8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT8)

Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)

21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016

The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT8) is the only exhibition series of the 160 biennials and triennials currently staged worldwide to focus on the contemporary art of Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

APT8 will feature around 75 emerging and established artists, filmmakers and performers from more than 25 countries and will reflect the vigour of a number of new and expanding creative centres throughout Asia and the Pacific.

For the first time, artists from Mongolia, Nepal and Solomon Islands will be included in the APT. Four exciting Mongolian painters, who work in the highly distinctive Mongol zurag style, will have work featured, their first exhibition in Australia.

The exhibition will have an emphasis on performance, with live actions, video and kinetic art, as well as figurative painting and sculpture. Many of the artists included explore how the human form is used to express cultural, social and political ideas at a time of enormous change.

Among the special focuses in APT8 will be Australia’s first major display of Indian indigenous art and a contemporary performance project. ‘Yumi Danis (We Dance)’ will be co-curated with ni–Vanuatu author and musician Marcel Meltherorong, and is being developed with Kanak artist Nicolas Molé and 15 Melanesian performers who were recently involved in a creative exchange in Ambrym, Vanuatu.

In addition to the exhibition across both Galleries, APT8 will feature APT Live, an ongoing program of artist performance events; APT Talk, a major conference as part of the opening weekend program; an extensive cinema program; and Kids’ APT.

The first artists to be confirmed for inclusion in APT8 are:
Baatarzorig Batjargal (Mongolia) | Richard Bell (Australia) | Nomin Bold (Mongolia) | Choi Jeong-Hwa (South Korea) |Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu (Mongolia) | Juan Davila (Australia) | Duan Jianyu (China) | Gerelkhuu Ganbold (Mongolia) |David Medalla (The Philippines/United Kingdom) | Nicolas Molé (New Caledonia) | Rosanna Raymond (New Zealand) |Francis Upritchard (New Zealand/United Kingdom) | Asim Waqif (India) | Ming Wong (Singapore/Germany) | Haegue Yang(South Korea/Germany)

Image: Juan Davila, Chile/Australia b.1946 / Ohhhhhh! 2014 / Oil on canvas / © Juan Davila, Courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art