FREE upcoming programs and events at NGV

 

American video and multimedia artist Ryan Trecartin will present his first major Australian exhibition at the NGV from 15 May, Ryan Trecartin: Re’Search Wait’S. From his work being a highlight of the 2013 Venice Biennale, to co-curating New York’s New Museum Triennial this year to great acclaim, Trecartin is seen as a major artistic figure of the post-internet age. Set in an immersive theatrette resembling an uber-real teenage lounge room, visitors will be enveloped in Trecartin’s world through a rolling display of his films. On Saturday 16 May, 11.45am in the exhibition space at NGV International, exhibition curator Simon Maidment will discuss the work of Ryan Trecartin and the new NGV acquisition Available sync, 2011, by Ryan Trecartin and artist Lizzie Fitch.

 

Television has had an undeniable impact on contemporary culture through televised historical moments such as the Vietnam War and 9/11 through to the rise of the Internet. An exhibition devoted to TV and the transmission of information opens on 15 May at NGV International. Transmission: Legacies of the Television Agefeatures artist responses to television, sets and screens and visual broadcasting through videos, prints, photographs, fashion garments, sculpture and collage. Several artists also look beyond television to newer technologies. On Saturday 16 May, 11am, visit the exhibition for an introductory floor talk about the exhibition from NGV curator Maggie Finch.

 

Propaganda posters were one of the vital forms of communication during both World Wars, and continue to be used today. Designed to be as eye-catching as possible, posters were pasted up on walls, trains and offices and made a huge impact through their powerful and often memorable designs and rousing language, calling on mateship and patriotism to save the Australian way of life. NGV curator Alisa Bunbury will speak about the propaganda posters on show at Follow The Flagin a floor talk about the persuasion of war posters on Sunday 17 May, 2pm in the NGV Australia exhibition space.

 

On Sunday 17 May, 2.45pm in the NGV Australia exhibition space NGV curator Elena Taylor will focus on the work of Australian artist Grace Cossington Smith who expressed her patriotism and her belief in civic duty through her magnificent war works. Cossington-Smith’s 1915 painting The Sock Knitter is one of the highlights of the Follow the Flag exhibition, along with three other paintings by Cossington-Smith. The subject of the painting is Cossington-Smith’s sister Madge, knitting socks for soldiers in World War I, and is a fine counterpoint to the usual narratives of masculine heroism in wartime.