Our lives are shaped by language: the social media we engage with, the news we read, and the signs we follow, all dictate how we connect and experience the world. Text and language have long been a powerful vehicle in the artistic expression of leading conceptual artists since the 1960s, namely Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari, and Lawrence Weiner. In this time of stillness, we seek more than ever before to enrich our lives with text and visuals that fire the imagination, rouse visual pleasure, and inspire intellectual excitement.

From anagrammatic wordplay to esoteric quotations, and from ‘the subtext of existence’ to draconian proscriptions on the Untouchables, these poignant text-based works are a celebration of our artists who harness the immediate and transformative power of language in the visual realm. The artists showing are Imants Tillers, Callum Morton, Newell Harry, Tracey Moffatt, Jenny Watson, Mikala Dwyer, and Kirtika Kain.

The exhibition can be viewed online. View the exhibition here.

Image: Imants Tillers, Amygdala Hijack, 2019. Synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 64 canvas boards, 202 x 283.5cm. Courtesy: the artist and Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney.