'mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’, a career survey of work by the acclaimed Brisbane-based Waanyi artist, opens tomorrow at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Presented in QAG’s central exhibition spaces and Watermall, the exhibition’s title is drawn from a poem in Waanyi language by the artist's son Otis Carmichael, translating to 'tomorrow the tree grows stronger'.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said the Gallery was proud to celebrate the formidable and resolute storytelling of Judy Watson, one of Queensland and Australia's most globally collected and exhibited artists.

‘Since the early 1980s, Watson has drawn powerful stories and profound truths from the Country of her matrilineal family and fashioned them into fluid and ethereal works of art,’ Mr Saines said.

Born in Mundubbera, south-east Queensland in 1959, Watson has exhibited internationally since 1983 in a creer including a breakthrough showing at the Venice Biennale alongside fellow Indigenous Australian artists Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Yvonne Koolmatrie in 1997.

Watson’s history with QAGOMA began with her work featured in the inaugural Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 1993. Her monumentally scaled bronze net sculpture tow row at the entrance to GOMA was commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Gallery of Modern Art in 2016.

This career-survey exhibition, curated by Katina Davidson, Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA, highlights Watson's deeply considered practice and the subjects that have resonated in her work across four decades: research of cultural objects in collecting institutions, feminism, truth-telling, ensuring the presence of Indigenous Australian stories and culture, and a commitment to the environment and country, particularly Waanyi Country via her mother’s matrilineal line.

Ms Davidson said ‘mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri’ had been several years in the making and was the most expansive survey of Judy Watson’s career to date.

‘The exhibition draws together 120 works including significant paintings, sculptures and installations, the largest collection of Watson’s video works ever shown, and artist books and prints dating from the early 1980s through to the present,’ Ms Davidson said.

‘Central to the exhibition are more than 35 of Watson's large unstretched canvases, impressively and seductively charged with her signature treatment of pigment combined with pastel.

‘These multi-layered unstretched canvases have been a mainstay of Watson's practice since the late 1980s. Pressed with intense fields of ochre, ultramarine and sanguine pigments, they speak of land and sea, and map memories and histories important to her identity as an Aboriginal woman,’ Ms Davidson said.

Among the many highlights in the exhibition are moreton bay rivers, australian temperature chart, freshwater mussels, net, spectrogram 2022, a major new painting acquired by QAGOMA through the 2023 Foundation Appeal; walama 2000 an installation of bronze termite mound and inverted dillybag sculptures on the QAG Watermall that appear to drift over the water's surface; the floor-based installation salt in the wound 2008/09 that painfully evokes Watson's great-great-grandmother's escape from a massacre at Lawn Hill Station; and sacred ground beating heart 1989 a work from the QAGOMA Collection that references the springs, rivers and creeks in Waanyi Country and draws on the enduring spiritual and life forces of ancestors in whose footsteps the artist treads.

Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch said the Miles Government was a proud supporter of QAGOMA and uniquely Queensland stories.

‘Inspiring exhibitions like this are important for elevating First Nations art, sharing Queensland stories and celebrating storytellers as key priorities of the Miles Government’s Creative Together 2020-2030 Strategy,’ Minister Enoch said.

‘As we prepare for a global audience in the lead up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, QAGOMA exhibitions help to strengthen Queensland’s reputation as a world-class cultural destination.’

Tomorrow on the opening day of the exhibition, from 10.30 to 11.30am, artist Judy Watson will give a tour of 'mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri’ in conversation with exhibition curator Katina Davidson. From 11.30 to 11.45am, Watson’s cousin Mark Isaacson will present a live whip demonstration. From 1.00 to 1.30pm, First Nations poets Otis Carmichael, Jazz Money and Ellen van Neerven will present a poetry tour within the heart of the exhibition, highlighting the power of language and culture.

'mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’ is accompanied by a major publication that includes contributions from exhibition curator Katina Davidson; stories transcribed from conversations with Watson's family members; a poetic response by Jazz Money; and an international perspective on Watson's work from Tarah Hogue, Curator, Indigenous Art, at Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada.

Partner and Chairman of Gadens Brisbane, Jim Demack saidGadens was thrilled to be the Major Partner of this exhibition by highly acclaimed Brisbane-based Waanyi artist, Judy Watson.

‘Gadens is a longstanding supporter of local Queensland artists and understands the importance of our First Nations people, their history and their contribution to our culture. We encourage everyone to visit QAGOMA and explore this celebration of Judy Watson’s career to date,’ Mr Demack said.

'mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri: Judy Watson’ is a free exhibition showing at the Queensland Art Gallery until 11 August 2024.

It is supported by Major Partner, Gadens. A full list of supporters is available online.

ENDS