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), Artspace, Sydney, and
awarded the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists,
National Association for the Visual Arts. Messih is currently a PhD candidate at
UNSW Art and Design, University of New South Wales.
Government Partners Supporting Partners
PRIMAVERA ���8
9 November 2018 – 03 February 2019
– Artist Biographies
PHUONG NGO (VIC)
Born 1983, Adelaide, SA. Lives and works in Melbourne, VIC.
Phuong Ngo’s practice is concerned with the interpretation of history, memory
and place. The Melbourne-based artist frequently works with collections of
archival material, oral histories or found objects, which he describes as ‘someone
else’s work or possessions’. Drawing on the experiences of both his family and
the wider Vietnamese diaspora, Ngo investigates the cultural, social and political
factors that impact personal and collective identity.
Since graduating with a BA Fine Art (Honours) at RMIT University, Melbourne
in 2012, Phuong Ngo has exhibited and performed widely in Australia and
internationally. Recent exhibitions include New Histories, Bendigo Art
Gallery, VIC (2018); Conflicted: Works from the Vietnam Archive Project, The
SUBSTATION, Melbourne (2017); Photography 130 – Behind the Lens: 130 years
of Photography at RMIT, RMIT Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne (2017);
Article 14.1, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne (2014); and Melbourne Now, National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013). Ngo was awarded the Westie Award, The
SUBSTATION Contemporary Art Prize in 2013 and 2014, and was a finalist of the
Art for Social Change, Incinerator Art Award in 2017. The artist will commence
a PhD at RMIT University, Melbourne in 2018. Ngo is currently an artist-in-
residence at The SUBSTATION, Melbourne.
JASON PHU (NSW)
Born 1989, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney, NSW.
Jason Phu’s multi-disciplinary practice brings together a wide range of,
sometimes contradictory, references from traditional ink paintings and
calligraphy to mass-produced objects, everyday vernacular to official records,
personal narratives to historical events. Working across drawing, installation,
painting and sculpture, the artist frequently uses humour as a device to explore
experiences of cultural dislocation.
Jason Phu has exhibited widely since graduating from the University of Art &
Design, University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours)
in 2011. Recent exhibitions include The Burrangong Affray, 4A Centre for
Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Playback, Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial
2018, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; My parents met at the fish market,
West Space, Melbourne (touring to ACE Open in 2018); A shrine for the horse
headed god of safe travels and a shrine for the pig headed god of celebration,
Underbelly Arts Festival 2017, Sydney; NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging),
Artspace, Sydney; and Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
(all 2017). In 2015, the artist was awarded the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of
New South Wales and is a finalist in 2018.
Government Partners Supporting Partners
PRIMAVERA ���8
9 November 2018 – 03 February 2019
– Artist Biographies
RYAN PRESLEY (QLD)
Born 1987, Alice Springs, NT. Lives and works in Brisbane, QLD. Marri Ngarr
people.
Ryan Presley explores the events and ideologies that have shaped Australian
society from colonisation to today. Working across drawing, painting, etching and
installation, the Brisbane-based artist considers the representation of authority
and power through objects, persons and structures. In these works, Presley
frequently references historical figures and events that offer alternative and
resistant readings of colonial history.
Since 2009, Ryan Presley has contributed to numerous exhibitions and
publications nationally and internationally. Recent projects include Prosperity,
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Trademarkings, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven,
Netherlands; For What It’s Worth (Not For Sale), Tweed Regional Gallery &
Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah, New South Wales (all 2018); Creative
Accounting, The Curators’ Department, Sydney, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery,
Windsor, NSW and Museums & Galleries of NSW (touring nationally 2016–17);
Endless Circulation, TarraWarra Biennial 2016, TarraWarra Museum of Art, VIC;
Frontier Imaginaries, Institute of Modern Art and QUT Art Museum, Queensland
Institute of Technology, Brisbane; and 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres
Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory,
Darwin (all 2016). In 2016, the artist completed his PhD at Queensland College
of Art, Griffith University. Presley is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at
Griffith University.
ANDREW TENISON (ACT)
Born 1984, Albury, NSW. Lives and works in Canberra, ACT.
Canberra-based artist Andrew Tension combines fact and fiction in his expansive
photographic projects. Central to the artist’s practice is an exploration of the role
of photographic images in the construction of identity and memory. Developed
over months or years, Tenison’s multi-part projects often begin with a found
object and re-imagine the lives of real and fictional protagonists within the
framework of historical events.
Andrew Tenison has participated in numerous exhibitions across Australia since
2003, including projects at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Murray
Art Museum Albury, Albury; Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston,
TAS and Wollongong Art Gallery, NSW. The artist’s major ongoing photographic
project Let Me Imagine You was exhibited at PhotoAccess, Canberra in 2017
and will be presented at Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury in 2019. In 2012,
Tension was Artist-in-Residence at Warilla High School, NSW in conjunction
with the Artists-in-Schools Program developed by Australia Council for the Arts,
Arts NSW and the NSW Department of Education and Training; and Artist-in-
Residence at Wollongong Art Gallery, NSW in 2010. He graduated with a Masters
of Photomedia from the University of Art & Design, University of New South
Wales, Sydney in 2008.
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