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Yayoi Kusama’s infinity room is coming to AGSA’s 2022 program

Yayoi Kusama, Robert Wilson and Nalini Malani and more are making their way to the Art Gallery of South Australia’s magical 2022 program.

Feature artwork: Yayoi Kusama. Images supplied by AGSA.

Magical art installations by the ever-talented Yayoi Kusama and international exhibitions from the likes of Robert Wilson and Nalini Malani are making their way to the Art Gallery of South Australia – with AGSA’s 2022 program shaping up to be one of its best yet.

Inviting South Australian’s the opportunity to immerse themselves in the provocative wonder of art, AGSA’s 2022 program boasts a star-studded line-up of international and homegrown contemporaries. The carefully curated work strives to provoke an infinite of deep thought and ideas in its audiences across the annum.  

“AGSA’s 2022 program will inspire, surprise and delight visitors, with the best of contemporary art from Australia and abroad, quiet moments of reflection and contemplation, and reinvigorated collection experiences,” says AGSA Director Rhana Devenport ONZM.

Kicking off in March, the 2022 program begins with the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State presents a multigenerational collective of artists hailing from every Australian state and territory.

Curated by Sebastian Goldspink, Free/State assembles a group of artists who are fearless; the provocateurs, vanguards and outsiders – challenging histories and art forms, and in the process, offering reflections on an era of multi-faceted global upheaval.

April sees the arrival of a magical, immersive installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia, the work, The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens, 2017, comprises a vibrant yellow room overrun with black polka dots. At the centre of the beloved piece is a mirrored box, containing illuminated pumpkin sculptures in endless reflection.

The dazzling combination of dots, mirrors and pumpkins create a rich optical illusion – a sensation of infinite space and colour.

In May, Pure Form: Japanese sculptural ceramics will reveal the innovative richness and diversity of sculptural ceramics created in Japan from the 1950s to the present.

The daring ceramic movement emerged in Japan following the aftermath of the Second World War, leading to a shift in ceramic expression that positioned contemporary Japanese works at the forefront of international modernism. These exhibitions, combined with Chiara Shiota’s installation Absence Embodied, 2018, make AGSA a destination throughout 2022 for experiencing contemporary Japanese art.

Winter will see a doubleheader of two ticketed exhibitions at AGSA: Robert Wilson: Moving portraits and Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize. An Australian exclusive, Robert Wilson: Moving portraits assembles extraordinary video portraits by the internationally acclaimed theatre director and visual artist.

Never seen before in Australia, the high-definition video portraits feature notable subjects including Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Isabella Rossellini, Robert Downey Jr and Winona Ryder in stunning yet imperceptibly slow-moving tableaux.

This major exhibition is complemented by a celebration of Australia’s most prestigious portrait award. Developed by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Archie 100 explores the history of the Archibald Prize, presenting a diverse selection of hundred 100 Archibald portraits from the last century by artists. The exhibition includes the likes of Ben Quilty and Vincent Namatjira – the first Indigenous artist to win the Prize in its 99-year history and the winner of AGSA’s Ramsay Art Prize in 2019.

One of India’s foremost contemporary artists, the radically inventive Nalini Malani, presents her first major Australian survey, Nalini Malani: Gamepieces in November 2022. Literary narratives, epic mythologies and diverse political histories coalesce through Malani’s painting, drawing, installation, shadow play, projection, film and animation.

Tarnanthi, AGSA’s celebration of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, will continue to connect with audiences around Australia and internationally during 2022, through the regional South Australian touring exhibition Naomi Hobson: Adolescent Wonderland, and the major international presentation Kuḻaṯa Tjuṯa, which continues its North American tour for a further two years.

For full exhibition and event details, visit AGSA’s website here. To further learn about AGSA’s Tarnanthi 2021 program, read here.

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