Ben Apfelbaum

PERSPECTIVES ON PLACE @ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Angela Tiatia – Lick
David Malangi Daymirrigu – In The Artists Room
Emily Floyd – The Problem Is The Solution
Janet Fieldhouse – Hybrid Series #6
Megan Cope – ‘Foundations III’
Fiona Foley – Badtjala Woman
Minnie Manarrdjala – Bamgora

The Museum Of Contemporary Art (MCA) has just opened an exhibition which is its third major presentation of the Museum’s collection. This free exhibition features over sixty works drawn from the MCA Collection. 

The exhibition features thirty eight Australian artists who work across a range of media and showcase the rich diversity of contemporary Australian art. 

MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, said, “The MCA holds one of the most significant collections of contemporary art in the country. With more than 4,500 works, our Collection provides an important record of contemporary Australian art”.

A significant number of the works, around a third, are on display for the first time. 

The new permanent Collection display will be rehung around a new concept curated by MCA Senior Curator, Collections, Anneke Jaspers. 

The exhibition brings together artworks that explore the social and physical aspects of place, as well as the global flows that shape how we inhabit the world. 

Also included in the Collection will be a new presentation of the Artist Room Series bringing together bark paintings by the late David Malangi Daymirringu, a senior elder of the Manharrngu people of Central Arnhem Land.

The Collection features twelve bark paintings made between the mid 1960’s and early 1970’s. These works form part of the MCA’s Arnott’s Collection which was gifted to the MCA in 1993 by Arnott Biscuit’s Limited and comprises over 260 bark paintings by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. 

www.mca.com.au

Featured image ; Rosemary Laing ‘Brumby Mound #5. All photos by Ben Apfelbaum 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.