New Matter: Recent Forms of Photography

Overview

New Matter is a collection of AGNSW's most abstract and illusory photographs by Australian and international artists. Viewed together, they challenge the viewer to examine photography in a new way – as art itself, rather than a tool for representing other objects realistically. The artists' experimentation with form forces this radical reinterpretation as it obscures what we would initially view as the 'true' subject of the photo.

Some of the artists featured include Walead Beshty, whose practice emphasises not concealing his artistic process, Danica Chappell, whose abstraction arises in the darkroom, where she plays with markers of time and space, and Zoë Croggon, whose photography of bodies explores our relationship with external environments. The exhibition also includes  Jacqueline Ball, Matthew Brandt, Christopher Day, Charles Dennington, Cherine Fahd, Deb Mansfield, Todd McMillan, Luke Parker, Kate Robertson, James Tylor and Justine Varga.

Image: Zoë Croggon, Dive #3 (2013), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Viktoria Marinov Bequest Fund 2014 © Zoe Croggon.