Author Description

NGV Australia hosts two complementary exhibitions that explore Australia's complex colonial past and the art that emerged during and in response to this period. Presented concurrently, the two exhibitions, Colony: Australia 1770-1861 and Colony: Frontier Wars, offer two parallel experiences of the settlement of Australia. Drawing from public and private collections across the country, Colony: Australia 1770-1861 brings together the most important examples of art and design produced during this period and surveys the key settlements and development of life and culture in the colonies. Importantly, the exhibition acknowledges the impact of European settlement on Indigenous communities. The exhibition includes a diverse range of media: from Indigenous cultural objects of the period, early watercolours, drawings and illustrated books, prints, paintings, sculpture and photographs to a selection of decorative arts objects, furniture, fashion and textiles, even taxidermy specimens. This significant exhibition will be of particular interest to Victorian audiences who have rarely seen, or had access to, the remarkable material created in the decades prior to the settlement of Melbourne in 1835.