New Aboriginal art on display in Toledo

TOLEDO – The first major exhibition of Aboriginal Australian art in
the U.S. Midwest in more than 20 years opened Friday at the Toledo Museum of Art.Crossing Cultures: The Owen
and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art from the Hood Museum of Art includes
approximately 120 works of contemporary Indigenous art from Australia spanning five decades by artists from
urban and rural communities. Most of the works, however, were created after 2000 and broaden the definition
of Aboriginal art, reinforcing the idea that Indigenous art and contemporary art are not contradictory
terms.The exhibit continues through July 14."This extraordinarily captivating and visually dazzling
exhibition continues the Toledo Museum of Art’s historical legacy of bringing important and often unfamiliar
art and culture to its audiences," said Museum Director Brian Kennedy. "In this era of increasing
globalization, innovation and intercultural exchange, it is critical that museums stretch and challenge
their artistic comfort zones."Kennedy, who wrote an essay for the exhibition catalog, became acquainted
with Indigenous Australian artists while serving as director of the National Gallery of Australia in
Canberra from 1997 to 2004. He later met art collectors Will Owen and Harvey Wagner when he hosted an
Aboriginal art exhibition in 2006 while director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover,
N.H.Owen and Wagner, who first became interested in Indigenous Australian art in 1988, donated 400 works
from their collection to the Hood Museum of Art in 2009 and 2011. In addition to being a collector, Owen
writes a weekly blog on Aboriginal art and culture.Among artists represented in the exhibition are Michael
Riley, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Danny Gibson Tjapaltjarri, Destiny Deacon and Walangkura Napanangka.Curated
by Stephen Gilchrist, curator of Indigenous Australian art at the Hood Museum of Art, and coordinated in
Toledo by Brian Kennedy, the exhibition encompasses the broad range of media and materials employed by
contemporary Aboriginal artists, from acrylic painting on canvas to earthen ochre painting on bark, as well
as sculpture and photography. It was not until the early 1970s that many Indigenous Australians began to
record their ancestral stories with permanent materials.The focus is on young artists who are breathing new
life into ancient stories and broadening the possibilities of Indigenous Australian art and, consequently,
visitors will see contemporary paintings that summon aspects of "the Dreaming" as well as
photographs from urban-based artists who depict the contemporary realities of Indigenous Australians.For
Indigenous Australian peoples the Dreaming refers to ancestral stories about the creation of the universe,
the spiritual beings who journeyed across and named the land and the social and religious laws they passed
down.Admission to the exhibition and to the Museum is free.Online:toledomuseum.org.