Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

The National 2021

An expansive celebration of contemporary Australian art
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
by
ABR Arts 27 April 2021

The National 2021

An expansive celebration of contemporary Australian art
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
by
ABR Arts 27 April 2021
Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, Antara, 2020, installation view, The National 2021: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, synthetic polymer paint on linen, image courtesy and © the artist (photograph by Anna Kučera)
Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, Antara, 2020, installation view, The National 2021: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, synthetic polymer paint on linen, image courtesy and © the artist (photograph by Anna Kučera)

The National 2021: New Australian Art, conceived in 2017, is a biennial survey exhibition to ‘address the specificities and nuances of what it means to make art from and for an Australian context at this point in time’. It is a joint initiative of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (MCA). In its first iteration, the ethos of collaboration – not just between these three major Sydney art institutions but between curators, artists, and writers – was writ large.

According to the curatorial introduction, The National would unfold as one exhibition across the three locales, developed collectively, yet also resisting any single theme or curatorial concern. Instead, it would be united by ‘interconnecting threads’.

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.