The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9)
Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art
24 November 2018–28 April 2019
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The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9) is spread across the Gallery of Modern Art as well as part of the adjoining Queensland Art Gallery. On display are more than 400 works by eighty or so artists from over thirty countries in the Asia Pacific region. It’s a visually cacophonous exhibition. It shouts at you from the moment you enter and there is little let-up. Even the works that are craft-oriented call to you through their strong colour, contrast and the rhythm of repetition in their presentation. There is nothing resembling cool minimalism, although there is a meditative quality to some of the works, all of which reference cultural and traditional histories. It’s not only diverse, but also exciting, sometimes unsettling, both from an aesthetic and conceptual point of view.

A challenge for curators in museum-scale survey exhibitions like APT9 is balancing the spectacle and entertainment power of large works with the intimacy that small works require. The size and colour of the wall pieces in this exhibition threaten to overwhelm smaller, more delicately rendered, quieter pieces. For example, Irani artist Iman Raad’s mural commissioned for the exhibition — a riotously coloured decorative work drawn from multiple influences, including the truck and bus painting one sees throughout south Asia, folk art and Persian miniature painting — is spread on an entire wall, parts of which are seen from each of the three floors and which requires movement to see it all.

• Tags: Asia Pacific Triennial, Geoff Levitus, Issue 14, Qiu Zhijie, Queensland Art Gallery