Presented by Tania Doropoulos: Director, Anna Schwartz Gallery
When: Saturday 15th February 2020 1PM
Where: Bennett Gallery
Price: Free
Coinciding with the presentation of Angelica Mesiti: Relay League, Benalla Art Gallery will be hosting a talk by Tania Doropoulos, Director of Anna Schwartz Gallery, exploring Mesiti’s practice in greater detail.
About Angelica Mesiti:
Mesiti’s work consistently grapples with transition, culture, communication and displacement. This has been explored via music and dance as a form of cultural remembrance in widely-seen works including Citizens Band (2012), In the Ear of the Tyrant (2014) and Nakh Removed (2015). She has investigated adapted methods of communication in the face of adversity in The Calling (2013–14), which depicts the intricacies of whistling languages in three remote communities, and in The Colour of Saying (2015), for which she worked with a sign language choir and elderly ballet dancers to consider the paradox of ‘ability’.
Shortlisted in 2016 for the 9th edition of the prestigious Meurice Prize for Contemporary Art and with a residency at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, Mesiti is increasingly establishing her reputation as one of Australia’s most outstanding artists. Working with the mediums of video and installation, and incorporating music and performance, her practice expands ideas of collective behaviour, social dynamics and human subjectivity through non-verbal forms of language and communication, exchange and adapted methods of expression.
About Tania Doropoulos:
Tania Doropoulos has worked with artists, exhibitions, publications and festivals within the visual arts for more than twenty years. Tania has been the Director of Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne since 2018. Previously, she was the Curator of Anna Schwartz Gallery Carriageworks (2007–2010) before relocating to London in 2010 to undertake graduate research at the Royal College of Art. Following her studies, Tania was the Director of Exhibitions at Timothy Taylor and oversaw the artist, exhibition, art fair and publishing programs. Following that Tania was with Frieze, initially as interim Artistic Director of the London fair, and then as Director, Frieze Studios, the company’s creative agency. In 2009 she was the Coordinating Curator of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She has edited and produced monographic publications for numerous artists including Alex Katz, Sean Scully, Simon Hantai, Antoni Tapies, Josephine Meckseper, Shezad Dawood and Shaun Gladwell, amongst other work in publishing.
Curated and developed by Artspace, Sydney and touring nationally in partnership with Museums & Galleries of NSW. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. The development and presentation of Relay League is supported by Commissioning Partner the Keir Foundation. Relay League was produced with the support of C ND National de la Danse, Paris and University of New South Wales Art & Design. Relay League will be accompanied by a book published by Schwartz City and designed by Formist.
