Selling Exhibition
19 February – 23 April

Opening reception:
19 February 6 – 8pm

Walead Beshty, Melissa Gordon, Tony Lewis, Tim Maguire, Takesada Matsutani, Edda Renouf, Peter Schuyff, Christopher Wool

Exhibition catalogue

Events calendar

Essay

What makes a painting a painting, and how does it differ from poetry? Those questions seem straightforward today, but until the 18th century there wasn’t considered to be a difference at all. Once cultural philosophers started to explore this topic, however, it quickly became the driving factor for understanding the development of modern art, and for art’s claim to autonomy. Over the course of the 20th century it also offered artists a linear narrative framework within which to position their practice, leading many to conclude that they had painted the last painting.

The debates around this theme are largely known as ‘medium specificity,’ most famously defended by the American scholar Clement Greenberg. And although his writings have been discredited over the years, contemporary artists have only expanded their engagement with their mediums since. Instead of the often-declared ‘death of painting,’ the post-modern condition has generated an incredible variety of artistic responses.

This exhibition brings together a small number of artists who have engaged with debates around medium specificity in one way or another. Some have continued the narrative where others have tried to undermine it; other artists have explored it from angles such as identity politics that had previously not been considered.

The exhibition features several artists who have never exhibited in Australia before, including Peter Schuyff, Tony Lewis Takesada Matsutani and Melissa Gordon; and it is the first selling exhibition with works by Walead Beshty, Christopher Wool and Edda Renouf in Australia.