Buxton Contemporary

Arts & Events - by Open Journal

The new purpose-built home for one of Australia’s most significant contemporary art collections will be officially launched in March 2018.

Located within Melbourne’s Southbank arts precinct and embedded at the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Buxton Contemporary will provide a home and broad cultural context for the extraordinary art collection of Melbourne property developer and passionate art collector Michael Buxton.

Designed by leading Australian architects Fender Katsalidis, the museum will feature a teaching space and additional five galleries designed to showcase what is largely recognised as one of this country’s most significant collections of contemporary Australian art.

The inaugural exhibition, the shape of things to come has been curated by Melissa Keys. It will feature works by more than 20 artists from the Buxton collection, and explores the various roles and agencies of the artist through culture, society and politics—as visionaries, storytellers, dissenters and alchemists. Included will be major works by Ricky Swallow, Emily Floyd, Hany Armanious and Mikala Dwyer among many others.

Over 2,200 square metres in size, a major feature is the museum entrance, which will be flanked by one of the largest digital screens of its type in Australia—and the only animated screen of its kind in Victoria—which will showcase digital and video works and will also be used during iconic Melbourne arts events.

Future programming will use the Michael Buxton Collection as a springboard to captivate and educate audiences on trends in contemporary art and connect current Australian contemporary practice to international developments.