ExhibitionsFamily
Past Event
All Ages

Kingdom of Kindness

Abdul Abdullah

Sat 9 Mar 2024 - Mon 7 Oct 2024
Abdul Abdullah A pleasant surprise (detail) 2023 
oil on linen, 102 cm x 76 cm 
Image courtesy of the artist and Yavuz Gallery

Kingdom of Kindness

Artist Abdul Abdullah invites you to visit his Kingdom of Kindness. This is a special place where everyone belongs. You can make friends with the rock characters in his paintings and help to bring them to life with your creativity. Explore connections and emotions in friendly, fun and playful ways in HOTA’s Children’s Gallery.  

‘I like to imagine the rocks have existed for a very long time, and we are only just discovering them ... they have been waiting for us and are pleased to see us.’
- Abdul Abdullah 

Presented by HOTA, Home of the Arts with Abdul Abdullah

Dates
Sat 9 Mar 2024 - Mon 7 Oct 2024
Where
Children's Gallery
Ages
All Ages
Tickets
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#About the artist

Born 1986, Perth, WA. Lives and works Sydney, New South Wales and Bangkok, Thailand.

Abdul Abdullah is an Australian multidisciplinary artist working across portraiture, photography and painting. As a self-described ‘outsider amongst outsiders’, his practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other’. Abdullah’s projects have engaged with marginalised communities, and he is particularly interested in the disconnect between perception of identity and the reality of lived experiences.

Identifying as a Muslim and having both Malay/Indonesian and convict/settler Australian heritage, Abdullah sees himself as an artist working in the peripheries of a peripheral city, in a peripheral country, orbiting a world on the brink. Abdullah is a 7th generation Australian, but he still gets asked that question, 'Are you Muslim or Australian?' and he still answers, 'Both'.

Abdul Abdullah has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Curtin University, WA. Abdullah has been exhibiting since 2008 and his work has been shown extensively across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Germany. Abdullah’s work is held in the HOTA Collection, the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand). In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Australian Muslim Artist Art Prize. He is also a five-time Archibald Prize finalist and five-time Sulman Prize finalist, the most prestigious art prizes in Australia, a rarity for an artist of his years.

Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz.


#Gallery

'Clean air' (detail) 2023, oil on linen. Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz

'Connections' (detail) 2023, oil on linen. Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz

'Recalling something nice' (detail) 2022, oil on linen. Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz

'Quiet achiever' (detail) 2023, oil on linen. Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz

'An unexpected and welcome thought' (detail) 2023, oil on linen. Image courtesy of the artist and Ames Yavuz


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