Australian Exotica: Redland Art Gallery

Michael Cook

19 Oct - 23 Dec 2018

Australian Exotica is an Monash Gallery of Art Travelling Exhibition that draws on MGA’s nationally significant collection of Australian photographs and showcases a range of photographic work that engages with the theme of the exotic antipodes.

Ever since the fifteenth century, when European cartographers began including the contour of Terra Australis Incognita (‘the unknown land of the south’) in their speculative maps of the globe, the continent of Australia has been thought of as an exotic place. For many of the artists in this exhibition, this European vision is something that needs to be subverted and critiqued. For others, the idea of living in an eccentric environment, with surreal undertows, continues to inform a distinctively Australian sense of place.

Artists include: Brook Andrew, Michael Cook, Destiny Deacon, Peter Dombrovskis, Marian Drew, Leah King-Smith, Joseph McGlennon, Tracey Moffatt, Darren Siwes, Robyn Stacey and Christian Bumbarra Thompson.