The 2019 Oceanic Art Society Forum was an intellectual and emotional odyssey. Oceanic art represents and encompasses many things: sublime beauty and irresistible mystery; cultural treasure; markers of colonial dispossession and loss, but also continuity and hope. That indeed is what Oceanic art is: objects that bind people through time; binding those who made them […]
Melanesian art: redux
By Natalie Wilson, Curator Australian & Pacific Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales In November, the Art Gallery of New South Wales will celebrate the life and art of its former deputy director, Tony Tuckson, with the exhibition Tony Tuckson: the abstract sublime. In his role as curator, Tuckson’s respect and admiration for the […]
Interview: Crispin Howarth on Maori Markings: Ta Mokoat the NGA
Jim Elmslie interviews Crispin Howarth, Curator of Pacific Arts at the National Gallery of Australia on the stunning new exhibition of Maori facial markings that will open in Canberra on March 23 JE Crispin, you have been working on the forthcoming exhibition on Māori tattooing (I don’t think you use this term) for the […]