News

We are still hunting for our new Program Manager. Who will it be? We have extended the closing date for applications to Wednesday 17 March. This is an exciting, demanding job. The successful applicant will have experience in exhibition making and gallery management. They will be dynamic, well connected, passionate about contemporary art, and totally commited to the work of the organisation. They must be able to lead a small team and to take complete charge in the Director's absence. The full position description and selection criteria can be accessed here. Post your application addressing the selection criteria to 'Institute of Modern Art, PO Box 2176, Fortitude Valley BC QLD 4006, Australia', or email it to robert@ima.org.au.

In early February, Artspace, Sydney, and the IMA will host Lionel Bovier, a curator, writer, and editor, and head of the Zurich-based art-publishing house JRP|Ringier. In a mere five years, JRP|Ringier has become one of the world's leading contemporary art publishers, with over 400 titles in active distribution. JPR|Ringier works both as an independent publisher and as a publishing partner for artists, curators, galleries, and museums, and has built a network of associate editors in different countries. Recent titles include Hans Ulrich Obrist's A Brief History of Curating and volumes on Urs Fischer, Alberto Giacometti, Mike Kelley, and Michaelangelo Pistoletto. In Sydney, Bovier will conduct a workshop for artists who wish to self-publish, and, in Brisbane, a workshop for art publishers. His visit has been facilitated by the Australia Council's International Visitors Program.

We are looking for a new Program Manager. This is an exciting, demanding job. The successful applicant will have experience in exhibition making and gallery management. They will be dynamic, well connected, passionate about contemporary art, and totally commited to the work of the organisation. They must be able to lead a small team and to take complete charge in the Director's absence. The full position description and selection criteria can be accessed here. Post your application addressing the selection criteria to 'Institute of Modern Art, PO Box 2176, Fortitude Valley BC QLD 4006, Australia', or email it to robert@ima.org.au. Applications close Friday 25 December.

Dendy Cinemas Portside and Icon Films invite IMA people to a special preview screening of Nowhere Boy, a chronicle of John Lennon's childhood directed by British artist Sam Taylor-Wood. Imagine John Lennon’s childhood... A lonely teenager, curious and sharp, growing up in the shattered city of Liverpool. Two women clash for his love: Mimi, the formidable aunt who raised him, and Julia, the mother who gave him up. Yearning for a normal family, he escapes into music and finds a kindred spirit in the young Paul McCartney. But just as John's new life begins, the truth about his past leads to a tragedy he can never escape. Poignant and powerful, it's the untold story of the boy who created The Beatles. Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott-Thomas, and Anne-Marie Duff. Dendy Portside Cinemas, Portside Wharf, Remora Road, Hamilton. Wednesday 9 December at 6.30pm. To book email us. Seats are limited. Confirmations will be sent by email. No phone calls please. Thanks Dendy.

Our Annual Members Cocktail Party is on Friday, 7–10pm. It's for IMA members and invited guests. Those who want to come who are not current members or already invited will need to join online by Thursday. Invitations are not transferable, and you cannot bring additional people unless they are also members or also invited. We will not be signing up new members on Friday. Please come early. Peach Bellinis will be served on arrival at 7pm. The exhibition Mirror Mirror will be open until 8.30pm. Bob Log III will perform at 9pm. And thanks again to you—Akira, Blonde Venus, Clovely, Dendy, Dogstar, Nelson Molloy, The Outpost, Space Furniture, Ultra Suite, and The Zoo—for supplying all the fabulous door prizes. See you at the party.

Join online. There's still time. It's only $50. The Annual Members Cocktail Party is coming up. It's from 7pm to 10pm on Friday 4 December—the night before the big public opening of the Asia-Pacific Triennial at the Gallery of Modern Art. Entertainment includes degenerate American one-man band Bob Log III, artist-DJs Chris Bennie and Sebastian Moody, food from Caxton Street Catering, drinks from Clovely Estate, Tiro, and Splitrock, and choice door prizes. You have to be a specially invited guest or a member to attend. Don't miss out. 

Deputy Director Vanessa McRae is leaving the IMA team. She has just got a new job, as curator at QUT Art Museum. We will miss her, but we look forward to working with her in her new role. McRae came to us six years ago from Latrobe Regional Gallery, where she worked as Curator. She will be especially remembered for putting together Supercharged, our raunchy petrol-head show, in 2006. Featuring Bill Henson, Patricia Piccinini, Tracey Moffatt, and others, it addressed the car in contemporary Australian art and toured to eight venues. We are now looking for a new Exhibitions Manager/Deputy Director. We will be advertising the position soon. In the meantime, expressions of interest can be made to the Director.

Independent critic and curator David Teh will be the new Eyeline/IMA writer-in-residence. He arrives in time for the opening of the Asia-Pacific Triennial in early December. Until this year, Teh was based in Bangkok, Thailand, where his projects included Platform (Queen’s Gallery and The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, 2006); The More Things Change: The 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (2008); and Unreal Asia (55th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany, 2009). He is  a member of Bangkok art collective, As Yet Unnamed. In Australia, he was a co-founder of the Fibreculture forum for internet culture; a founding director of artist-run initiative, Half Dozen; and remains a director of Sydney’s Chalk Horse Gallery. He has contributed to numerous journals and magazines including Art Asia Pacific, Art and Australia, C-Arts, Eyeline, and The Bangkok Post. He recently took up a post as Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore. His current research focuses are video in South-east Asia and Thai contemporary art.

On Monday 23 November, the Institute of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery join forces to present Art Teachers Day. It's an opportunity for Queensland secondary-school art teachers to connect with what’s happening in contemporary art, engage with important contemporary artists, preview the IMA's and QAG's education programs, and meet with colleagues. This year Art Teachers Day will feature artists talks by Del Kathryn Barton and Peter Madden, a workshop with Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, a tour of the IMA show Mirror Mirror, and a preview of QAG's upcoming Asia-Pacific Triennial. Not to mention a sumptuous lunch with wine. If you haven't taken the opportunity to attend Art Teachers Days before, this is the year to start. It costs $50 (GST inclusive), including lunch with wine and the bus trip to GoMA. Spaces are limited. Contact Dhana. Strictly teachers only.

The Deadnotes launch their new-old album Orange Trumpet on Thursday 5 November at 7pm. The Brisbane group's eccentric semi-spontaneous pop music has drawn comparisons to Ennio Morricone, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, The Magic Band, Moondog, and even The Minutemen. Since forming in 2005, The Deadnotes have written and recorded hundreds of miniature odes to this and that. Amongst their earliest, Orange Trumpet's thirty tracks are brimming with ideas and presented with loose abandon, having been recorded way-back-when in a fibro practice shed in Northgate. The record is like a minimalist, mariachi-informed version of Grow-Up's The Best Thing. The U.S.-released LP has been pressed in a numbered edition of 400. Buy a copy and hear the band perform a set of old party favorites and on-the-spot newbies, complete with squeaky pedals, leaky valves, false starts, and early endings. The Deadnotes are Eugene Carchesio, Stuart Busby, Leighton Craig, and now Sandra Selig.