The University of Queensland Art Museum will host the first major exhibition to survey the work of rising international artist Gonkar Gyatso, which will open in Brisbane on 25 February 2012, as part of a city-wide collaborative project.
Three Realms: Gonkar Gyatso is the first single-artist exhibition to be spread over three Brisbane institutions, according to UQ Art Museum Director Dr Campbell Gray.
"The exhibition was initiated by Griffith University Art Gallery, and both the UQ Art Museum and the Institute of Modern Art were quick to see the importance of the project, with the first part held at the IMA in late 2011," Dr Gray said.
Exhibition curator and Griffith University Art Gallery (GUAG) director Mr Simon Wright said, "Three Realms covers the period beginning around 2003, when Gyatso's signature style began to emerge, and foregrounds three major aspects of his practice: the personal, the political and the popular."
"Gyatso overlays Buddhist iconography with the detritus of pop-culture - he works variously as a Tibetan, a Tibetan/Chinese, and a postcolonial citizen of the world free of ideology and referents to place; he is at once all of these personas, yet none entirely," Mr Wright said.
Gyatso grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when art forms that did not coincide with Mao's ideology were suppressed and destroyed, including traditional religious Tibetan art forms and 'bourgeois' Western variants.
It was not until years later, while studying Chinese brush painting in Beijing, that Gyatso came to appreciate his Tibetan heritage and, after graduating, researched Tibetan thangka (scroll painting) in Dharamsala, India.
In Lhasa in 1985 Gyatso founded the Sweet Tea House, the first Tibetan avant-garde artists association and, when he moved to London in 1996, he studied fine art at Chelsea College of Art and Design.
In 2003, Gyatso established a London gallery for contemporary Tibetan art, also known as Sweet Tea House.
Gyatso's work has featured in the 2009 Venice Biennale, the 2009 Asia Pacific Triennial, and the 2010 Biennale of Sydney.
Deputy Director of Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art Suhanya Raffel will officially open Three Realms: Gonkar Gyatso at UQ Art Museum on Friday, 24 February 2012.
Media: Curator, Simon Wright 0409 325 749
The artist will be in Brisbane 17 -27 February, and is available for interview and photo opportunities.
High-resolution images and captions will be available for media.
Key Dates:
UQ Art Museum: 25 February - 29 April 2012, Realm Three
GUAG: 25 February 14 April 2012, Realm Two
IMA: 20 August 15 October 2011, Realm One
