After its move from Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, FCA&C’s exhibition – ‘Double Visions – Contemporary Art from Papua New Guinea’ – opened at the St Andrews University’s Gateway Galleries (North Haugh, St Andrews) on Saturday and will be there until 14 August.
While it is a reduced version of what was on show in Kirkcaldy, it still gives visitors a strong flavour of the kind of artwork being produced currently in PNG – vibrant paintings by Martin Morububuna, elegant recycled metal sculptures by Tom Deko, textiles by Cathy Kata, and an example of the wonderful Sepik River wood carvings by Kaua Gita. A highlight of the larger exhibition was the work by the late Mathias Kauage and he is represented here by paintings, prints and beaten metal wall pieces. There is background material to give the work a context and information on all the artists featured.
There is also a unique chance to learn more about contemporary Papua New Guinean art, past and present, by attending a free talk in the Gateway on Thursday 8 July. To attend, just turn up at the exhibition area shortly before 4.30pm. Tom Craig, a Scottish artist who lived and worked in PNG for 20 years will talk on ‘The Origins of Contemporary Art in Papua New Guinea’; Dr Andrew Moutu, University of Adelaide, and a Papua New Guinean anthropologist, will discuss the wider contexts in which contemporary art is inspired and produced in Papua New Guinea.
Views of ‘Double Visions’ exhibition (photo Julian Davis)
