Major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales - Avatar: Forms of Vishnu

Master of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh of Guler Vishnu as Matsya, Vishnu's fish avatar c1775, Museum Rietberg, Zurich
Master of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh of Guler Vishnu as Matsya, Vishnu's fish avatar c1775, Museum Rietberg, Zurich

Major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales -  Avatar: Forms of Vishnu

We have great pleasure in sharing the announcement of a major exhibition of Asian art coming up at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, developed in partnership with ANU over more than three years. Avatar: Forms of Vishnu will open on 20 June and will be on view until 5 October 2026. More information here.

This will be the largest presentation of South and Southeast Asian Art shown at AGNSW in over 20 years, and the first Australian exhibition devoted to the Hindu deity Vishnu. The exhibition curators are Melanie Eastburn (Senior Curator of Asian Art at AGNSW) and Chaitanya Sambrani (Associate Professor in Art History and Curatorial Studies, ANU).

Bringing together more than 200 works of art from 12 Australian and international museums, Avatar features extraordinary paintings, sculptures, textiles, prints, and photographs made in honour of Vishnu, the deity responsible for the maintenance of dharma (order, morality, righteousness) in the world. Covering 15 centuries of art practice and including contemporary works by Gitanjali Das, Kalam Patua, Desmond Lazaro, Jumaadi, Nalini Malani, Satyanarayan Suthar, and Sumakshi Singh, the exhibition embraces a diversity of narrative traditions and a plurality of art forms across South and Southeast Asia.

Descending to earth in times of crisis, Vishnu manifests in a variety of animal, human and hybrid forms. Preceding by millennia the contemporary currency of the term, the Sanskrit word avatar denotes descent, whereby the divine manifests in the phenomenal world of human experience. A consideration of the avatars of Vishnu in all their diversity reveals much about the accretive formation of traditions across South and Southeast Asia. The polymorphous narrative traditions surrounding these avatars provide vital insights into civilisational ideals, moral precepts, ethical principles and political processes that remain resonant in the lives of many hundreds of millions today.

You can purchase tickets here. 

 

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