Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Congratulations to artists Isaac Julien, Julie Mehretu, and Brook Andrew on being included in the ArtReview 2024 Power 100 celebrating the most influential figures in global contemporary art. We’re proud to be currently exhibiting works by these important artists. Experience their work for yourself in ‘Isaac Julien: Once Again... (Statues Never Die)’, ‘Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’ and Brook Andrew’s ‘Loop. A Model of how the world operates’ in 'MCA Collection: Artists in Focus' as well as ‘Warrang’ outside the Museum. https://lnkd.in/dq-E9-g —    Images: Isaac Julien, featuring: ‘Once Again… (Statues Never Die)’, 2022, installation view, ‘Isaac Julien: Once Again… (Statues Never Die)’, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney 2024, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Zan Wimberley; Julie Mehretu, image courtesy and © Julie Mehretu, photograph: Josefina Santos; Brook Andrew, image courtesy and © Brook Andrew, photograph: Trent Walker  #MCAAustralia #IsaacJulien #JulieMehretu #BrookAndrew

Announcing our 2025 artistic program! Next year the MCA will present an exciting program celebrating Australian contemporary art in all its forms as well as international firsts, new commissions, and a new large outdoor public sculpture. We will stage two major exclusive international exhibitions over winter and summer alongside a dynamic program of exhibitions, commissions and artist led projects. Cerith Wyn Evans will create epic contemporary environments of light and sound for our major winter exhibition. In spring, we will unveil the inaugural Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission by British artist Thomas J Price, supported by The Balnaves Foundation, and our major summer exhibition will be ‘Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI’ presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2025–26. 'The 2025 program speaks to our contemporary world in all its richness and complexity. These exhibitions ask profound questions ranging from the significance of First Nations art and cultures in a museum context, to the impact of artificial intelligence at a time when the boundaries between culture and technology are being radically redefined.' – MCA Director Suzanne Cotter 'From the big Thomas J Price sculpture on the shore of Circular Quay, to the series of international and Australian artists inside, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is set to have another spectacular year of engaging locals and visitors with the best contemporary art on the planet.' – Minister for the Arts, Music and the Night-time Economy, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism John Graham Major summer and winter exhibitions are proudly supported by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW. Autumn 'The Intelligence of Painting' (7 Mar–20 Jul) 'Warraba Weatherall ' (21 Mar–7 Sep) Circular Quay Foyer Wall Commission: Diena Georgetti 'Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory' (until 27 Apr) Winter 'Cerith Wyn Evans' (6 Jun–19 Oct) Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission: Ricky Swallow Spring Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission: Thomas J Price 'Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists' (29 Aug 25–8 Mar 26) 'Yasmin Smith' (3 Oct 25–8 Feb 26) Summer 'Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI', Sydney International Art Series, (21 Nov 25–26 Apr 26) 'MCA Collection: Artists in Focus' Gordon Bennett, Rosalie Gascoigne, Rosemary Laing, Patricia Piccinini, Jessica Rankin and Julie Mehretu, Mulkun Wirrpanda, Timothy Cook, Raelene Kerinuaia, Nina Puruntatameri, Cornelia Tipuamantumirri, Bede Tungulatum and Pedro Wonaeamirri. (Feb–Nov 25) Two C3West projects, in partnership with ACON, and Bayside Council Touring ‘Primavera: Young Australian Artists’ ‘Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise’ — Image: Cerith Wyn Evans, installation view, ‘Cerith Wyn Evans. Borrowed Light Through Metz’, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2024–25, image courtesy the artist, photograph: Lewis Ronald.

Today is International Day of People with Disability – a day to amplify the leadership and creativity of persons with disabilities for a more inclusive future.    We're celebrating this Saturday with a free relaxed day of learning this Saturday, networking and art-making, for creatives working in the arts who identify as d/Deaf, neurodivergent and/or disabled.     On the day, experience ‘Julie Mehretu: Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’ with Auslan-interpreted and audio-described tours and take part in creative workshops inspired by Mehretu’s powerful themes.    Head here to access visual stories of the MCA and galleries, sensory map and more: https://lnkd.in/e4XpdG7z   Art Network: Julie Mehretu Sat 7 Dec NCCL, Level 3 Free, booking required —    Image: Installation view,' Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory', Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2024, image courtesy and © Julie Mehretu, photograph: Zan Wimberley    #IDPwD #MCAAustralia #JulieMehretu 

‘She refuses to be limited and defined, and instead reaches for new and expansive ways of seeing, looking and existing in the world’  – The Saturday Paper      Learn more about Julie Mehretu’s artistic practice, inspirations, and the complex layers of her works that blend political, historical and social narratives through abstraction.    Read on: https://lnkd.in/gij8S7Ve    Tickets to ‘Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’ are on sale now.    —    Image: Julie Mehretu working in her studio, image courtesy and © Julie Mehretu, photograph: Sarah Rentz    #MCAAustralia #JulieMehretu 

‘Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’ is here.    To celebrate, we’re extending exhibition hours until 9pm tonight!    Julie Mehretu’s dynamic and multi-layered works invite you to see painting in a whole new way.    Experience the power of abstraction and be moved by an exhibition that ranges from Mehretu’s early works on paper to her latest innovative and opaque TRANSpaintings that change as light shifts and bodies move around the works.    ‘Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’  29 November 2024 – 27 April 2025  Tickets on sale now: https://lnkd.in/gucKUddR   —    Image: Installation view, Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2024, image courtesy and © Julie Mehretu, photograph: Zan Wimberley    #MCAAustralia #JulieMehretu 

Last night our major summer exhibition, ‘Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory’ was officially opened by Christine Elder, Consul General of the U.S. Consulate General Sydney.    We were thrilled that artist Julie Mehretu was present, as were valued MCA supporters.    The exhibition opens tomorrow, 29 November. Come and experience it for yourself!     Tickets available now: https://lnkd.in/gucKUddR     The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia gratefully acknowledges the support of principal exhibition patrons Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen; and Lorraine Tarabay and Nick Langley; and major exhibition patrons WHITE CUBE, and GRANTPIRRIE Private.    —    Photography: Jacquie Manning 

We are delighted to share that C3West project ‘Lifting the Tapu’ by Aotearoa born, Sydney-based Sāmoan artist Greg Semu was awarded an IMAGinE Award for best Engagement Project (Large Organisations category) by Museums & Galleries of NSW last week. The project team included MCA Senior Curator C3West Pedro de Almeida; co-curator and cultural consultant Leo Tanoi; Talia Smith, Curator, Blacktown Arts; and Ryan Whitworth-Jones, First Nations Creative Producer, Blacktown Arts. In ‘Lifting the Tapu’, artist Greg Semu engaged Pasifika communities in Blacktown to reflect upon kinship, intergenerational healing and wellbeing.    A partnership between the MCA and Blacktown Arts, Blacktown City Council, ‘Lifting the Tapu’ was presented between 8-30 June this year in Mount Druitt. It was the MCA’s 24th project delivered under the MCA’s C3West program which brings artists and communities together to create art that directly responds to local concerns in Western Sydney, and its third C3West partnership with Blacktown Arts, Blacktown City Council.    Learn more about ‘Lifting the Tapu’: https://lnkd.in/geP2vD9U     —    Images: Image: Pedro de Almeida, Greg Semu, Talia Smith, Leo Tanoi and Kylie Tung, photograph: Jacquie Manning; Greg Semu, ‘La Pietà (Mount Druitt)’, 2024. © Greg Semu. ‘Lifting the Tapu’ is produced and presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in partnership with Blacktown Arts and Blacktown City Council. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body, and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW  

For many of us, jewellery can hold special significance. In 'Earrings That My Mother Kept For Me' Monica Rani Rudhar recreates a pair of ornate gold earrings gifted by her father to her Romanian mother as an Indian marital custom. Massive in scale, Rudhar's treasured inheritance becomes a monument, or a shine, connecting the artist with her patrilineal line of Punjabi goldsmiths and continuing Indian traditions of matrilineal gold wealth. 'Earrings That My Mother Kept For Me' is part of 'Primavera: Young Australian Artists' on now until 27 January 2025. Learn more: http://bit.ly/4f1qZVD — Monica Rani Rudhar, 'Earrings That My Mother Kept For Me', 2024, installation view, 'Primavera 2024: Young Australian Artists', Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2024, image courtesy the artist and MCA © the artist, photograph: Zan Wimberley

Julie Mehretu’s exhibition at the MCA, the artist's first exhibition in Australia, reveals her commitment to painting as a contemporary artform. It speaks to the power of art to express the dynamic and intersecting movements of history, people and cultures that shape our understanding of the world.    Find out more about the artist in The Sydney Morning Herald's latest feature, from her family roots in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the journey of her artistic practice and her connection to Australia.    'Julie Mehretu: A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory' opens on 29 November.    Tickets on sale now.    https://lnkd.in/g5iuQpFZ 

We were delighted to welcome last week the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations (NFACR) 澳中基金会 Advisory Board to Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.    The Advisory Board explored exhibitions showcasing living artists at every stage of their career, guided by MCA Curator Manya Sellers. Highlights included Lindy Lee's major public commission, ‘Secret World of a Starlight Ember’ (2020), Chun Yin Rainbow Chan’s (陳雋然) ‘Long Distance Call 長途電話’(2024) featured in this year ‘Primavera: Young Australian Artists’ and the MCA’s enduring commitment to First Nations artists.   Through international collaborations with museums around the globe supported by government, individual and corporate partners, we bring the world of contemporary art to Australia and take Australian art to the world.   Special thanks to Pru Bennett, Foundation Chair, Gary Cowan, CEO, and the Advisory Board members for joining us. Your visit reinforces the importance of greater artistic and cultural exchange in fostering understanding and cooperation between Australia, China and the world.