Arts West Gallery, University of Melbourne (Parkville)
Exhibition dates: 9 November 2023 – 30 June 2024
Curated by Dr David Sequeira, Dr Matthew Martin and Nur Shkembi
Gallery information: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/about/arts-west-gallery
Gallery location: view map here
DOMINION brings together six contemporary artists to reinvigorate notions of 'dominion' as a space for power which exists beyond confines of time and the singular notion of humanity. It is one that breaches concepts of both the political and sublime to reveal the corporeal being beyond the temporal and subcelestial. The subjectivities arising out of the Enlightenment, and subsequently problematised in European Romanticism, are renegotiated through the narratives of the artists, not as a condition of the past, rather as a revelation or truth which has been cloaked in the passages of time.
This thought-provoking exhibition has been commissioned by the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Contemporary Culture (ERCC) Research Unit as an integral element to the conference 'Inventing the Human'. DOMINION includes select pieces from The Johnston Collection and The University of Melbourne's own collections and rare prints department. Featured in the exhibition are works by such luminaries as celebrated Romantic painter and illustrator, John Martin, along with works by six contemporary artists: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Safdar Ahmed, Richard Bell, Penny Byrne, Michael Riley and Hadieh Shafie.
The exhibition will act as a provocation for conversations during the conference, as well providing curriculum and informal learning content for students across the University's faculties.
Presented in partnership with the Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative (MPHI).
Exhibition curators:
Nur Shkembi is an art historian, curator, and writer. Nur has produced and curated over 150 events, exhibitions and community engagement projects. She was part of the core team that established the Islamic Museum of Australia, serving as the museum’s inaugural Art Director and founding Curator. Nur has contributed her independent curatorial practice nationally, through exhibitions including Waqt al Tagheer (ACE Open), Khalas! (UNSW Galleries), The Inner Apartment (Nishi Gallery and National Museum of Australia), Destiny Disrupted (Granville Centre Art Gallery and Griffith University Art Museum), and the award-winning exhibition SOUL fury (Bendigo Art Gallery). Nur is currently undertaking a PhD in contemporary Islamic art at the Department of Art History, University of Melbourne. nurshkembi.com
This thought-provoking exhibition has been commissioned by the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Contemporary Culture (ERCC) Research Unit as an integral element to the conference 'Inventing the Human'. DOMINION includes select pieces from The Johnston Collection and The University of Melbourne's own collections and rare prints department. Featured in the exhibition are works by such luminaries as celebrated Romantic painter and illustrator, John Martin, along with works by six contemporary artists: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Safdar Ahmed, Richard Bell, Penny Byrne, Michael Riley and Hadieh Shafie.
The exhibition will act as a provocation for conversations during the conference, as well providing curriculum and informal learning content for students across the University's faculties.
Presented in partnership with the Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative (MPHI).
Exhibition curators:
Nur Shkembi is an art historian, curator, and writer. Nur has produced and curated over 150 events, exhibitions and community engagement projects. She was part of the core team that established the Islamic Museum of Australia, serving as the museum’s inaugural Art Director and founding Curator. Nur has contributed her independent curatorial practice nationally, through exhibitions including Waqt al Tagheer (ACE Open), Khalas! (UNSW Galleries), The Inner Apartment (Nishi Gallery and National Museum of Australia), Destiny Disrupted (Granville Centre Art Gallery and Griffith University Art Museum), and the award-winning exhibition SOUL fury (Bendigo Art Gallery). Nur is currently undertaking a PhD in contemporary Islamic art at the Department of Art History, University of Melbourne. nurshkembi.com
Matthew Martin is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Curatorship in the University of Melbourne. He was formerly a curator in the International Decorative Arts department of the National Gallery of Victoria. His areas of research interest include the material culture of eighteenth-century European courts, the cultural aesthetics of ceramics in early modern Europe, and confessional identity in eighteenth-century European artist’s networks.
David Sequeira is an artist and curator who has exhibited his work extensively throughout Australia. Working across media, he explores issues of 'high' and 'low' art, personal and shared histories, banality and profundity, the reverberations of colonisation and the persisting impact of incomplete histories. Curatorship—articulating the intersections between objects, time, place and space—is also an important aspect of his art practice. David has held senior positions in public cultural institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, Australian Parliament House and Old Parliament House, Canberra. He is currently the Director of the Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
David Sequeira is an artist and curator who has exhibited his work extensively throughout Australia. Working across media, he explores issues of 'high' and 'low' art, personal and shared histories, banality and profundity, the reverberations of colonisation and the persisting impact of incomplete histories. Curatorship—articulating the intersections between objects, time, place and space—is also an important aspect of his art practice. David has held senior positions in public cultural institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, Australian Parliament House and Old Parliament House, Canberra. He is currently the Director of the Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Artist websites:
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, abdulrahmanabdullah.com/home
Safdar Ahmed, safdarahmed.com
Richard Bell, richardbellart.com
Penny Byrne, pennybyrneartist.com
Michael Riley (1960-2004), michaelriley.com.au
Hadieh Shafie, hadiehshafie.com
Image Credit: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Buraq (2020). Painted wood, silk petals. 80 x 110 x 230cm. Photograph supplied: Murdoch University Collection. Courtesy the artist and Moore Contemporary.
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, abdulrahmanabdullah.com/home
Safdar Ahmed, safdarahmed.com
Richard Bell, richardbellart.com
Penny Byrne, pennybyrneartist.com
Michael Riley (1960-2004), michaelriley.com.au
Hadieh Shafie, hadiehshafie.com
Image Credit: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Buraq (2020). Painted wood, silk petals. 80 x 110 x 230cm. Photograph supplied: Murdoch University Collection. Courtesy the artist and Moore Contemporary.
