On display from 25 November 2023, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery will play host to over 60 works by 56 female artists this summer in Know My Name: Australian Women Artists.
In the first stop on a two-year tour for the National Gallery of Australia’s newest touring exhibition, MPRG will present this important exhibition, providing visitors with an opportunity to experience the art and stories and get to know some of the country’s most influential women artists.
Know My Name: Australian Women Artists showcases works from the National Gallery’s two-part exhibition which was held between 2020 and 2022, and was among the most comprehensive presentation of art by women assembled in Australia to date.
Director of Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Danny Lacy described the touring exhibition as a major coup for the region. “Know My Name celebrates women and art throughout Australia, and we are honoured to be the first venue showing this collection of important works, right here in Mornington throughout summer,” he said.
“This exhibition will create conversation and spark inspiration and I admire the perseverance and passion the team at the National Gallery of Australia have invested into this touring event which will amplify women artists across galleries around the world,” said Danny.
Know My Name highlights a variety of works from the national collection, including delicate portrait drawings by Janet-Cumbrae Stewart and the widely admired Flapper of 1925 by Margaret Preston.
The exhibition includes ground-breaking feminist pieces from the 1970s and ’80s by Vivienne Binns, including the renowned Mothers’ Memories, Others’ Memories, with additional contributions from collectives like the Women’s Domestic Needlework Group.
Furthermore, Know My Name proudly presents magnificent paintings by First Nations artists Emily Kam Kngwarray and Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori.
The touring exhibition is part of Know My Name – an ongoing series of gender equity initiatives by the National Gallery to increase representation of women artists who have often been omitted from published histories and public collections.
The National Gallery’s Senior Curator of Australian Art Elspeth Pitt says she is looking forward to continuing to tell the stories of the women of Australian art beyond Kamberri/Canberra.
“Looking to moments in which women created new forms of art and cultural commentary, the Know My Name touring exhibition suggests new histories by highlighting creative and intellectual relationships between artists through time,” said Elspeth.
Know My Name: Australian Women Artists is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by the Australian Government through Visions of Australia.
Know My Name: Australian Women Artists
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Civic Reserve, Dunns Road, Mornington
25 November 2023 – 18 February 2024
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au for details.
Image: Margaret Preston, Flapper, 1925, oil on canvas, 77.3 h cm, 58.5 w cm, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased with the assistance of the Cooma-Monaro Snowy River Fund 1988 © Margaret Rose Preston Estate/Copyright Agency Margaret Preston