The National New Australian Art
The announcement of ‘The National’ in 2017 was greeted with both elation and skepticism, considering its ambitions as a national survey of contemporary Australian art. In 2019, the second iteration of ‘The National’ is presented with a level of nuance and sophistication that precedes the first.
Like in the first iteration, the fifty eight artists selected to exhibit over the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Carriageworks reflect the complexity of nationhood and identity in diverse Australia today. However, this year, ‘The National’ differentiates itself from other biennales and major exhibitions through its meta-critical understanding of the inherent impossibility of such a
