Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting

Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting is the first large-scale exhibition to survey the complex dynamic between historical traces and speculative futures in Tom Nicholson’s drawing, sculptural and social practice. Nicholson (born 1973, Melbourne) initially trained in drawing, a tradition that continues to deeply inform his practice, both literally and metaphorically in drawing connections between his work and wider cultural histories, focussing on the relationship between actions and their traces, and the imagination of new, as-yet-unrealised cultural forms.

A concurrent motif that recurs in Nicholson’s work is the figure of the monument—an engagement with its weight, authority and persistence, and, on the other hand, its ability to be questioned, reconfigured and reimagined. Working with historical materials and the visual languages of art and politics, Nicholson creates possibilities for new kinds of monuments and picture-making, informed by listening, taking account and giving voice to others, with an insistence on acts of imagination, solidarity and justice.

The verticality of the monument is also set against the horizontality of landscape, which is referenced in the panoramic and cartographic form of much of Nicholson’s work. The figure of the landscape, and significance of land and country, bears an inevitable relationship to the roles of place and displacement, inscription and movement, exile and homecoming that course through the artist’s work.

This dialogue between the horizontality of landscape and the verticality of monuments is manifest at ACCA as intersecting strata of images, texts and cultural histories that make up Nicholson’s practice—informing the way we experience the exhibition itself.

Curated by ACCA’s Artistic Director Max Delany, the exhibition includes key projects by Nicholson dating from 1999 to the present, along with newly commissioned work. Accompanying the exhibition is a major new monograph published by Sternberg Press, Berlin, in association with ACCA, Melbourne and IMA, Brisbane. Tom Nicholson: Lines towards Another, edited by Amelia Barikin and Helen Hughes, includes an introduction by Aileen Burns, Max Delany and Johan Lundh, along with an ambitious collection of essays by writers, art historians and cultural theorists, including: Amelia Barikin, Tony Birch, Brigid Crone, Anthony Gardner, Helen Hughes, Annika Jaspers, Ryan Johnston, John Mateer, Minhea Mircan, Grace Samboh and Ann Stephen.

One of the most prominent Australian artists on the international stage, Tom Nicholson’s work has been exhibited in major international exhibitions including the Gwangju Biennale, 2018; Biennale of Sydney, 2006 and 2018; The National, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2017; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, UK, 2016; Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta, 2015; the Qalandiya International, West Bank and Gaza, 2012, 2014 and 2016; Shanghai Biennale 2012; among others. He is a Senior Lecturer at Monash Art Design and Architecture, Monash University, Melbourne, and is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

About ACCA
A leading producer of contemporary visual art in Australia, ACCA is an international centre for the artistic and wider communities to participate in a critically engaged culture that encourages curiosity and transformation. Connecting artists and audiences with the art of our times since 1983, ACCA is a place of spirited projection and meaningful reflection, and a champion of new art and bold ideas. ACCA is located at the heart of the Melbourne arts precinct in an iconic, award-winning building, with a focus on commissioning new works by Australian and international artists and curators.

Tom Nicholson: Public Meeting is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, Besen Family Foundation, Gordon Darling Foundation, and exhibition donors Bruce Parncutt AO and anonymous.