National Photographic Portrait Prize

Last year's Bowness Photography Prize winner Lee Grant is among the 55 finalists for this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize. This year's judging panel, National Portrait Gallery curators Sarah Engledow and Christopher Chapman, Director of Adelaide’s Experimental Art Foundation Domenico de Clario, and National Portrait Gallery Director Louise Doyle, whittled down the 1,200 photographs submitted to just 55 - some really brave choices among them. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be announced at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra at 6pm, 24 February 2011. Good luck Lee, and each of the other finalists on being selected for this important prize.

DIANA MADNESS

MGA's favourite camera supplier LOMO is about to begin two months of Diana Madness in Australia and New Zealand.

Hosted once every few years, the Lomography World Congress is responsible for uniting Lomographers from all over the world that share one common interest-an immense love for analogue photography.

No Vacancy Gallery is hosting the Melbourne leg of the tour with an exhibition, a great range of workshops and events. Check out their site: http://no-vacancy.com.au/wp/?p=18

Don't forget, MGA's shop stocks a range of LOMO cameras and accessories.



No Vacancy Gallery
34 – 40 Jane Bell Lane, QV, Melbourne.
Exhibition Running: 24th February – 12th March 2011
Trading Hours:
Monday: Gallery Closed
Tuesday – Friday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 12:00am – 5:00pm

Tracy Moffatt: Narratives at AGSA

MGA’s touring collection show, Tracy Moffatt: Narratives, is about to open at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

For this instalment of the exhibition, AGSA’s Associate Curator of Prints Drawings and Photographs, Maria Zagala, has augmented the show with four additional series of works and an installation of the video montages that Moffatt has produced with Gary Hillberg.

The exhibition is being presented as part of the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, and screenings of Moffatt’s films will also take place during the course of the show. Until 20 March 2011

Jodi Beiber wins World Press Photo of the Year 2011

Eminent South African photojournalist Jodi Beiber has won the 54th World Press Photo Contest for her portrait of Bibi Aisha -- a woman from Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan, whose nose and ears were cut off by her husband with the support of the Taliban, who had accused her of abandoning her husband. The photograph appeared on the front cover of Time magazine in August 2010, and even before this significant award came to embody the violence suffered by Afghan women under Taliban rule. Beiber's picture was selected by the World Press jury from over 108,000 entries.

Hijacked III

You may have seen Hijacked II: Australia and Germany at MGA recently. The exhibition is about to open at Queensland College of Art Gallery, Griffiths University, before heading to the Samstag in Adelaide. The show is accompanied by a spectacular publication.

Mark McPherson, the man behind the Hijacked project, is now looking for entries for its third installment. Photographers from Australia and Britain are encouraged to submit entries. Mark and his selection panel are looking for material that suggests the "future of photography", in both conceptual and technical terms. As with Hijacked I and II, a book and exhibition will follow.

Afterglow: performance art & photography

MGA’s major exhibition, Afterglow: performance art & photography, is now on display until 3 April. This exhibition examines the relationship between photography and performance art, highlighting the different ways performance artists have used photography to document their temporal activities and extend the audience for their performances beyond the event itself.

While Afterglow focuses on Australian artists, similar themes are explored internationally in the Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition, Staging action: performance in photography since 1960, which is on display in New York until 9 May: http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1100

For more information on Afterglow, the artists included and the exciting program of events scheduled to coincide with the exhibition, visit MGA’s website: http://www.mga.org.au/exhibition/view/exhibition/81