Primavera 2014: MCA Announces Artists and Curator

Nupta Contagioso/ Primordial Sound (production still, detail) 2014, single-channel digital video, colour, sound by Madison Bycroft, one of the artists in Primavera. Image courtesy and © the artist. Image courtesy of MCA

ART NEWS: For Primavera 2014, Museum of Contemporary Art Announces 13 Artists and Curator.

AUSTRALIA—The famous Australian artist, Mikala  Dwyer, has been invited by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, (MCA) to curate Primavera 2014. The 23^rd edition, Primavera is an annual exhibition for Australian artists aged 35 years and under. It was initiated in 1992 by Dr. Edward Jackson AM and Mrs. Cynthia Jackson AM and their family in memory of their daughter and sister Belinda, a talented jeweller who died at the age of 29. The exhibition commemorates Belinda Jackson by celebrating the creative achievements of talented young artists who are in the early stages of their careers.

After travelling through Australia, Mikala Dwyer has selected 13 artists that will be part of this year’s exhibition. The artists will present works cutting across a range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, ceramics, textiles, installation and performance.

Dwyer describes the opportunity to select the artists as a privilege: “I am privileged to have travelled to parts of Australia I have never been to in the process of curating Primavera for the MCA, visiting and viewing the work of many brilliant young artists.

When I think through the work of the artists I’ve selected for Primavera, all sorts of ideas, interests and associations pop up, including Surrealism, robotics, queer fertility, ritual, time, witchcraft, science, alchemy, dreaming and telepathy.

This Primavera is but a small selection of young Australian artists making wonderful work driven by an endless intelligence and deep curiosity. I am ever grateful for their inspiration and resilience.”

Mikala Dwyer was born 1959 in Sydney, where she lives and works. She has exhibited widely in Australia and abroad and was one of four artists in the inaugural Primavera: The Belinda Jackson Exhibition of Young Artists at the MCA in 1992. This marked the beginning of a longstanding relationship between Dwyer and the museum.

In 2000–01 the MCA presented a solo exhibition of Dwyer’s works and as part of the MCA Collection her works have been included in several group exhibitions at the museum. Her recent projects include solo exhibitions at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2013); Projects Art Centre, Dublin (2012); Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney (2012); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); Dwyer has also participated extensively in group exhibitions. Some of her recent group exhibitions include the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); The End of the 20th Century. The Best is Yet to Come. A Dialogue with the Marx Collection, Hamburger Banhof, Berlin, (2013–14); Less is More: Minimal and Post-Minimal Art in Australia, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2012).

Artist List

1. Madison Bycroft was born in 1987, Adelaide Hills, SA. Lives and works in Adelaide.
2. Ben Denham was born in 1979, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
3. Nick Dorey was born in 1985, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
4. Caitlin Franzmann was born in 1979, Gympie, Qld. Lives and works in Brisbane.
5. Hossein Ghaemi was born in 1985, Tehran, Iran. Lives and works in Sydney.
6. Emily Hunt was born in 1981, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
7. Ishmael Marika was born in 1991, Nhulunbuy, NT. Lives and works in Yirrkala, NT.
8. Barayuwa Munungurr was born in 1980, Wandawuy, NT. Lives and works in Wandawuy.
9. Sean Peoples and the telePathy Project (Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples).
10. Peoples was born in 1986, Melbourne, Vic. Lives and works in Melbourne.
11. Alison Puruntatameri was born in 1984, Melville Island, NT. Lives and works in Melville Island.
12. Lucienne Rickard was born in 1981, Lithgow, NSW. Lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania.
13. Marian Tubbs was born in 1983, Sydney, NSW. Lives and works in Sydney.
14. Paul Yore was born in 1987, Melbourne, Vic. Lives and works in Melbourne.