From private to public and the comforting to menacing, Rockhampton Museum of Art’s latest Collection Focus exhibition looks at people’s relationships to their built surroundings.
The exhibition is made up entirely of works from the Rockhampton Museum of Art Collection.
Collection Focus: Dwelling examines the impact that urban design and architecture can have on people’s lived experiences through a selection of photography, prints, and paintings.
Through architectural studies, domestic interior scenes and landscapes artists have visually expressed the importance of people’s built surroundings to their psychological and social wellbeing.
The exhibition features works by Jeffrey Smart, Noel McKenna, John Brack, Valerie Albiston, Belyndah Waugh, and many more.
Collection Focus is a series of regular exhibitions, each featuring a curated selection of artworks from the Rockhampton Museum of Art Collection, with a different theme each time. A new Collection Focus exhibition is unveiled approximately every three months.
The series enables a selection of works to be displayed at the museum at all times, while still allowing space for multiple other exhibitions.
The Rockhampton Museum of Art Collection is regarded as one of the finest in regional Australia. The museum is the only regional gallery in Queensland to hold a representative collection of mid-twentieth century Australian art, including the works of prominent Australian Modernist painters. The Collection has continued to grow over the decades and now boasts a wide representation of genre and media.
Rockhampton Regional Council Communities and Heritage portfolio spokesperson Cr Drew Wickerson said that the Collection Focus series is a marvellous way of displaying the collection.
“The collection itself is quite extensive, with over 2000 pieces, so displaying it in more manageably sized exhibitions, each with an overarching theme, is a perfect way for people to experience it, Cr Wickerson said.
“No matter when you visit Rockhampton Museum of Art you’ll always be able to see some of our fabulous collection,” he said
Collection Focus: Dwelling is curated by Curator Emily Wakeling. It is on display at Rockhampton Museum of Art, 222 Quay Street, Rockhampton, until 28 May. Admission is free.
Rockhampton Museum of Art is owned and operated by Rockhampton Regional Council.
IMAGE:
Image: Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) Fiumicino Car Park (detail) 1975, oil on canvas. Rockhampton Museum of Art Collection. Purchased through the Art Acquisition Fund with assistance from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council 1976.
© The estate of the artist and Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
