Overview
2017 has proven a big year for art thus far. Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has just cut the ribbon on an extensive exhibition of Van Gogh's work, Sydney has launched The National, a new biannual multi-gallery exhibition of new Australian art, and Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has Dark Mofo coming up in June. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). They've already started the celebrations with a birthday exhibition (which featured a furry wall and Carsten Höller slippery slide), and, at the end of the year, GOMA will also be getting a new permanent work: a brand new light installation by artist James Turrell.
You might be familiar with the Arizona-based artist's work if you've been to Mona or the National Gallery of Australia (NGA). He's the one behind the sky-centred installations at both galleries — at Mona, the gazebo-like Armana lights up at sunrise and sunset each day, and at the NGA in Canberra, Within without acts as an outdoor viewing chamber to enhance your view of the sky. All up, Turrell has created 80 'skyspaces' like these around the world.
Brisbane's Turrell piece won't be a standalone structure like these other two Australian works; instead, the work will light up GOMA's eastern and southern white façades from within the building with a pattern developed by Turrell especially for the location. The plan is to light up the gallery at dusk each evening — when lit, it will make the gallery visible from across the river and around South Bank's cultural precinct.
The work has been commissioned by GOMA with contributions from the Queensland Government, leading benefactors and the 2017 QAGOMA Foundation Appeal. It's set to be installed in early December 2017.