Half a million attendees drawn to 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane

One of Queensland’s flagship art exhibitions for the year welcomed its 500,000th visitor on Saturday.

The milestone was reached at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9) exhibition at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), with Queensland Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch advising “since opening on 24 November the free APT9 exhibition has attracted thousands of visitors a day to experience more than 400 compelling contemporary artworks by over 80 individual artists, collectives and groups.

“A whopping 25,000 people visited the all-ages APT9 Summer Festival over just three days in January, which included the record-breaking ‘Up Late’ event.

“Hundreds of people in regional and remote Queensland, and the Torres Strait, have enjoyed APT9 Kids on Tour, a program of hands-on art making activities presented by more than 100 venues from January 2019.”

Minister Enoch said the Asia Pacific Triennial, now in its 25th year, connected with local, intrastate, interstate and international audiences to bolster Queensland as a must-see cultural destination.

She added “I encourage local audiences to make time to visit, or revisit APT9, before it closes on 28th April.

“APT has been instrumental for QAGOMA in building strong relationships throughout the region, and developing an unrivalled collection of contemporary art from Australia and the Asia Pacific.”

QAGOMA Director, Chris Saines, said APT9 was developed by QAGOMA’s team of specialist curatorial staff and was an enlightening and thought-provoking exhibition experience.

Saines added “APT9 explores ideas through contemporary practice from across the Asia Pacific region.

“Highlights include Iman Raad’s huge mural which is a landscape of riotous colour, Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones’ installation created in collaboration with his long-time mentor Wiradjuri Elder Dr Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM, and New Zealand artist Anne Noble’s fully functioning bee hive, which focuses on the importance of the honey bee for life on our planet.”

Events supported by Tourism and Events Queensland are worth over $800 million to the economy in 2019.

The APT9 public program of talks, tours and discussions continues until 28th April.

For more information go to www.qagoma.qld.gov.au