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‘Still Life Now’
COLLECTION FOCUS
Oct 2022 - Mar 2023

Anne Noble / New Zealand b.1954 / Dead Bee Portrait #1 2015, printed 2018 / Pigment on archival paper / The Taylor Family Collection. Purchased 2019 with funds from Paul, Sue and Kate Taylor through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / © Anne Noble

‘Still Life Now’ considers the way artists today are drawing on the ideas of the still life tradition to create contemporary commentary on the nature of life and existence — including the memento mori (the stoic visual reminder of the inevitability of death) and the vanitas still life (the use of elaborate spreads to highlight the transience of life and excess). 

By approaching the still life as a platform for transformative thinking and new conversations, the artists in ‘Still Life Now’ bring together themes of preservation, stillness, transformation and opulence across painting, sculpture and time-based media to engage with contemporary cultural and political issues and promote social change. 

‘Still Life Now’ was on display at GOMA from 9 October 2022 to 12 March 2023. The exhibition was accompanied by a screening program at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA. 


 

Feature image: Anne Noble / New Zealand b.1954 / Dead Bee Portrait #1 (detail) 2015, printed 2018 / Pigment on archival paper / The Taylor Family Collection. Purchased 2019 with funds from Paul, Sue and Kate Taylor through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / © Anne Noble

Collection artworks featured in ‘Still Life Now’

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