Innovative video artist Shaun Gladwell leads an impressive Australian
showcase at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia,
alongside four of the country’s most promising up and coming artists.
The Venice Biennale – one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious contemporary art
exhibitions – runs from 7 June to 22 November 2009. Australia will be represented by a
series of video works from Shaun Gladwell and Once Removed, a curated exhibition of
installations by four early career artists.
Shaun Gladwell will present his captivating MADDESTMAXIMVS at the Australian Pavilion in
Venice’s Giardini della Biennale. MADDESTMAXIMVS is a compelling suite of five
thematically interrelated videos with sculptural and photographic elements, influenced by
outback Australian landscapes and the iconic Mad Max movies.
Mr Gladwell’s exciting works blend contemporary urban culture and personal history through
video, painting, sculpture and performance. He was one of three Australian artists selected
to participate in the Think with the Senses Feel with the Mind exhibition at the Venice
Biennale 2007. His works have been shown in major national and international exhibitions,
including the Sao Paulo, Busan, Taipei and Sydney biennales and Yokohama triennale. He
has undertaken residencies and commissions in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and was
awarded an Australia Council fellowship in 2006.
Also representing Australia at the Venice Biennale 2009 will be four early career artists in the
Once Removed exhibition at the Ludoteca in the Castello district. Curated by Felicity Fenner,
Once Removed will feature a series of installations brought together by themes of
Aboriginality, environment and displacement. The works presented are Indigenous artist
Vernon Ah Kee’s Cant Chant (Wegrewhere), Australian-based Japanese artist Ken
Yonetani’s Sweet Barrier Reef, and Life Span by collaborators Claire Healy and Sean
Cordeiro.
Doug Hall AM, commissioner for the Australian delegation at the Venice Biennale, said that
the nation was putting its best creative foot forward at the event.
‘The Australian presence at the Venice Biennale 2009 will showcase some of the most
exciting artists to emerge from Australia’s contemporary art scene in the last decade. Their
urban, Indigenous, political and culturally diverse styles show sides of Australia that that
many international observers may not have seen. They represent the new face of Australian
contemporary art,’ said Mr Hall.
The Australia Council for the Arts has managed and funded Australia’s representation for
more than 30 years. Past Australian representatives have included Sir Sydney Nolan
(1954), Imants Tillers (1986), Arthur Boyd (1988), Judy Watson, Emily Kame Kngwarreye
(1997), Howard Arkley (1999), Patricia Piccinini (2003), Ricky Swallow (2005), Susan
Norrie, Daniel Von Sturmer and Callum Morton (2007).