EXHIBITIONS

Mythology & Reality: Contemporary Aboriginal
Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection

Heide Museum of Modern Art
2 October 2004 - 30 January 2005
"Mythology and Reality, Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection has come home, to Melbourne, and appropriately, to Heide Museum of Modern Art. Gabrielle Pizzi is well known for her ground-breaking interest in Australian Aboriginal art, a passion that commenced with personal collecting in the late 1970s and evolved into the establishment of her gallery in 1987 to represent Indigenous artists' work, especially by Papunya Tula artists. Gabrielle Pizzi's gallery has been responsible for bringing Aboriginal art not only to Melburnians but also to international audiences through curated exhibitions, publications and art fairs. Accessibility to and understanding of Aboriginal art has been enabled by Pizzi's ability to work with European and Asian institutions and curate exhibitions of Aboriginal art, being seen for example in association with several Venice Biennales.

Selections from Gabrielle Pizzi's Collection have recently been exhibited in Turin, Italy; Utrecht, The Netherlands; Prato, Italy; Jerusalem, Israel and Sydney. It is fitting that Heidi has been able to work with Pizzi to create a fresh selection of Western Desert painting for the exhibition in Melbourne. The grounds of Heide are a place that was home to Wurundjeri people centuries before colonial settlement, as Heide's 'scar tree' and other material history indicate, and the works in Mythology and Reality are welcome visitors. The exhibition further extends the Museum's support for the presentation and interpretation of contemporary Australian art..."

Lesley Alway
Director, Heide Museum of Modern Art
(extracted from the Exhibition Catalogue)

Heide Museum of Modern Art
7 Templestowe Road
Bulleen VIC 3105 Australia
T + 61 03 9850 1500
F + 61 03 9852 0154
www.heide.com.au