Coming up at MGA in March & April

Continuing throughout March & April is our PASIFIKA season and focus on Sustainability & the Arts.

Download our events calendar for all the details - we hope to see you at MGA soon!

http://mga.org.au/events/MGA_EVENTS_MarchApril.pdf

Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in Queensland

Special Exhibitions Gallery
12 February - 11 April 2010

This exhibition offers an opportunity to view traditional and contemporary Pasifika design and to learn more about Australia's Pacific neighbours and migrant communities. Talking Tapa comes to MGA from Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre and details the rich cultural heritage of tapa cloth. As well as being astonishingly beautiful, tapa holds great social, symbolic and practical value for many island nations of the South-West pacific.

Photograph: installation (c) MGA 2010

Sneak Peek! Exhibitions opening this weekend

Installation is underway for TALKING TAPA: Pasifika barkcloth in Queensland

and Kiribati: putting a face to climate change (photographs by Jon Lewis)

Opening celebrations are this Saturday 13 February at 3pm - hope to see you there!

Current exhibitions

Come spend a couple of hours at MGA, it's free!

Currently exhibiting:

Building as muse: the creative collaboration of Max Dupain and Harry Seilder (ends 7/2/2010)

Paul Dunn: imagined communities (ends 7/2/2010)

Robert Ashton: photographs from the edge (ends 24/01/2010)

Photograph: install of Building as muse

Looking to cool off this summer?

Come inside- there is lots happening at MGA - from artists talks & poetry readings to sustainable gardening workshops: Download our January & February 2010 Events Calendar!

Paul Knight wins Bowness Photography Prize 2009

The artist Paul Knight has won Australia's most prestigious photographic award, the $20 000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2009.

Knight's photograph 14 months # 01 was selected by the eminent judging panel as the standout work among the more than 2 000 photographs submitted for this year's prize.

After a rigorous selection process, judges Anne Ferran, Helen Ennis and MGA Director Shaune Lakin chose Knight's intimate portrayal of a man and woman because of its visual purity and tremendous empathy for its subject .

Knight is one of Australia's most significant young photographers. His work is represented in many public collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and Monash Gallery of Art. He is represented by Neon Parc.

The prize, presented at the MGA on Thursday 26 November at 7:00pm, is a wonderful opportunity to view some of the most important Australian photography produced over the past year.

Melbourne artist Owen Leong was the winner of the $1 000 People's Choice Award 2009

Bowness Photography Prize has been judged!

Join us for the announcement of the $20,000 winner tonight (Thursday 26 Nov) at 6.30pm.

People's choice voting will close at 7pm and $1,000 winner announced also.

Photographs: Shaune Lakin, Helen Ennis & Anne Ferran

2009 William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

Some of Australia’s most important photographers have been selected as finalists for MGA’s 2009 $20,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.

From 2,000 photographs submitted by 450 entrants, the judging panel has short listed 50 photographs for this year’s prize. In contention are photographs by many of the country’s best-known photographers as well as emerging artists. One of these finalists will win the $20,000 prize and $1,000 People's Choice Award.

Announcement from 6.30Pm Thursday 26th November 2009

Photograph: Bronek KOZKA
EH Holden1964, 2008
ink-jet print
86 x 131 cm
courtesy of the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart

FREE Surrealist Photography Forum - 2pm next Saturday 24 October!

Join panellists Pat Brassington, Anne Marsh and Adrian Martin for a discussion of surrealism and the medium of photography. Surrounded by the work of Roger Ballen, discover the role of the beautiful, the confronting and the marvellous in photography.

2pm Saturday 24 October 2009
FREE event

Bookings 03 9562 1569 or mga@monash.vic.gov.au

image: Roger BALLEN Terminus 2005 Carbon pigment print, copyright Roger Ballen

What are you looking at?

Read Gabriella Coslovich's recent article on Roger Ballen in The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/what-are-you-looking-at/2009/09/25/1253813608962.html

Have you seen our posters around Melbourne?

If so - we'd love to see some photos!
Send them to mga@monash.vic.gov.au

South Africa has been a recurring theme in MGA’s exhibition program this year, from our first show of the year, Then and Now, to the current Roger Ballen exhibition. Tonight’s episode of Louis Theroux’s documentary series apparently focuses on the persistence of exclusively white communities in South Africa. If our exhibitions have peaked your interest in South Africa, you might like to tune in your tube. It screens on Channel 7 at 11:30pm.