Brisbane’s Gallery of Children’s Art (GoCA) launches its inaugural exhibition Starting Young at 17 Manning Street South Brisbane today until 18 August.
Starting Young features recent work by leading contemporary Australian artists Vernon Ah Kee, Gordon Bennett, Ross Manning, Patricia Piccinini, Luke Roberts, Madonna Staunton and Judy Watson alongside rare examples of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, costume and photography created by these individuals in childhood.
Developed by GoCA, in collaboration with leading Queensland academic Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM and Milani Gallery, Starting Young focuses on the inception of creativity and how a passion for art originates early in a child’s development and can flourish through to adulthood.
Curator of the exhibition Dr Barbara Piscitelli AM said ‘Starting Young’ celebrated the early creative processes of seven children who had gone on to be leading Australian artists working today. “Every artist featured in this exhibition had a definite early starting point for their creative practice,” Dr Piscitelli said. “The exhibition includes many examples of artworks created by these artists in childhood that exist as early indicators of ‘first ideas’ and reflect these creatives setting off on their various artistic journeys. “Placed alongside the mature contemporary works, the artworks created in childhood demonstrate original thinking to communicate important ideas and they provoke a conversation about the value of art in the lives of children. It is striking to see the connections and parallels – how the childhood works connect to the ideas and ongoing concerns of these artists’ in their contemporary practice today.”
The artists featuring in the first exhibition have different backgrounds, degrees, family lives, mediums, style, reputations, skills and careers yet these all stemmed from the universal time of childhood and adolescent. This exhibition gives Brisbane art lovers and creators alike the chance to track an artists improvements and style change.
The gallery has opened to the public and is sure to be a inspiring day out.
Readers also enjoyed this story about the Paniyiri projection.
