Fairy Tales
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art’s (QAGOMA) summer blockbuster exhibition, Fairy Tales, will take over the entire ground floor of GOMA with works by leading international and Australian artists including Yayoi Kusama, Jana Sterbak, Kiki Smith, Patricia Piccinini,
Abdul Abdullah, Ron Mueck and Charles Blackman. Across painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, costume and design, the exhibition explores society’s longstanding fascination with fairy tales in art and culture. Through archetypal figures including wicked witches, stalwart princes, brave princesses and magical animals, the exhibition draws on classic narratives of otherness as well as tales of bravery and justice, loyalty and humility, cunning and aspiration. Well-known visual motifs that appear include woods and trees, most spectacularly in a commission by Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira that transforms the architecture of the gallery into a gnarled and twisted woodland complete with mirrors and blood, impossible shoes and clothing for royalty, castles and coaches – and at least one pumpkin. Fairy Tales shows from December 2, 2023 to April 28, 2024.
