Exhibitions

Unique States: Seriality & the Panoramic
A Survey of Three Decades of Prints by Raymond Arnold

15 March – 26 May 2013

Raymond Arnold is acclaimed as one of the most important artist printmakers in the history of Australian art. His large scale etchings and screen prints convey shifting dimensions of time and personal experience, and his subjects include majestic renderings of the Tasmanian landscape and powerful meditations on the grief of war.

Unique States is a much anticipated retrospective of the work of a significant Tasmanian artist whose grand visions, skilful compositions and embrace of printmaking’s alchemy of process and chance represent the pinnacle of artistic achievement within this field of practice.

Presented as part of Ten Days on the Island

Download an education kit for Unique States - PDF 2.7MB

A Passion for Nature: The work of William Charles Piguenit

15 March – 30 June 2013

A Passion for Nature appraises the work of W C Piguenit (1836-1914), Australia’s first native-born professional landscape painter. The exhibition comprises a wide selection of paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery which houses the most comprehensive body of the artist’s work in any collection.

The exhibition celebrates the launch of a book on the artist’s work. Fully illustrated in colour, and with an informative and authoritative text, this book is essential to gaining an understanding of this pioneering artist and his important place in Australian art during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Colonial Women

15 March – 21 July 2013

Colonial Women explores the work of ten artists active during the 1830s-1850s, a period of cultural and scientific innovation and expansion in Van Diemen’s Land under the patronage of Jane Franklin.

Louisa Anne Meredith, Mary Morton Allport and Theresa Walker regarded themselves as professional artists, while Susan Fereday and Ann Buckland combined drawing with scientific investigation and illustration. Elizabeth Princep and Elizabeth Haller had lithographs created form their sketches, whereas Anna Maria Nixon and Emma Haller simply drew for pleasure. Collectively, the work of these artists contributes to our understanding of life in colonial times.

Critical Operations

15 March – 31 December 2013

Critical Operations reflects the challenging nature of art and design practice in Australia today. Exploring 21st century issues of environment, identity and the body, Critical Operations presents work by artists who critique and celebrate contemporary culture through a wide range of vibrant and energetic practices.

Drawn from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s art and decorative arts collections, this exhibition will include contemporary video, sculpture, painting, photography, ceramics, glass and furniture by some of Australia’s most significant artists.

On Their Own: Britain’s Child Migrants

8 June – 25 August 2013

From the 1860s, more than 100,000 children were sent from Britain to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries through child migration schemes. This exhibition tells their emotional stories, exploring the government endorsed schemes and the motivations behind them. Through detailed case studies, visitors will meet a number of former child migrants and find out more about their different experiences. This is an Australian National Maritime Museum travelling exhibition in association with National Museums Liverpool UK.

Ian Burns: Afloat Asunder

13 June - 27 July 2013

Australian artist Ian Burns will work his wondrous whimsy over a two-month period, and present the outcome (who knows what, exactly?) inside the historically rich Bond Store exhibition space. “Like the eighteenth-century philosophers Rousseau and Burke, I see curiosity as the first of all passions. I believe that by provoking the investigative impulse in the viewer there is scope to challenge their expectations and self-awareness.” – Ian Burns

Presented by Detached Cultural Organisation, in association with Dark Mofo and TMAG.

City of Hobart Art Prize 2013

20 July – 1 September 2013

The City of Hobart Art Prize is celebrating its 25th year in 2013 with a national contemporary art survey, featuring entries from all media. This exhibition features a variety of works by artists, craftspeople and designers, which have been judged by Max Delany, Senior Curator (Contemporary Art) at the National Gallery of Victoria, Jam Factory CEO Brian Parkes and TMAG’s Principal Curator of Art, Jane Stewart.