Tracey Moffatt – Vogue Living
IT’S EASY TO frame Australia’s representation at the 57th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2017, in the terms of ‘trailblazing’ women and Indigenous talent, but that just quarantines our art away from the merit-based ‘best’ and buoys the ‘cultural cringe’.
Yes, the selection of Tracey Moffatt as the first Australian Indigenous artist to present a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale is “significant, bold and inspirational”, as the PR spins, but it’s also about bloody time. What other living Australian artist, regardless of their sex or colour of skin, can claim 150-plus solo shows across Australia, Europe and the United States and representation in the permanent collections of multiple major international museums including the Tate in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York?