Current: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand is the first comprehensive survey of all that is cutting edge in Australian and New Zealand contemporary practice. In a landmark publication, the book features eighty artists, carefully chosen to best reflect the vibrancy of art of the moment.
While Current could be seen as a hot list of contemporary taste in the tradition of Taschen's Art Now, inclusivity is the book's abiding theme. Current is also underpinned by scholarship with commissioned essays by the region's leading writers and curators.
Current's beautifully designed pages are filled with many names familiar to followers of contemporary art – including Paddy Bedford, Simryn Gill, Ah Xian, Tracey Moffatt, Shaun Gladwell and Del Kathryn Barton – along with some of the region’s freshest new talents, such as Benjamin Armstrong, Monica Tichacek, Rohan Wealleans, Francis Upritchard and Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy, whose photograph of the contents of a German apartment wrapped in orange twine graces the book's front cover.
Current captures the unique essence of contemporary practice in Australia and New Zealand, charged with the dynamic between Indigenous, western and Asian cultures. The eighty selected artists encompass a diversity of culture and subject and employ every available medium, from painting, photography and performance to installation and video art.
Current's contextual essays are written by leading authorities in their fields, including Robert Leonard, Victoria Lynn, Justin Paton, Rachel Kent, Nick Waterlow and Brenda L. Croft, who has convened an important roundtable of Indigenous curators to explore the question of the contemporary within Aboriginal art.
About the Author
First published in 1963, Art & Australia magazine has enjoyed a long and rich history as Australia's premier art publication. The magazine continues to evolve, focusing on the latest developments in Australian and international contemporary art, specially-commissioned artist projects and on encouraging emerging artists and writers. The quarterly publication approaches art in innovative ways, continuing to seek the highest quality writing, design and reproduction values, while retaining a respect for traditional art history. Art & Australia has recently launched the book imprint Dott Publishing with their new book Current: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand.
Industry Reviews
"The first comprehensive survey of current art from both sides of the Tasman, this is an indispensible, weighty guide.' 'New Zealand artists are well-represented and it is about time we learned more about our Aussie cousins as well."
New Zealand Herald's Christmas Books Special, December 6, 2008
"What is current? Who is current? These are pertinent questions in the ever-changing realm of visual art. Now the publisher and editors of Art & Australia attempt to answer these questions with a new book, Current, the first comprehensive survey of Australian and New Zealand contemporary art. With 80 artists spread across 300 glossy colour pages, Current is up-to-the-minute, controversial, sexy, political, dangerous, and reassuringly familiar, depending on what page you turn to."
Rosalie Higson, Swept up in the current. The Australian, November 18, 2008
