Straight Outta Canberra, MAY▲SPACE, Sydney
Tom Buckland, Tony Curran, Sanne Koelemij, Julian Laffan, Cat Mueller, Dionisia Salas, Rebecca Selleck, Rosalind Lemoh, curated by Alexander Boynes
21st March - 14th April 2018
It was once said that the best thing to come out of Canberra was the Hume Highway, yet in the space of a decade the national capital has gone from being a place where residents said 'Don't tell anyone I'm from Canberra' to now saying 'Don't tell anyone ABOUT Canberra'. More than anything this has to do with the city finally developing a personality independent of what happens up at Parliament House, and the recognition of the rich cultural sector bubbling below the surface.
Once upon a time the rite of passage for ANU School of Art graduates was to leave Canberra as soon as possible in order to 'make it'. The irony is that internationally recognised artists who have called Canberra home (including Alison Alder, Vivienne Binns, Robert Boynes, eX de Medici, Rosalie Gascoigne, Richard Larter, Mandy Martin, Jorg Schmeisser, Ruth Waller etc. etc.) in part made it because they stayed.
Following in these footsteps, Straight Outta Canberra presents a group of ambitious emerging artists who have realised the benefits of an easygoing city that is host to every national institution under the sun.
