I have a new job. In fact, it’s an old job. I’m returning to my former position as Director of the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. I’m excited to be back in Queensland and look forward to embarking on a new chapter for the Institute and myself. Thanks to the Board for this wonderful opportunity. I start Monday.
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Sous les Pavés, la Plage!
The revolution is earnest, serious stuff. But what happens when revolution and style are scrambled—when art, fashion, and popular culture look to politics for an edge, and when the revolution needs a look to advertise itself? I’m giving a talk about my 2018 City Gallery Wellington show Iconography of Revolt, which tracked the absorption of edgy revolutionary imagery and strategies into the mainstream. I’ll be reflecting on the implications for art and curating. The talk will take in Bolshevik sportswear and Black Panther propaganda, hacktivists and hijackers, stone throwers and balaclava wearers, Pussy Riot and the Ayatollah, Maoists in a Paris flat and a flower-power orgy in Death Valley, terrorists on the catwalk and university-recruiting videos. Come along. Saturday 3 December 2022, at 4pm, at Starkwhite Queenstown, 1–7 Earl Street. It’s part of the Curious programme of talks and events in Queenstown organised by my friend Kelly Carmichael.
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Stars Align
As fate would have it, I have curated three shows that are all open right now. Tia Ranginui: Gonville Gothic at Te Uru, Titirangi, a tweaked version of our 2020 show at City Gallery Wellington (until 26 February 2023); Lucien Rizos: Everything, at the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington (until 18 December); and Divergent: New Photography Aotearoa with Ranginui, Telly Tuita, and Cao Xun, at The Renshaws, Brisbane (until 8 December). There has already been some coverage. John Hurrell reviewed Gonville Gothic for EyeContact here; Eva Corlett previewed Everything in the Guardian here, Thomasin Sleigh reviewed it in the Dominion Post here, and Kim Hill interviewed Rizos on RNZ here; and Hamish Sawyer profiled Divergent for Lemonade here.
[IMAGE: Cao Xun Butts Up 2020]
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Who Am I?
I am a contemporary-art curator and writer, and Director of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. I have held curatorial posts at Wellington’s National Art Gallery, New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, and, most recently, City Gallery Wellington, and directed Auckland’s Artspace. My shows include Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art for Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (1992); Action Replay: Post-Object Art for Artspace, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, and Auckland Art Gallery (1998); and Mixed-Up Childhood for Auckland Art Gallery (2005). My City Gallery shows include Yvonne Todd: Creamy Psychology (2014), Julian Dashper & Friends (2015), Francis Upritchard: Jealous Saboteurs (2016), Colin McCahon: On Going Out with the Tide (2017), John Stezaker: Lost World (2017), This Is New Zealand (2018), Iconography of Revolt (2018), Semiconductor: The Technological Sublime (2019), Oracles (2020), Zac Langdon-Pole: Containing Multitudes (2020), and Judy Millar: Action Movie (2021). I curated New Zealand representation for Brisbane’s Asia-Pacific Triennial in 1999, the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2002, and the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2015. I am co-publisher of the imprint Bouncy Castle.
Contact
BouncyCastleLeonard@gmail.com
+61 452252414
This Website
I made this website to offer easy access to my writings. Texts have been edited and tweaked. Where I’ve found mistakes, I’ve corrected them.
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