Griffith University Art Museum is proud to present a museum survey of distinguished contemporary Australian artist Davida Allen from 3 May – 30 June 2018.
Davida Allen: In the Moment encompasses over 40 works from the artist’s five-decade practice, and will include a suite of large-scale drawings from 1982 which have never been shown before. The exhibition includes well known works from Allen’s seminal series ‘Death of My Father’ and ‘Sam Neill Suite’, and the Archibald Prize-winning portrait of her father-in- law, Dr John Shera.
“As a woman artist, my paintings are the personal response to being the ‘Daughter of’, ‘The Wife of’, ‘The Mother of’, ‘The Grandmother of’” says Allen. “No matter how many domestic commitments, no matter how little time in a day, no matter what responsibilities, the need to paint is constant.”
Exhibition curator and Director of Griffith University Art Museum Angela Goddard said: “Davida Allen is one of Queensland’s favourite contemporary painters, admired as much for her expressive style as her brutally honest depictions of domestic life.” Familial relationships and Allen’s experience of motherhood are constant themes throughout her practice, something the artist doesn’t expect will change.
“All my paintings could be titled ‘My Life Now’. Painting is my method of surviving—grief, love, lust, angst, joy, excitement. All the nouns of emotion” says Allen. “Now, at 66 years of age with eight grandchildren to lavish my attention on, time and domestic commitments and responsibilities are still in the foreground of my life. But the need to paint is as strong as ever.”
There will be a range of public programs presented in conjunction with the exhibition. The Opening Night event will be held May 2 at 6pm in the Art Museum. The following night, Thursday May 3 at 6pm, there will be a special screening of Davida Allen’s 1999 feature film Feeling Sexy starring Susie Porter, followed by a Q&A with the artist and Glenys Rowe, the film’s producer.
Accompanying the exhibition is a new publication with contributions by Davida Allen, Louise Martin-Chew and Angela Goddard.
Griffith University Art Museum acknowledges the generosity of Philip Bacon AM and Exhibition Partners Lock, Stock and Barrel, Shut the Gate Wines and Solver Paints.
Davida Allen: In the Moment Exhibition
3 May — 30 June 2018
Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am – 4 pm.
Griffith University Art Museum, South Bank
www.griffith.edu.au
