Asialink

New Program Launched for Australian Art in Japan

New Program Launched For Australian Art in Japan

Thursday, 30 March 2006

A three year program of exhibitions, curatorial exchanges, seminars and forums between Australia and Japan is planned for 2006-8. Over $300,000 has been committed to the program to date, including support from the Australia-Japan Foundation and the Australia Council. The exhibition focus is on contemporary Australian art being shown in Japanese museums and galleries.

The Australia-Japan Visual Arts Program 2006-8 follows the very successful program in 2002-4 which enabled

  • Patricia Piccinini's work to break audience records at the prestigious Hara Museum in Tokyo - and attract over 110 press articles
  • the Aboriginal exhibition Spirit Country to be seen throughout the country, including at the cutting-edge Echigo-Tsumari Triennial
  • Australian craft to be seen at the key National Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kyoto,
  • a major show of Australian photography to be held for the first time at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and
  • the important collaborative exhibition Living Together is Easy of Japanese and Australian artists, to be shown at Mito and Melbourne. The showing in Melbourne was the most important view of contemporary Japanese art to be seen here to date.

The aim of the 2006-8 Program is to further consolidate links and understanding between Australian art and artists, curators and audiences.

Asialink initiated and managed the 2002-4 program, and again is calling for expressions of interest from Australian public galleries to put forward ideas for exhibitions that might tour in Japan in this new program. The closing date is
21 April.

An advisory committee of Max Delany (Director, Monash University Museum of Art), Kathryn Hunyor (previously Cultural Manager, Australian Embassy, Japan, currently at Object), Lucy King (Director, Australia-Japan Foundation, Tokyo), John McBride (board member Australia-Japan Foundation), Anna Waldmann (Director, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council) and Alison Carroll is overseeing the program.

For further information please contact:

Alison Carroll
Director, Asialink Arts
a.carroll@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
tel: 03 8344 4800, direct: 03 8344 3595.
Asialink, 4th floor, Sidney Myer Asia Centre,
University of Melbourne Vic 3010