21st Century: Art in the First Decade

This summer 2010–11, to mark the end of the first decade of this millennium, the Gallery presents '21st Century: Art in the First Decade'.

This major exhibition project will occupy the entire GoMA building and focus exclusively on works created and acquired between 2000 and 2010. It will draw on the Gallery’s extensive contemporary collections and also feature outstanding new commissions and a select group of loans from Australian and international lenders. The exhibition will be broad in its geographic and generational scope including over 200 works by more than 140 artists from over 40 countries.

Over the past decade, we have seen the way technological, political and environmental issues have direct global effects and how these are reflected in contemporary art. '21st Century' will showcase current directions in artistic practice as well as examine the role of the art museum in these changing times.

For ‘21st Century’, the Children’s Art Centre presents interactive art works and projects created by exhibiting artists especially for children and families. Spanning both levels of the Children’s Art Centre and beyond, the projects will encourage children to explore and discover the fresh and imaginative ways that international artists consider their world in the twenty-first century. Focusing on new technologies and interactive design, the artist projects presented will continue the Children’s Art Centre’s ground breaking program of contemporary art for contemporary kids.

As an expanded platform for the '21st Century' exhibition, a blog has been created as a source book of reference material and content provided by artists in the exhibition. Find out more at www.21Cblog.com.

A major publication accompanying the exhibition will feature critical texts by a range of Australian and international writers and curators. 21st Century: Art in the First Decade will be available from the Gallery Store and online.