Yoshitomo Nara: Reach Out to The Moon, Even If We Can't
Yoshitomo Nara's first Australian solo exhibition headlines a series of international exhibitions at AGWA.
Opening on 26 February, the first Australia solo exhibition of work by celebrated Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara brings together major sculptural works alongside paintings, drawings, ceramics, and photography. Yoshitomo Nara rose to international prominence in the 1990s for his exquisitely rendered, instantly recognisable portraits of alternately sweet and vicious big-headed figures and melancholic figurative sculptures.
Spanning 2011-2022, Reach Out to the Moon, Even if We Can’t focuses on key works from Nara’s recent output. Dramatically presented in AGWA’s largest gallery space, the sculptural works form a series of interrelated islands that span a range of feeling states. Individually and collectively, they demonstrate Nara’s unsurpassed ability to convey emotional nuance with clarity and moving intensity. The feeling of these works is echoed by surrounding drawings, paintings, and ceramics in Nara’s distinctive style.
The exhibition opens with a ticketed launch event on 25 February, Nara After Dark, giving people an exclusive first look at the exhibition, followed by a live performance from POND and special guests.
The international focus continues with the recently opened Star Machine, the first major museum exhibition of Farah Al Qasimi (b. 1991, Abu Dhabi) in Australia. This exhibition departs from a recent work Star Machine (2021) and takes a reflective gaze over the past five years of the artist’s practice to unfold the experience of transcendence in contemporary image-based culture. Presented by AGWA’s curatorial initiative, the Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art, it follows on from the group exhibition I have not loved (enough or worked).
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