Play On: The art of sport presents a selection of key works from 10 years of the Basil Sellers Art Prize, a biennial exhibition of commissioned artworks that reflect upon sport and sporting culture. One of Australia’s richest and most prestigious art awards, the Basil Sellers Art Prize has inspired innovative and complex explorations of the personal and collective significance of sport from some of Australia’s most accomplished artists.
The exhibition encompasses painting, sculpture, video, drawing and mixed media installation by artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. A range of sporting activities are portrayed in the exhibition, including gymnastics, surfing, athletics, swimming, boxing, diving, cricket, AFL, soccer, netball, tennis, the Olympic Games and backgammon.
In Play On: The art of sport, sport is used as a lens through which to contemplate a number of society’s most cogent issues, from mechanisms of cultural belonging and marginalisation, gender and race relations, to technology’s impact on our physical limits.
Curated by Jacqueline Doherty, Samantha Comte and Alyce Neal.
A NETS Victoria and Ian Potter Museum of Art touring exhibition.
Image: Shaun Gladwell: The archer (after Chuang Tzu) 2014, Single-channel HD video, 16:9 ratio, colour, sound, 10:47 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery
