Australian Artists Juan Davila and Richard Bell to be Included in APT8

Australian artists Juan Davila and Richard Bell are among the first artists to be selected for inclusion in 'The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT8) to be held at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) from November 21, 2015 to April 10, 2016.

The Asia Pacific Triennial is the only exhibition series of the 160 biennials and triennials currently staged worldwide to focus on the contemporary art of Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

Announcing the first group of curatorial selections, QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said APT8 would feature around 75 emerging and established artists, filmmakers and performers from more than 25 countries.

'APT8 will reflect the vigour of a number of new and expanding creative centres throughout Asia and the Pacific.

'For the first time, artists from Mongolia, Nepal and Solomon Islands will be included in the APT,' Mr Saines said.

Four exciting Mongolian painters, who work in the highly distinctive Mongol zurag style, will have work featured in the APT, their first exhibition in Australia.

'The exhibition will have an emphasis on performance, with live actions, video and kinetic art, as well as figurative painting and sculpture. Many of the artists included explore how the human form is used to express cultural, social and political ideas at a time of enormous change,' Mr Saines said.

Among the special focuses in APT8 will be Australia's first major display of Indian indigenous art and a contemporary performance project. 'Yumi Danis (We Dance)' will be co-curated with ni–Vanuatu author and musician Marcel Meltherorong, and is being developed with Kanak artist Nicolas Molé and 15 Melanesian performers who were recently involved in a creative exchange in Ambrym, Vanuatu.

In addition to the exhibition across both Galleries, APT8 will feature APT Live, an ongoing program of artist performance events; APT Talk, a major conference as part of the opening weekend program; an extensive cinema program; and Kids' APT, QAGOMA's ground breaking series of curated interactive artist projects for children.

Arts Minister Ian Walker said the APT since its inception in 1993, had exhibited about 550 artists from more than 40 countries, and attracted more than 2.4 million visitors, a third of whom visit from interstate and overseas.

'The previous event in 2012-2013 contributed $26.8 million and 83,000 event-related visitor nights to Queensland's tourism economy.

'It's the driver of the gallery's engagement with the region and enables the development of QAGOMA's internationally significant collection of almost 2000 works of Asian and Pacific contemporary art,' Mr Walker said.

The first artists to be confirmed for inclusion in APT8 are:

The Queensland Government is Founding Sponsor of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art series. The series is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments. For more information visit http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/apt