Arriving Slowly: Exploring the Abstract

Viewers are invited to take their time, immersing themselves in the works to uncover the diverse meanings that unfold through slow, deliberate looking.

This exhibition aims to create a dialogue between 20 contemporary Australian artists working across the expanded definition of abstraction, with artists working across mediums and modes of display. Included in this exhibition are works from our collection, local artists and contemporary artists from across the country.

The works hail from diverse artistic lineages, but through exploration of gesture, line, shape, and colour, they create an environment for audiences to make space for their own interpretation and experience. Meaning is not didactic, singular, or prescriptive and therefore Arriving Slowly gently opens the conversation about the democratisation of experience and viewing.

Arriving Slowly was curated in response to works by Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and Agnes Martin (1912-2004 )that Ipswich Art Gallery has on loan from the National Gallery of Australia as part of its Sharing the National Collection / Art Across Australia program.

Both Rothko and Martin were prolific communicators of their creative intentions, and their musings are immediately transferable to works in the exhibition. Rothko had a profound desire to express and evoke emotion through his painting, creating a state of intimacy and searching for 'pockets of silence' where we, the audience, can grow. Similarly, Martin said the response she hoped to draw from people with her art was pure abandon, as if leaving themselves behind.

We hope to have created a quiet dialogue between contemporary Australian artists and two of last century’s significant figures.