The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body

Embargoed: Wednesday 6 March 2013

Leading artist and curator win major visual arts awards

Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia’s leading internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, and Juliana Engberg, Artistic Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne and Artistic Director of the forthcoming Biennale of Sydney; are being honoured today for their achievements in the arts with the Australia Council Visual Arts Award and Medal respectively.

Since her groundbreaking Something More exhibition, presented at the Australian Centre for Photography in 1989, Tracey Moffatt’s work has featured in more than 100 solo exhibitions across Europe, the USA and Australia. Her work is held in the collections of some of the world’s most prestigious art museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou and the Tate Gallery. Many of her photographs and short films have achieved iconic status both in Australia and around the world.

“Tracey Moffatt’s outstanding contribution to the cultural life of this nation has been acknowledged with the 2012 Australia Council Visual Arts Award,” says Mr Rupert Myer AM, Chair of the Australia Council, who is presenting the $40,000 award at an award ceremony at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney this evening.

“Tracey’s work has been critically acclaimed internationally for more than two decades, following the selection of her short film Night Cries for official competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival,” says Mr Myer. “More recently, she was recognised with a solo exhibition of her films and videos at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.”

“During the intervening decades Tracey’s career has been defined by an extraordinary list of achievements. She more than fulfils the criteria of the Award to ‘inspire Australians’ through her her compelling and dynamic practice,” he says.

Juliana Engberg receives the $10,000 Medal for her outstanding contribution to the development of the Australian cultural sector. In a career spanning nearly 30 years of curating, teaching, talking and writing about art, Juliana Engberg continues to be at the forefront of contemporary curatorial practice. As well as curating over 400 exhibitions, she is a prolific writer and editor, having written over 1,500 articles about contemporary art in catalogues, books and journals. She is one of Australia’s most accomplished public commentators on contemporary art

“Few individuals have made such a distinguished contribution to the development of the Australian visual arts sector as Juliana Engberg,” says Mr Myer. “As a curator and advocate for Australian art she has taken the work of Australian artists to the world and brought the best of international practice back to Australia.

“As Artistic Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), in Melbourne since 2002, Juliana has brought a keen intellect and distinctive eye to the curatorial process that has enlivened the cultural scene in this country and simultaneously advanced the careers of many Australian artists”.

Both Engberg and Moffatt will be honoured at a ceremony at the MCA at 6PM this evening, surrounded by arts sector leaders and close family and friends. A key note address will be delivered by philanthropist and Chief Commissioner of the Venice Biennale, Simon Mordant AM.

EDITORS NOTES OVER PAGE

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Media contacts Gabrielle Wilson 0433 972 915 g.wilson@australiacouncil.gov.au

Brendan Wall 0427 689 910 b.wall@australiacouncil.gov.au

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body

Additional information on the 2013 Australia Council Visual Arts Award and Medal:

The Australia Council Visual Arts Award is to acknowledge and honour the exceptional achievements of Australian craftspeople, designers, media artists, visual artists and arts writers who have made and are continuing to make an outstanding contribution to the development of Australian art. Award recipients receive a specially commissioned pin and $40,000.

The Australia Council Visual Arts Medal is to acknowledge and honour extraordinary professional achievements of living curators, administrators and/or advocates of contemporary Australian art, who have made and are continuing to make an outstanding contribution to the development of the Australian cultural sector. The recipient receives a specially commissioned medal and $10,000.

The 2013 recipients’ biography:

Tracey Moffatt

Tracey Moffatt is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. Since 1989, she has held numerous solo exhibitions in major museums around the world. Her short film Night Cries was selected for official competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, followed by her first feature film, beDevil, in 1993. In 1997, she exhibited in Aperto at the Venice Biennale and at the Dia Centre for the Arts, New York in 1997/98.

Comprehensive survey exhibitions of her work have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (2003), Sydney and the Hasselblad Centre in Goteburg, Sweden (2004). In 2006, she had her first retrospective exhibition in Italy, at Spazio Oberdan, Milan. In 2007, Charta Publishers, Milan, published a monograph, The Moving Images of Tracey Moffatt. She is also a recipient of the 2007 Infinity Award for art by the International Center of Photography, New York.

A solo exhibition of her films and videos was held in May 2012 at the Museum of Modern Art. Moffatt is represented in North America by Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York and has been represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, since 1998.

Juliana Engberg

Juliana Engberg is currently Artistic Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, where she has commissioned and curated, numerous exhibitions including: Pipilotti Rist: I Packed the Postcard in My Suitcase; Yael Bartana: TRILOGY; Nathan Coley Appearences; Mortality; Joseph Kosuth Texts for Nothing, Samuel Beckett in Play; Plenty Ought To Be Enough: Barbara Kruger; Richard Billingham: People Places Animals; Jenny Holzer: For the Centre, Retrospectology; among many others.

In 1999 she was the Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Melbourne International Biennial 1999 Signs of Life, and before accepting this commission was Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art (Heide), Melbourne, Senior Curator of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Assistant Director of the Monash University Gallery, and Director of the formative contemporary art space the Ewing and George Paton Galleries, The University of Melbourne.

A curator, writer, publisher and designer, she has been described as ‘an impeccable eye wedded to a keen intellect’ by influential ArtForum magazine. She has worked with some of the leading international artists of the last and this century.

She was recently appointed Artistic Director of the 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014 one of the most prestigious international contemporary art events presented in Australia. She is also Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Monash Art Design and Architecture.

http://twitter.com/auscouncilarts http://www.facebook.com/australiacouncil

Media contacts Gabrielle Wilson 0433 972 915 g.wilson@australiacouncil.gov.au

Brendan Wall 0427 689 910 b.wall@australiacouncil.gov.au