Australian Art - Early 21st Century

Early 21st Century

A large proportion of artists work with paint on canvas, in styles such as classical realism, pop, magic realism, expressionism and abstraction. A number of Australian artists have recently been official war artists for the Australian War Memorial such as Wendy Sharpe and Rick Amor for the East Timor peacekeeping mission; George Gittoes in Somalia; Peter Churcher in the “War on Terrorism”, and Lewis Miller in the 2003 Iraq War. Gittoes is also a documentary maker.

Ricky Swallow represented Australia in Venice in 2005. Swallow became known for his wooden carvings of skulls and constructions of bicycles. Artists making lifelike models has been a growing trend, and Patricia Piccinini's biotech showstopper The Young Family was publicised in 2003. A counterpoint to this is artists making crude models, wallowing in the materials used for their construction. Soft sculpture in Australian art may be traced back to Jutta Feddersen in the 1970s.

In 2006, the newly updated McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art featured an extensive section on Aboriginal Art. Inclusion in the encyclopedia is dependent on the artist being included in a public gallery and or having won an art prize of note. The practice of carpetbagging has damaged the reputation of the Aboriginal art market and recently there has been the introduction of a royalty system for all Australian artists. Previously, the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association and the Australian Commercial Galleries Association was formed to promote ethical standards across the art industry. Aboriginal art has also suffered from critics tending to compare it unfavourably to western ideals and standards. The art buying public has generally ignored these critiques. Collecting milestones in the 2000s included the Molly Gowing donation to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, also the publication of Beyond Sacred: Recent painting from Australia’s remote Aboriginal Communities: The Collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty. In 2011 the Felton Bequest gifted one of the greatest collections of Western Desert and Central Desert paintings to the National Gallery of Victoria.

Significant contemporary Indigenous Australian artists include Angelina George, Polly Ngal, Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek, Bronwyn Bancroft, Barbara Weir, Naata Nungurrayi, Kathleen Ngale, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Jimmy Baker, Tommy Watson, Kathleen Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, Paddy Bedford (aka Goowoomji) (circa 1922 - 2007), John Mawurndjul, Minnie Pwerle (c.1915-2006), Makinti Napanangka, Ningura Napurrula, Nurapayai Nampitjinpa (Mrs Bennett), Dorothy Napangardi Robinson, Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri (circa 1920-2008), Regina Wilson, Angelina Ngal, Abie Loy Kemarre, Sarrita King, Ian Abdulla, Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Josepha Petrick Kemarre, Tommy Mitchell, Willy Tjungurrayi, Richard Bell, Cowboy Lou Pwerle, Brook Andrew, Ken Thaiday. Anna Price Petyarre is one of the more dynamic mid-career painters.

Like their overseas counterparts, Australian artists of various generations have taken up the conveniences of the digital revolution with Electronic commerce, artist blogging, photo sharing sites. Curating by computer, Modding and street art are shared over the internet. A new breed of artists have to some extent bypassed gallery hire spaces and the art world establishment, posting homemade manga on DeviantArt and displaying art on sites like RedBubble and MySpace. Talented and unrepresented photographers often find their way onto Flickr and similar sites. These practices are for commercial reasons and sometimes art for art's sake. Oleh Witer was one of the early artists to exhibit artworks in the virtual world Second Life. Art auction houses began to hold auctions online. Art sellers started using sites not exclusively used for art such as EBay.

Leading ceramacists and glass artists include Jenny Orchard, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Merran Esson, Thancoupie (1937–2011), Marea Gazzard, Peter Rushforth, Noel Hart, Klaus Moje, Pippin Drysdale, Yasmin Smith and Cedar Prest. The ceramics scene in Australia is generally scholarly, restrained and less parochical than in other categories of Australian contemporary art. Studio glass artists tend to be more individualistic in comparison to potters.

Installation artists include Fiona Hall, Guan Wei, Nike Savvas, Fiona Foley, Scott Redford, Asher Bilu, Justene Williams, Lauren Berkowitz, Chronox, and Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro.

Australia's most widely known science fiction illustrator is British-born Mark Salwowski. He created book cover illustrations for the novels of Iain Banks, John Wyndham, Mercedes Lackey, Brian Aldiss, Tanith Lee and Greg Bear.

Performance art: Jeremy Hynes, Mark Shorter.

Regional galleries became crucial players in the contemporary art scene. Significant shows at regional galleries included a survey of contemporary outsider art at Orange Regional Gallery, and a survey of the important commercial Gallery A and Anne Judell at Campbelltown Regional Gallery, Lawrence Daws at Caloundra Regional Art Gallery and the Janet Dawson survey at Bathurst Regional Gallery. Boofheads and Scrubbers Revenge at Penrith Regional Gallery reflected shifting patterns of wealth and social mobility during the 2000s.

The major new private art galleries were the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, White Rabbit and MONA (Museum of Old And New Art). These galleries are predominantly devoted to contemporary art.