ART FORUM

OCCURRENT AFFAIR: Exhibition Tour

Wednesday 27 July

1:00pm – 2:00pm

NAS Gallery

Please join us for an exhibition walk through with National Art School Gallery Manager and Senior Curator, Katrina Cashman. She will give an overview of
OCCURRENT AFFAIR, a major exhibition of new and recent works by Meanjin/Brisbane-based Aboriginal artist collective proppaNOW, featuring the practices of Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Richard Bell, Megan Cope, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and the late Laurie Nilsen. OCCURRENT AFFAIR references the sensational journalistic style of certain television current affair programs and embraces the slippage between language and its associated readings to probe and present new narratives. The exhibition highlights and reflects on the ongoing state of affairs affecting Aboriginal communities – issues relevant to all Australians.

Conceived as a collaborative activist gesture, OCCURRENT AFFAIR addresses current socio-political, economic and environmental issues, while celebrating
the strength, resilience and continuity of Aboriginal culture. Issues surrounding the artworks extend to pertinent and recurring ‘affairs’ for Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians, including the climate crisis, collectivism, healthcare, justice, truth-telling and healing.

After opening in 2021 at The University of Queensland Art Museum in Brisbane, OCCURRENT AFFAIR is touring nationally with Museums & Galleries of NSW from 2023-2025. proppaNOW is one of Australia’s leading cultural collectives, exploring the politics of Aboriginal art and culture, and provoking, subverting and re-thinking what it means to be a ‘contemporary Aboriginal artist’. proppaNOW is a thesis, a language and an idea – a collective space for critical dialogue, intergenerational membership and artistic practice. In 2022 proppaNOW was awarded the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice in the US.

Image: Laurie Nilsen, Dollar Dilemma Flag, 2020, digital print on textile. Installation view, OCCURRENT AFFAIR, UQ Art Museum, 2021.

Reproduced courtesy of the artist estate and FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane. Photo: Carl Warner