MCA Australia announces this year’s Primavera 2022 recipients

Six young Australian artists have been shortlisted to exhibit in in this year’s 31^st Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists, hosted by The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). The illustrious list of artists include: Sundari Carmody (SA), Angela Goh (NSW), Julia Gutman (NSW), Amrita Hepi (VIC), Jazz Money (NSW) and Katie West (VIC/WA), whose works have been selected and will be curated by writer, curator and programmer Micheal Do.

“Micheal Do has curated an exceptional group of artists for Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists. This exhibition is an important platform for artists’ careers, introducing their work to a wider audience in Australia,” says MCA Director, Suzanne Cotter. Primavera continues to be a significant platform for early-career Australian artists and curators to present stimulating new work.

Do holds the titles of Curator of Contemporary Art at The Sydney Opera House, Australia and Curator of Projects at Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand, and has also contributed articles and interviews for Art Collector and multiple art platforms. Tapping into the pulse of today, Do seeks to address climate crises, politics, global pandemics, and human subjugation in our world today- which he terms, “a global requiem”. Do has selected “artists (who) have responded with processes of questioning and discussion, broadly asking how we should live and navigate this requiem.”

The exhibition will showcase a diverse range of practicing artists, from performance pieces to 3D printed sculpture and poetry. The exhibition will chart discussions of place, identity, storytelling and much more.

About the Artists and their work:

Adelaide-based artist Sundari Carmody has previously been one of the finalists for the 2018 Churchie Emerging Art Prize organised by the QUT Art Museum, Brisbane. Her work has showcased in multiple group and solo exhibitions, such as Firstdraft (Sydney) and ACE Open (Adelaide). Carmody seeks to shine a light on themes of being and consciousness in relation to the beyond, the vast and dark cosmos.

Dancer and choreographer Angela Goh, whose performances have toured across Australia and internationally, aims to disrupt and transform through themes of the post-anthropocene and techno-capitalism woven into her performance works. She has won numerous awards and received a range of fellowships, namely the Keir Choreographic Award (2020) and Create NSW Emerging Fellowship (2019/20).

Julia Gutman, a multidisciplinary artist working on Gadigal land, works with found textiles to create ‘patchworks’ exploring themes of memory, femininity, and intimacy. A Finalist in the 2021 Ramsay Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the 2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship at Artspace Sydney, Julia’s work has also been exhibited internationally and profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC Arts.

Amrita Hepi’s current practice is concerned with dance as social function performed within galleries, performance spaces, video art and digital technologies. She completed her residency at A Gertrude Contemporary studio artist in residence (2020 – 2022) and is on the Board of Directors for RISING festival and Lucy Guerin Inc.

Artist and poet Jazz Money, of Wiradjuri and Irish heritage, centres their practice around storytelling, unearthing the realities of First Nations memory, personal and national identity, and places of the past, present and future. They have won multiple grants and awards, like the most recent Dreaming Award given by the Australia Council for the Arts (2022), and have performed their poetry at TEDx Sydney, The Sydney Opera House and other Australian literary festivals.

Artist and Yindjibarndi woman, Katie West, was the recipient of the Dominik Mersch Gallery Award in 2017, and the Falls Creek Resort Indigenous Art Award, 2017. Often creating installations from naturally dyed, found textiles, playing with plant matter, video and sound, West’s practice weaves in stories and narratives of place, history, and the future.

Primavera 2022: Young Australian Artists is a free exhibition on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Level 1 South Gallery, from Friday 4 November 2022 – 12 February 2023.