Tony Albert
{{short description|Contemporary Australian artist (born 1981)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox artist
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| birth_place = Townsville. Queensland, Australia
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| education = Queensland College of Art
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| known_for = Installation, mixed media, photography, painting
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Tony Albert (born 1981) is a contemporary Australian artist working in a wide range of mediums including painting, photography and mixed media. His work engages with political, historical and cultural Aboriginal and Australian history, and his fascination with kitsch “Aboriginalia".{{cite web|url=http://www.magnt.net.au/#!telstra-natsiaa-2014/c250a|title=Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory}}
Biography
Albert was born in 1981 in Townsville, North Queensland.{{cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/people/P10028711/|title=Tony Albert|work=awm.gov.au}} In 2004 he graduated from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane, with a degree in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art.{{cite web|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/tony-albert/|title=Tony Albert: biography at Design and Art Australia Online|work=daao.org.au}} Albert's family is from Cardwell, Queensland and he is a descendant of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji peoples.{{cite web|title=FAMILY EXHIBITION ACTIVITY SHEET|url=http://www.icg-lakemacquarie2014.com/downloads/034E6B1B383AEB55F624B9DEB329D45AEB5D96B5.pdf|access-date=10 October 2015}}{{cite web|title=ASH on me|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=190246|access-date=10 October 2015}}
Albert was a founding member of the urban-based Indigenous art collective ProppaNOW founded in 2004. ProppaNOW also included artists Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Vernon Ah Kee, Fiona Foley, Bianca Beetson, and Andrea Fisher.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/albert-tony/|title=Tony Albert|last=|first=|date=|website=AGNSW collection record|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|access-date=11 April 2016}}{{cite web|url=https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/3359/|title=Learning to be proppa : Aboriginal artists collective ProppaNOW - Blak on blak - Artlink Magazine|work=artlink.com.au}}
Work
Like Bell and Ah Kee, the use of text is essential to Albert's practice. Headhunter (2007),{{Cite web|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/351.2007.a-llll/|title=Headhunter|last=Albert|first=Tony|date=2007|website=AGNSW collection record|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|access-date=11 April 2016}} an installation consisted of various objects Albert had been collecting for several years, portrays the past racism in Australia and puts emphasis on "the commodification of Aboriginal people for consumption by the non-Indigenous population, at a time when actual engagements with Aboriginal people were rare and predominantly paternalistic."
The application of text can also be seen in Albert's photographic work such as Hey ya! (Shake it like a Polaroid picture) (2007).{{Cite web|url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/244.2009.a-e/|title=Hey ya! (Shake it like a Polaroid picture)|last=Albert|first=Tony|date=2007|website=AGNSW collection record|publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales|access-date=11 April 2016}}
Awards and commissions
File:'Yininmadyemi' - Thou didst let fall.JPG]]
In 2014 Albert won first prize in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award with his work We can be Heroes, prompted by the 2012 shooting by police of two Aboriginal teenagers in Kings Cross. Albert's was the first photographic work to win the prize.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-08/tony-alberts-we-can-be-heroes-wins/5658830|title=Tony Albert's We Can Be Heroes wins top prize at National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award|work=ABC News}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/australia-culture-blog/2014/aug/08/sydney-artist-wins-aboriginal-art-award-for-work-inspired-by-police-shooting|title=Sydney artist wins Aboriginal art award for work inspired by police shooting|author=Monica Tan|work=the Guardian}}
In 2015, Albert was commissioned by the City of Sydney to create Yininmadyemi - Thou didst let fall, a public work for Hyde Park, Sydney.{{cite web|url=http://www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork/yininmadyemi-thou-didst-let-fall/|title=Yininmadyemi Thou didst let fall|work=City Art Sydney}} The work serves as a memorial to Aboriginal military history and features four large upright bullets and shell casings. He was the Archibald Prize finalist in 2016 and 2017.
Exhibitions
Albert's work has been the subject of nine solo exhibitions and over fifty group exhibitions.{{cite web|url=https://www.conceptioart.com/artists/tony-albert.html|title=Tony Albert - Australian - Aboriginal - Contemporary artist|work=conceptioart.com}}
In June 2024, Albert's work Crop Circles In Yoga #5 as well as his large-scale artwork BEAM ME UP The Art of Abduction were exhibited in Melbourne's Federation Square as part of 'The Blak Infinite' program at the 2024 RISING: festival in Melbourne.https://2024.rising.melbourne/program/the-blak-infinite, Retrieved 2024-06-15.
Collections
References
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External links
- [http://tonyalbert.com.au/ Official site]
- [https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/28138/ Tony Albert] at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne
- [http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/albert-tony/ Tony Albert] at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
- [http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/undisclosed/Default.cfm?MnuID=ARTISTS&GALID=34443&viewID=3 Tony Albert at UnDisclosed]
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Category:People from Townsville
Category:21st-century Australian photographers
Category:Griffith University alumni
Category:21st-century Australian painters
Category:21st-century Australian male artists
Category:Photographers from Queensland
Category:Indigenous Australian artists