didjeridu and the sound of Australia
13 April 2019 – 7 July 2019
Yidaki: didjeridu and the sound of Australia is an immersive and elegantly designed touring exhibition from South Australia Museum that illustrates the importance of yidaki in Aboriginal life and culture.
15 December 2018 to 28 April 2019
Spiders featured fascinating exhibits and interactive displays, along with live spiders and nearly 200 additional specimens to inspire curiosity about the natural world.
EX!T ART
3 March - 13 May 2018
EX!T ART is a celebration of the talents and creativity of the next generation of artists and designers, presenting the very best contemporary art and design from Northern Territory Stage 2 students.
MIDAWARR | HARVEST
4 August 2018 to 3 March 2019
A touring exhibition from the National Museum of Australia. Midawarr | Harvest gives visitors an insight into the special relationship between these two artists, and ancient Yolŋu knowledge of sustainable living.
2 June 2018 to 13 January 2019
Displaying natural science specimens, history and culture objects and artworks from MAGNT’s nationally and internationally significant collections.
11 August - 11 November 2018
The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) is Australia’s longest running and most prestigious Indigenous art award. The aim is to recognise the important contribution made by Indigenous artists from regional and urban areas throughout Australia, working in both traditional and contemporary media. In partnership with Telstra, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) delivers this unique event that showcases the best in Indigenous art from across Australia.
25 March - 15 July 2018
Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial brings the works of 30 contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across the country into the national spotlight.
3 February - 1 July 2018
The third exhibition in a series of solo artist shows celebrating the work of Northern Territory artists, Franck Gohier: a thousand miles from everywhere places the artist not only in a Darwin context, but a national one. This survey exhibition looks at Gohier's practice spanning three decades. The exhibition features work from the from the artist's major themes including: the global influence of Pop Art and capitalism, the bombing of Darwin in World War II, Cyclone Tracy, and Darwin the city itself as a subject.
3 March - 13 May 2018
Exit Art is a celebration of the talents and creativity of the next generation, presenting the very best contemporary art and design from Northern Territory Year 12 students.
16 September 2017 - 18 February 2018
A Ticket to Paradise? delves into the rich diversity of the nation's migrants and their experiences, and looks at the Australian government’s ambitious promotional campaigns following World War II. Campaigns which presented a Utopian view of Australia as a welcoming country full of opportunity, in an endeavour to encourage mass migration.
TJUNGUṈUTJA
1 July 2017 - 18 February 2018
Tjunguṉutja will reveal the largest and most important collection of early Papunya paintings in the world. Comprising of over 130 paintings, rare cultural artefacts and historical ephemera, this startling exhibition will provide an extraordinary insight into the genesis of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement.
9 September 2017 - 14 January 2018
The photographs of Otto Tschirn give a remarkable insight into the social world of the changing Central Australian frontier during the early years of the 20th century.
11 August - 26 November 2017
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) is Australia’s longest running and most prestigious Indigenous art award. The aim is to recognise the important contribution made by Indigenous artists from regional and urban areas throughout Australia, working in both traditional and contemporary media.
17 June - 27 August 2017
Undiscovered provides a contemporary Indigenous perspective of European settlement in Australia, a land already populated by its original people. Cook's artworks shift roles and perspectives around the notion of European ‘discovery’ of Australia, reflecting upon our habitual ways of thinking and seeing our history.
HOT!
Highlights from the MAGNT art collection
29 Oct 2016 - 13 Aug 2017
Hot! showcases works from MAGNT's Australian art collection by some of the country's hottest artists, past and present.
PIKSA NIUGINI
Photographs by Stephen Dupont
8 April -18 June 2017
Showcasing acclaimed Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont’s journeys through Papua New Guinea’s most important cultural and political zones: the Highlands, Sepik, Bougainville and the capital city Port Moresby. This remarkable body of work captures the human spirit of the people of PNG, one of the world’s last truly wild and unique frontiers.
EX!T ART
2016 NT Year 12 student exhibition
11 Feb - 4 Jun 2017
Exit Art is a celebration of the talents and creativity of the next generation, presenting the very best contemporary art and design from Northern Territory Year 12 students. Developed in partnership with the Northern Territory Department of Education, Exit Art reflects the diversity of NT student practice; expressing universal themes of identity, place and environment.
Landscape re-imagined
26 Nov 2016 - 19 Mar 2017
This exhibition brings into focus the contrasting insights and cultural imperatives, both Indigenous (Country) and non-Indigenous (Western), that have given shape and substance to our evolving attitudes and perceptions of the national landscape over the past 25 years.
A Perc Tucker Gallery touring exhibition
DAVID COLLINS
From the street
1 Oct 2016 - 29 Jan 2017
A unique large scale street art mural has been painted inside MAGNT! Darwin artist David Collins challenges our perception of what is possible in the gallery space by producing a large-scale, multi-layered mural that incorporates a variety of street art techniques. Over the life of this exhibition the gallery wall will become an ever-changing interface for collaboration between Collins, fellow street artists and the public.
Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
7 August 2016 - 30 October 2016
MAGNT has hosted the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) since 1984.
The Award recognises the important contribution made by Indigenous artists from regional and urban areas throughout Australia, working in both traditional and contemporary media.
The year’s best political cartoons 2015
23 July 2016 - 25 Sept 2016
Territorians love a bit of political satire. And 2015 was an exceptional year for the nations cartoonists to poke fun at our politicians. Eating onions, helicopters and a leadership spill. But the year also highlighted the dangers of political cartooning, as witnessed by the Charlie Hebdo attacks on 7 January 2015. From the halls of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, this exhibition celebrated the role of satire and political cartoonists in Australia.
The nature of paper
11 March 2016 - 21 Aug 2016
Jobling sources and harvests plants from across the Top End of Australia, transforming these natural materials into tactile and sensual installations and imagery. Darwin-based artist Winsome Jobling is a paper-maker of international standing.
SWEETHEART ESCAPES!
1 May - 29 May 2016
Sweetheart's home had a face lift so while that work went ahead we moved him to the Ken Waters Gallery. Sweetheart's skeleton, which has been in storage for the past 17 years, joined this temporary exhibition.
NATSIAA 2015
Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
7 August 2015 - 1 November 2015
MAGNT has hosted the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) since 1984. It recognises the important contribution made by Indigenous artists from regional and urban areas throughout Australia, working in both traditional and contemporary media. It is an important showcase for both established and emerging artists and is regarded as one of the premier national events in the Australian Indigenous art calendar.
BEN QUILTY
After Afghanistan
4 July 2015 - 4 October 2015
After spending over three weeks talking to Australian servicemen and women in Afghanistan, Ben Quilty felt an overwhelming need to tell their stories. He went there in October 2011 as an official war artist, commissioned by the Australian War Memorial and attached to the Australian Defence Force. Through portraits, figurative subjects, still lifes and landscapes Quilty examines ideas of masculinity, national identity, and mortality relating these to to his own personal experiences. An Australian War Memorial touring exhibition.
Mimicry in the Underwater World
11 July 2015 - 20 September 2015
An octopus that looks like a stingray? A crab that looks like a fish? It is often said that mimicry is the ultimate form of flattery. But in the animal world it can mean survival. Mimicry is when one species copies another, changes its appearance, smell or behaviour to disguise itself or gain advantage - usually to avoid being eaten. This exhibition featured spectacular images of mimics and their models from world-renowned undersea photographer Roger Steene.
Legendary covers of the NT News
2 May - 12 July 2015
From talking cats to nude bank robbers, it’s the newspaper that covers it all. Servicing a population about one-third of the average size of a Sydney suburb, the NT News has grown into one of the quirkiest and most recognisable news brands in Australia, largely due to its dedication to the 3 Cs – crocs, cyclones and crime. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This exhibition featured over 100 legendary front pages that disturb and delight.
EXIT ART
Art by year 12 students in the Northern Territory
20 February - 21 June 2015
Exit Art is the annual survey of Year 12 students of the Northern Territoy. Contemporary themes and concerns like the self, family, community and the environment were explored through this exhibtion.
Exit Art is a partnership with the Northern Territory Department of Education.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Daumier
26 March - 8 June 2015
This exhibition examined the major contribution to French art made by three key figures: Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808–1879), Edgar Degas (1834–1917) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901). A generation apart, each was a consummate draughtsman whose innovative compositions and embrace of modern subject matter played a significant role in artistic developments in France over the nineteenth century.
A National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition.
Evolution: A Disrespective
15 November - 29 March 2015
This was a retrospective of the most disrespectful kind. It presented 20 years of wicked and irreverent work by Darwin artist Rob Brown. Brown’s extraordinary imagination warps culture, history and religion to create confronting and humorous observations on the world around him.
On tour from the Australian Museum
21 June - 22 February 2015
Marvel at the delicate beauties that live in all marine habitats of the world’s oceans. This intriguing photographic exhibition displayed 11 extraordinary shots of underwater worms and other sea creatures, taken by professional underwater photographers and research scientists.
The prints of Jessie Traill
6 December - 1 February 2015
This eagerly awaited retrospective celebrated the artistic achievements of the pioneering female printmaker Jessie Traill, and reasserted her supremacy as one of the great Australian artists of the 20th Century. Featuring over 80 works drawn entirely from the National Gallery of Australia, the prints combine her poetic sensitivity with an unerring eye for line and form.
DANIE MELLOR
Exotic Lies Sacred Ties
30 August - 16 November 2014
This was the first major survey of more than a decade of Mellor's work. Inspired by his Indigenous heritage, Mellor toys with Australia's shared and contested histories, by layering British imagery with scenes from traditional Indigenous culture in Australia.
Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award
8 August - 26 October 2014
The 2014 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards showcased the finest in traditional and contemporary Indigenous art. It featured the six winners and 65 finalists from around Australia.
