PICTURA BRITANNICA: ART FROM BRITAIN

The exhibition comprised 120 works by 47 British artists, and was one of the largest surveys of contemporary British art organised by Visual Arts. Curated by Bernice Murphy, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the exhibition was the first show of British art to be seen in Australia since the early 1980s, and formed the main visual component of the newImages festival. Alongside well-established names such as Rachel Whiteread, Sam Taylor-Wood, Damien Hirst and Douglas Gordon were works by lesser known artists such as Jonathan Parsons, Critical Décor, Joan Key, David Cheeseman and Nicky Hoberman. For the showing in Sydney Ceal Floyer, Anya Gallaccio and John Frankland created site-specific works in the gallery, Floyer’s discreet interventions were in marked contrast to Gallaccio’s dramatic outdoor installation using crushed colour glass and Frankland’s elegant lift lobby. A fully illustrated catalogue was published by Museum of Contemporary Art, with texts by Bernice Murphy, Patricia Bickers, Stephen Snoddy. John A Walker, Tony Bennett, Kobena Mercer, David Barrett, Nikos Papastergiadis and Patrick Boylan. ISBN 1 875632 53 0