Emerging on the local art scene in 2016, South Sudanese, Melbourne-based contemporary artist Atong Atem is ready to present her largest exhibition a decade on. Opening at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia on Friday, October 30, Passage: The Art of Atong Atem brings together more than 65 works, including a world-premiere commission, and is described as the most comprehensive showcase of Atem's work up to now, even as her star continues to grow. Celebrated for her photographic self-portraits that explore identity, mythmaking and intergenerational storytelling, Atem embellishes her body with textiles, paint, costume and symbolic objects to delve into themes of race, gender and colonialism. At its core, her practice interrogates how identity is performed, both in everyday life and before the camera, while highlighting the beauty and resilience of her Dinka Bor culture and Melbourne's African diaspora. [caption id="attachment_1154332" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'What we are given' 2024. Commissioned by the National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam.[/caption] Throughout this free exhibition, which runs until June 14, 2027, visitors get to experience an NGV-exclusive — As Above. This world-premiere commission takes shape as a large-scale wall installation, depicting stories held in the skies and constellations weaving together Dinka dance, traditional beading, Catholic iconography and the astronomical concept of the False Cross. Together, it builds a narrative about how vast cosmic, historical and cultural systems surround and impact us. As the artist's first-ever major solo exhibition, Passage: The Art of Atong Atem confirms why she's considered one of the standout artists of her generation. "If the body is a terrain, who gets to be the geographer and who becomes the cartographer?" poses Atem. "My practice as an early-career artist has sought to make signposts on the body as a politicised landscape; to document, archive and speculate. These tensions between heritage, identity and place are at the crux of my impulse to make art." [caption id="attachment_1154333" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Henna 1' 2021 from the Banksia series 2021. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Gift of the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne, 2023 © Atong Atem, courtesy MARS Gallery, Melbourne.[/caption] Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox. Top image: 'Ego 2' 2019 from the Ego series 2019. Courtesy of the artist © Atong Atem
