On Saturday 6 November 2021, The Art Gallery of WA (AGWA) hosted a major relaunching moment which will reveal a new and exciting multi-sensory experience for AGWA.
Launching with The View From Here, a celebration of West Australian art. It’s the Gallery’s largest-ever exhibition of West Australian art featuring over 230 artists, 361 artworks, with 111 new works commissioned for this moment. The all-new AGWA will also reveal a transformed building with new and exciting sensory offerings.
Some of the artists included in The View from Here are Sarah Bahbah, the WA-raised, LA-based artist with over 1 million Instagram followers; Tim Meakins, whose giant 3D-printed sculptures of weightlifters, posers and grinning weights, offer a playful interpretation of modern fitness culture and will occupy AGWA’s new interior rooftop gallery; Bruno Booth’s ‘Adidas’-wearing cats appearing in unexpected places, the new rooftop commission by Christopher Pease, and recent works by Abdul Abdullah, Ngarralja Tommy May, Yok & Sheryo, Danielle Freakley, Tyrown Waigana and Tarryn Gill.
Every gallery space is transformed into a celebration of Western Australian art, culture and creativity.
A centrepiece of The View From Here will be Collective Ground, created from the AGWA Foundation’s $1.5M artist stimulus package provided in response to COVID-19. The exhibition will present some 60 works from over 120 acquired from Aboriginal Art Centres and Aboriginal artists across Western Australia.
Collective Ground will be shown for a limited season as part of The View From Here and will return in 2022 for a longer period as part of a larger whole-of-gallery First Nation’s exhibition event.
Under the leadership of AGWA Director, Colin Walker, the eagerly anticipated AGWA Rooftop and The View From Here represents a significant commitment to supporting and celebrating WA artists.
“The launch of the all-new AGWA is a major moment for West Australian arts and artists alike. The new AGWA vision is to create a gallery that celebrates great Western Australian art and artists alongside that from the rest of the world. AGWA will be a champion of WA artists, and the reopening gives a celebration of our local talent and our unique view on the world from this special place.” AGWA Director, Colin Walker said.
Robert Cook, AGWA Project Curator, says, “Following the vision of Guest Artistic Director Ian Strange, the Gallery will be relaunched as a focal point of imaginative and visual connectivity to the world immediately around it and that beyond our shores. And I could not be more excited to see AGWA’s reinvention led by the largest celebration of WA artists we have ever seen.
“The View From Here project amplifies the resonance between AGWA, our region and its creative talent with an incredible line-up of artists working here and often exhibiting worldwide, or who grew up here and are also national and global achievers. This includes bold new commissions and acquisitions, work from artists from many different cultural backgrounds and viewpoints, all framed by an institutional commitment to making art more accessible and approachable to all Western Australians.”
AGWA: Perth Cultural Centre, Perth