Sydney-based independent curator and writer, Nina Miall, has been appointed as the curator of the TarraWarra Museum of Art’s TarraWarra Biennial 2020.
TarraWarra Museum of Art Director, Victoria Lynn, said the appointment of Miall to curate the TarraWarra Biennial 2020 is an expression of the Museum’s commitment to ‘art as a world-making activity’.
“Nina Miall is one of the most respected curators in Australia and has curated numerous exhibitions throughout Europe, the US, Asia and Australia,” said Ms Lynn. “The wealth of her experience speaks to TarraWarra Museum of Art’s desire to present Australian art in a global context.”
Miall was most recently Curator at Carriageworks, Sydney (2012–2017), where she co-curated the inaugural multi-venue biennial exhibition The National 2017: New Australian Art, which sought to address the legacies of colonialism, the question of sovereignty, and the ways in which the concept of the nation-state is queried by contemporary art.
Also at Carriageworks, Miall curated the major interdisciplinary project 24 Frames Per Second (2012–2015) which commissioned innovative works situated at the nexus of art, dance and film by Australian and international artists working at the forefront of experimental multi-arts practice.
Miall has an enduring curatorial engagement with research-driven and interdisciplinary practices, with a particular focus on socially engaged and situational art and the relationship between body, site and space.
“Nina Miall’s unique vision for the 8th iteration of the TarraWarra Biennial will produce a remarkable exhibition experience,” added Ms Lynn. “Undoubtedly, Miall will test the biennial format whilst observing TarraWarra’s commitment to art, place and ideas.”
Established in 2006 as a platform for identifying new contemporary and cutting-edge work, the TarraWarra Biennial has become a major forum for artistic expression in Australia. Each Biennial has developed a distinctive curatorial approach, focusing on a particular set of ideas or themes that are prevalent in contemporary art.
The TarraWarra Biennial alternates annually with the TarraWarra International and the current TarraWarra International 2019: The Tangible Trace, explores the notion of a trace as a residue or marker of a place, situation or body of knowledge and is on display until 1 September 2019.
The Tangible Trace includes the works of Francis Alÿs (Belgium/Mexico), Carlos Capelán (Uruguay/Sweden), Simryn Gill (Singapore/Malaysia/Australia), Shilpa Gupta (India), Hiwa K (Iraq/Germany) and Sangeeta Sandrasegar (Australia), including the newly commissioned works by Capelán, Gupta and Sandrasegar.
For more information about the TarraWarra Museum of Art, visit: www.twma.com.au for details.
Image: Nina Miall – photo by Angela Willsallen