NEWS
Solo survey exhibition The Mosman Years at Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Exhibition dates: 11 November 2023 – 4 February 2024
Imants Tillers: The Mosman Years opens at Mosman Art Gallery on 11 November 2023. The exhibition explores the pivotal moment in the 1980s when Tillers began creating large-scale canvasboard paintings while living in a small Federation duplex in Mosman. The Mosman Years features 25 works from the last four decades, and will include the first canvasboard work Tillers ever created, Suppressed Imagery 1981.
Imants Tillers wins Alumni Award for Cultural Contribution
24 October 2023
The University of Sydney has announced Imants Tillers as the recipient of the prestigious Alumni Award for Cultural Contribution for 2023. The award recognises alumni who achieve excellence in arts, culture and creative sectors and/or whose efforts promote the understanding and value of cultural diversity.
“Imants Tillers’ work is instantly recognisable in the Australian cultural landscape. Stretched across an ever-expanding assembly of canvasboards numbered one to infinity, known collectively as ‘The Book of Power’, his work deals in quotation and appropriation, drawing on a vast array of sources to tackle themes of authorial originality, the reproduction and distribution of images, diaspora and displacement, landscape and place, and metaphysics.” @universityofsydney
“Tillers’ great achievement has been to reconceive what Australian art is and does,” writes Professor Ian McLean, Head of Art History and Curatorship at the University of Melbourne, citing Imants' responsiveness to the “multicultural and globalising currents that shaped the national consciousness from the latter 1960s”
Remembering the unknown
Exhibition dates: 27 October – 25 November 2023
A new solo show, Remembering the unknown, opens at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery on Friday 27 October 2023.
The exhibition includes 10 paintings from Tillers’ new series, Critical Forests, all based on photographs from Gerhard Richter’s artist book Wald 2008.
For more information, please contact Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
Image: Imants Tillers, Critical Forests 2, 2022, synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 32 canvasboards, nos. 112446–112477, 204 x 143 cm
New solo exhibition After de Chirico to open at Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, on Saturday 27 May 2023
Exhibition dates: 27 May – 1 July 2023
After de Chirico features a suite of 13 paintings from Tillers’ 1990 series A Life of Blank based on Giorgio de Chirico’s Calligrammes as well as three large versions of de Chirico’s celebrated metaphysical painting, The Disquieting Muses 1916–18.
Tillers says: “de Chirico himself painted at least 18 versions of his iconic image – very exact variations – at different moments throughout his life to the widespread consternation and outrage of his audiences. In the twenty-first century I have painted four versions so far, three of which are in this current exhibition.”
Exhibition opening and Credo book launch
Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
Saturday 27 May, 3pm–5pm
Including an In Conversation with Imants Tillers, Ian McLean and Clare Fuery-Jones.
28 November 2022
Forthcoming publication: Credo
Credo brings together essays from different stages in Imants Tillers’ career, from Locality Fails to Metafisica Australe and Journey to Nowhere, and closes with an essay written especially for the collection, The Sources, on the artists and writers he has drawn on in his art. These essays express an aesthetic credo which has larger implications for both literature and art created out of the experience of migration.
192 pages
Paperback, 21 x 14.8 cm
Published December 2022
ISBN 9781922725332
Pre-order at Giramondo Publishing
25 February 2022
The Call from Papunya in the Tate Collection
The Call from Papunya 2018 has been acquired by Tate, London. The painting is one of 16 collaborative works completed by Michael Nelson Jagamara and Imants Tillers over the past two decades.
The central element in The Call from Papunya is Possum Love Story – a tale of forbidden love which has been told for thousands of years in Michael Nelson’s Warlpiri tradition. It is one of the five stories depicted in his iconic painting Five Dreamings (1984).
Tillers has expanded the central image with line-work referencing both the Papunya artist Kenny Williams and the Italian Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. Fragments of philosophy and poetry have also been incorporated.
The painting’s title refers to Jagamara’s habit of calling Brisbane daily (and occasionally Cooma) on the public telephone at Papunya general store, to chat about his work, enquire about projects, update his needs for food shopping or simply give a weather report.
This is the first work by Michael Nelson to be acquired by Tate and the second work by Imants to be acquired, following the acquisition of ‘Kangaroo Blank’ (1988) in 2018.
31 January 2022
Terra negata in ES_TEXT at the Latvian National Museum of Art
Tillers’ major 9 metre painting Terra negata, first exhibited at the 2006 Biennale of Sydney, will be included in the survey exhibition ES_TEXT curated by Elita Ansone and Leonards Laganovskis at the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga.
Exhibition dates: 4 February – 1 May 2022. Further information at lnmm.lv
Saturday 4 December 2021
Imants Tillers and Terry Smith
In Conversation
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Art historian and art critic, Terry Smith together with artist, Imants Tillers will be in conversation, discussing how questions of provincialism, conceptualism, Indigeneity, contemporaneity, diaspora, and Australian art history have arisen as constant themes in both of their practices.
As numbers are limited, RSVP is essential.
3 November 2021
As Soon As Tomorrow at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Imants Tillers will open a new solo exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney on Friday 26 November. Titled As soon as tomorrow, the show will continue until 18 December.
Image: Imants Tillers, Nature Speaks: HJ, 2021, synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 16 canvasboards, nos. 112574–112589.
7 July 2021
Fierce Paradise at Bett Gallery
New solo exhibition Fierce Paradise to open at Bett Gallery, Hobart on Friday 30 July. Exhibition continues until Saturday 21 August 2021.
Image: Imants Tillers, Blossoming Orchard, 2021, synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 32 canvasboards, nos. 111686–111717, 203.2 x 142.2 cm.
16 July 2020
New auction record for Tillers
Waterfall (after Williams), 2011 sold at Deutscher and Hackett’s 15 July auction of Important Australian and International Fine Art for a record $68,000 (hammer price). The previous auction record for Tillers was $55,200 for the earlier work La Citta da Riga, 1988.
27 August 2019
Art After Hours at the Art Gallery of NSW
Unwrapping 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects
Join Imants Tillers, Mike Parr and Ken Unsworth at the Art Gallery of NSW for a discussion of John Kaldor’s eighth public art project: An Australian Accent at PS1, New York in 1984, and the impact it had on their careers.
Wednesday 18 September from 6:30pm. The Gallery, and the exhibition Making Art Public: 50 Years of Kaldor Public Art Projects will be open until 9:30pm
26 August 2019
The Path Itself
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is delighted to present new works by Imants Tillers in The Path Itself, which will coincide with the Gallery’s presentation at Sydney Contemporary 2019. The Path Itself is the artist's first solo exhibition in Sydney following his major retrospective 'Journey in Nowhere' at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga in 2018.
Exhibition dates: 5–28 SEP 2019
Making art public: 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Exhibition dates: 7 SEP 2019–16 FEB 2020
30 July 2019
MELBOURNE PREMIERE of Thrown into the World
TUESDAY AUGUST 6, 2019 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Screening + Q&A)
Please join us for the Melbourne premiere of the feature-length documentary Thrown into the World, directed by Antra Cilinska of Juris Podnieks Studio, Riga, Latvia. First screened in Riga in 2018, Thrown into the World offers unique insight into Imants Tillers’ creative process and cross-cultural identity. The screening will be followed by a half hour discussion with Imants Tillers chaired by Ian Mclean. For a preview of the film, click here.
Presented by Screening Ideas at Federation Hall, 17 Grant St, VCA Southbank Campus. This event is free but bookings are required. Enquiries: caillardd@unimelb.edu.au
2 May 2019
Finalist in the 2019 Archibald Prize at Art Gallery of NSW
Exhibition dates: 11 MAY – 8 SEP 2019
Imants Tillers’ portrait of Rugby League legend Greg Inglis has been selected for 2019 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW. Tillers writes that: ‘Every human being is the greatest work of art ever created. To witness Greg Inglis in full flight is to see poetry in motion. Thou majestic!…there is far more to Greg Inglis than being an elite Indigenous athlete. He is a hero and role model to Indigenous communities all around Australia, and a community leader of enormous influence.’
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibitions commence on 11 May 2019 and continue until 8 September 2019 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
8 APRIL 2019
Juror for the sixth Purvītis Prize, Riga
Imants Tillers is on the panel of judges for the sixth Purvītis Prize – Latvia’s most prestigious award for contemporary art. Curated by Daiga Rudzaate, the Purvītis prize showcases the work of eight shortlisted artists in a major exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art from 23 March - 9 June, with the winner announced on Friday 12 April.
Fellow jurors are Udo Kittelmann, director of the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Milena Orlova, editor-in-chief of The Art Newspaper Russia, Galila Barzilai Hollander, art collector based in Brussels, Ursula Krinzinger, director of the Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Māra Lāce, director of the Latvian National Museum of Art and Jānis Zuzāns, patron of the Purvītis Prize and chairman of the board at SIA Alfor.
27 March 2019
Art | Basel Hong Kong
Two new large-scale canvasboard paintings will be premiered at Art | Basel Hong Kong on Wednesday 27 April. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is presenting Amygdala Hijack and The Siege at Booth 1C07 from 27 - 31 March 2019.
Amygdala Hijack is based on Malcom Morley’s The Ultimate Anxiety 1978, which depicts a scene of Venice weirdly interrupted by a freight train. The Siege is based on Morely’s Piazza d'Italia with French Knights, 2017, which in turn quotes from the work of the metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico.
Art | Basel Hong Kong, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery Booth 1C07
Wednesday 27 – Sunday 31 March 2019
18 November 2018
Award of Honour, Kulturas Fonda
On Sunday 18 November 2018 – the Centenary of Latvian Independence – Imants Tillers received the Award of Honour, Kulturas Fonda from the World Association of Free Latvians for his “contribution to the Visual Arts and for honouring Latvia’s unique cultural traditions and disseminating them throughout the world.”
21 November 2018
Book Launch and Film Screening at the MCA, Sydney
Join us for the Australian premiere of the documentary Thrown into the World, followed by the launch of the publication Imants Tillers: Journey to Nowhere.
5:30pm for a 5:45pm screening, Level 2, Veolia Lecture Theatre,
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
Places are limited. Please RSVP here.
20/20: Celebrating 20 years with 20 new portrait commissions
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
20 OCT 2018 - 10 FEB 2019
The 64 canvasboard panel painting Study of Louis Nowra, 2018 was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra on Thursday 19 October. The painting will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the 20/20 exhibition until 10 February 2019.
1 September 2018
Joy Knows No Mercy at Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
Exhibition dates: 4 SEP–6 OCT 2018
Imants Tillers’ latest exhibition with Arc One Gallery Joy Knows No Mercy, is presented across two locations: ARC ONE Gallery (4 September – 6 October) and Sydney Contemporary (13 – 16 September). In this significant exhibition Tillers employs his signature canvasboards to form a series of profound and expansive tableaux. The monumental Fiction of Place (2018) is the centrepiece of the exhibition. It is the culmination of the artist’s Metafisica Australe series, an important chapter that explores the remarkable aesthetic connection between certain aspects of contemporary Western Desert paintingand European art. Read the Press Release here.
1 September 2018
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair | B04
Exhibition dates: 12–16 SEP 2018
Arc One Gallery will present four new works by Imants Tillers at Stand B04, including the major painting Fiction of Place, 2018 on 132 canvasboards (280 x 427 cm), which draws on Francesco Guardi's painting of Venice in The Louvre, and the work of Papunya Tula artist Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa.
1 August 2018
Imants Tillers is interviewed by Eddie Ayres for The Hub on Art, ABC Radio National
Imants Tillers and Eddie Ayres discuss Tillers' Latvian roots and the retrospective exhibition Journey to Nowhere at the Latvian National Museum of Art. Antra Cilinska also speaks to Eddie from Latvia about the new documentary she directed on Tillers' life and works Thrown into the World. Listen online here.
15 July 2018
Imants Tillers: The Philosophy of Doubt at the Hamilton Gallery, curated by Paul Greenaway
Exhibition dates: 21 JUL - 12 AUG 2018
The Philosophy of Doubt tours to the Hamilton Gallery in Victoria. In this exhibition Tillers looks for common ground between aspects of contemporary Western Desert art and the metaphysical paintings of 20th century Italian master, Giorgio de Chirico.
Installation view of Imants Tillers: Journey to Nowhere
6 July 2018
Imants Tillers: Journey to Nowhere opens at the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga
Exhibition dates: 6 JUL – 30 SEP 2018
The largest exhibition of Tillers' work to-date opened at the Latvian National Museum of Art on Friday 6 July. The opening celebration included performances of two pieces of music by composer Rosalind Page: Being & Time for piano, cello and clarinet, performed by Juris Zvikovs, Eriks Kirsfelds and Egils Sefers and Horizon performed by the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Kaspars Putnins. View the exhibition installation images here.
Imants Tillers and Michael Nelson Jagamara, The Call from Papunya, 2018
1 May 2018
Imants Tillers and Michael Nelson Jagamara
The Call From Papunya
Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
Exhibition dates: 11 MAY – 16 JUN 2018
An exhibition of collaborative works by Michael Nelson Jagamara and Imants Tillers to coincide with the unveiling of QAGOMA's proposed acquisition, Metafisica Australe, 2017. For more information, please contact Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane.
3 April 2018
Kangaroo Blank 1988 is jointly acquired by TATE Modern, London and the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney
"No longer invisible: Bringing Australian Art to the TATE Modern", Sydney Morning Herald, 3 April 2018.
Photo credit Janie Barrett.
10 April 2018
Imants Tillers: From the Studio
The University Gallery, Newcastle
Exhibition dates: 18 APR – 26 MAY 2018
An exhibition of 10 large-scale works from the studio collection. The show spans four decades of Tillers career, from the 1980s to the present, and traces the developments, continuities and cumulative power of The Canvasboard System. For more information see the University Gallery, at the University of Newcastle.
1 February 2018
Imants Tillers: Journey to Nowhere
Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga
Exhibition dates: 6 JUL–30 SEP 2018
A major retrospective exhibition will be held at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga from 6 July - 30 September 2018 to coincide with the centenary of Latvian independence in 1918. Curated by Elita Ansone, Journey to Nowhere will include 70 works spanning more than four decades from the 1970s to the present. More information.
Imants Tillers, In Praise of Doubt, 2017
25 January 2018
Imants Tillers: The Philosophy of Doubt, Riddoch Art Gallery, Mount Gambier
Curated by Paul Greenaway
Exhibition dates: 9 FEB – 18 MAR 2018
Curated by Paul Greenaway, the works in Philosophy of Doubt span the last ten years of Tillers' practice. The exhibition is on display at the Riddoch Art Gallery, Mount Gambia, from 9 Feb – 18 Mar, 2018.