Towards Beauty's End: Beauty' and its manifestations in current art practice by artists from Australia and Singapore

20 November 2004 – 6 February 2005

A UQ Art Museum touring exhibition in partnership with the Substation Arts Centre, Singapore

'The quality we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty's end.' - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965), Japanese author and novelist

Towards Beauty's End looks to provide a cross-cultural perspective of the expression and significance of beauty through the paintings of four emerging, mid-career and senior artists from Australia and Singapore: Ian Grant and Robyn Medek (Australian-born, based in Sydney and Brisbane respectively) and Eric Chan and Kumari Nahappan (Malaysian-born, based in Singapore).

Specific works – or series – have been selected to articulate the proposition and to activate the dialogue, between the artists' work and the viewer.  The primary selection of works was made by Ross Searle, Director, University Art Museum, The University of Queensland and unaffiliated writer and curator Ihor Holubizky, in consultation with the artists. 

Tour dates

• Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, 1 April – 15 May, 2005
• Post Office Gallery, University of Ballarat, 11 July – 5 August 2005
• Blacktown Arts Centre, New South Wales, 29 September – 5 November 2005
• Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, 16 December 2005 – 20 February 2006
• Singapore Tyler Print Institute Gallery, Singapore, March 2006