The Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) today announced its inaugural exhibition program to be featured in the new $50 million art museum designed by the renowned architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall.
Spanning five floors, SAM will launch a suite of new exhibitions and major artist commissions by emerging and established Australian artists, with work to be featured throughout the museum, in the surrounding compound and online. With a spirit of regeneration, the redesigned museum will represent the diversity and richness of Victoria and its unique local environment as well as the vision and aspirations of its people. The exhibition program spans sculpture, painting, video, photography, ceramics and installation and builds on the existing strengths of the SAM Collection, including its nationally recognized collection of ceramics and South East Australia’s largest collection of Aboriginal art.
Inaugural exhibition of the SAM collection,Flow: Stories of river, earth and sky,features the largest extended Namatjira family property in the country, and is featured alongside a dynamic range ofAustralian exclusives and world premiere commissions celebrating artists from across Australia and around the world. Program highlights include a major investigative exhibition of the work of renowned Yorta YortaartistLin Onus; a new commission of artwork by acclaimed artists Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti and Boonwurrung,Tide ClarkeentitledCountry Connection – I Remember When…,2021; and a new participatory commission byAmrita Hepi.
Dr. Rebecca Coates, Artistic Director& CEO of SAMmentioned:“I am delighted to be able to announce our inaugural exhibition program which ushers in a new chapter of regeneration and community engagement for the Museum and Shepparton. SAM holds a special place in the hearts of Australians,showcasing the work of some of Australia’s most important contemporary artists, placing their work in a global context. These early exhibits speak to our unique people and place and recognize and celebrate our local Yorta Yorta people and shared culture. This is the most important and exciting moment in the history of SAM as an organization.I am eager toshare this new chapter in the history of SAM which will build on its past heritageand create a new vision for the future.
The program of the inaugural exhibition which will be presented at SAM includes:
- The People’s Gallery will house a major investigative exhibition,LinOnus:The earth inside(opening November 20, 2021)which is the first significant exhibition of the work of highly acclaimed artist Yorta Yorta to be featured on Country. The exhibition brings together a selection of works spanning over two decades, drawn from major public, state and private collections across Australia. The artworks are drawn from the 1970s until the artist’s untimely death in 1996, across a range of mediums including painting, prints and sculpture.
- Featuring one of Australia’s foremost artists and choreographers,An echoing call,2021,the new participatory video installation byAmrita Hepi(opening November 20, 2021) will be SAM Kids’ first exhibition in the Children’s Gallery, a new space dedicated to children and young people.An echoing callsets up a dynamic relationship between a performance on screen and the participants in space. Through gestural mirrors and translations, the work invites the public to explore new forms of bodily communication and reciprocity, all in full COVID safety. Weaving physical provocations with a mix of moving imagery drawn from film, dance history and the artist’s previous works, it playfully draws attention to the limits and potential of how our bodies move.
- The inaugural exhibition of the new Lin Onus Gallery will beFlow:Stories of river, earth and sky in the SAM collection(opening November 20, 2021), an exhibition that explores our relationship to nature and how people, culture and ideas move around the region and around the world. Who we are, how we understand place, how we set our priorities, and how we connect to the outside world are all determined by the kinesis of nature with movement and change as shared constants. The exhibition features works by over 60 artists drawn from SAM’s collection and features major new acquisitions for the first time, including works from the Carrillo and Ziyin Gantner Collection of Australian Indigenous Art.
- The new SAM was designed to showcase SAM’s collection of ceramics throughout the building. Showcase One, at the entrance to the art museum café, presentsEveryday Australian design: Functional design from the Ian Wong collection(opening 20 November 2021), an exhibition of objects that celebrates daily life and Australian culture. From the 1880s to the present, many of these familiar objects have become icons of our time, such as the Eski and the Décor wine cooler. Providing insight into everyday life, the show includes the everyday objects we use at home and in our leisure time with family and friends. This colorful display will provide a story or two for all to incite a nostalgic memory or illuminate the familiar object’s trajectory through the world of design.
- A specialbrown pots(opening 20 November 2021) the exhibition will examine the influences and innovations of Australian studio potters engaging with and developing the teaching, writing and philosophy of Bernard Leach, the father of British studio pottery, and by Japanese potter Shoji Hamada. This exhibition will kick off a series of three-part exhibitions exploring the trajectory of Australian studio pottery from the 1960s to today, which will be presented by SAM in its new dedicated ceramics showcases at next 18 months, showcasing works from the SAM collection.
- The art museum has commissioned a major new work from acclaimed artists Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti and Boonwurrung,Tide Clarke.Country Connection – I Remember When…,2021famous Yorta Yorta Elders, cultural heritage and continued connection to the country. The installation includes a series of large-scale lenticular lightboxes, the most ambitious Maree has made to date, and will be featured in the showcase of SAM’s new building ahead of the museum’s opening in late 2021 ( opening on November 20, 2021). Given its location as a public window, the programming for this space has been designed to attract the passing public and a diverse range of participants to engage with the work, from less typical museum-goers to those who appreciate and use the surrounding environment. park and amenities.
- Look out and through a future,2021(opening November 20, 2021)is theinaugural Art Wall commission at SAM on 4andFurphy Wall floor by renowned Melbourne artistLouisa Bufardeci. The large-scale artwork will be the first in an ongoing series of dynamic temporary commissions from contemporary artists, designed to respond to and enliven a dedicated public space, terrace and bar on the museum’s top floor, overlooking Lake Victoria Park.
- A major public artwork by famous artist Girramay and Kuku YalanjiTony Albert,house of rejects2019, was installed in a privileged position in the forecourt of the new SAM building. Reaching almost five meters, the towering steel structure resembles an oversized house of playing cards with bold black and white faces. It is the largest work to enter the SAM collection to date.
- The opening exhibition at the Hugh DT Williamson Community Gallery will beFees: GV Top Art & Design,2021(opening November 20), featuring artwork and design presentations from talented Year 11 and Year 12 VCE Art, Studio Arts and Visual Communication Design students studying at 14 schools in the North Central and Hume areas of Victoria in 2020. The Community Gallery is a dedicated space where local artists and creatives will have the opportunity to work in a professional museum context and connect with new audiences through a range of exhibitions, public programs and events . More information to come.
Designed by award-winning Melbourne-based architectsDenton Corker Marshall,The Shepparton Museum of Art is the centerpiece of Shepparton’s fascinating new arts institution Victoria Park Lark, in Victoria’s North Central Corridor. The 5300m2The building houses the museum, visitor center and Kaiela Arts, Shepparton’s local Aboriginal arts centre, as well as a cafe and event space with a roof terrace.
Information about the 2021 exhibition program can be found atwww.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au. SAM is scheduled to open on November 20, 2021.