Call for gay activist’s works
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) will open David McDiarmid: Don’t Forget to Remember, a retrospective of work by the well-known Australian artist and gay activist, in September 2012.
In the lead-up to the exhibition, NGV is seeking any potential ‘hidden treasures’ by the artist in the care of private collectors, for loan to the show.
Curated by Kelly Gellatly, Curator of Contemporary Art at NGV, and guest curator Dr Sally Gray, the exhibition will display over 120 works dating from the 1970s to the ‘90s, including paintings, collages, prints, photographs, books and fashion and textiles.
“David McDiarmid was a much-loved and well known artist,” Gellatly said.
“We are really looking forward to building this exhibition with the people who love McDiarmid’s work and we are very excited to be making this call-out in the hope of connecting with those supporters.”
The artist’s idiosyncratic, highly personal and, at times, confessional work is described as highlighting the redefinition and deconstruction of identities – “from camp to gay to queer” – drawing on the experiences of his life in Melbourne, Sydney and New York.
The exhibition will also reveal McDiarmid’s artistic and grassroots political response to the impact of HIV/AIDS during the 1980s and beyond, for which he is best known internationally.
INFO: If you have works by David McDiarmid or important information relating to his life and career, you can email [email protected] or contact Emma Mayall on 03 8620 2290.
