Josh Muir - What’s on your mind? 
30 November 2019  – 1 March 2020

The inaugural Going Solo: First Nations recipient Josh Muir will showcase a new body of work in his upcoming exhibition What’s on your mind? 

Josh Muir has collaborated with digital animator Isobel Knowles and experiential design consultancy Art Processors to create a series of interactive large-scale multimedia work that draw on aspects of youth culture and identity and his own Indigenous heritage and personal story.  Having been influenced by street art and images from pop culture, Muir’s unique graphic style, which combines kaleidoscopic prints with landscape photographs of Country, showcases the vitality of Indigenous visual culture today.

“My work is heavily influenced by artists like KAWS.  His simple yet effective way of designing characters and connecting with audiences on a large scale is what I hope to achieve one day,” he says. “What’s on your mind? is about my personal view of being and is a reflection of my environment. I am raising awareness around mental health and connection to Country through my art.”  

For this exhibition, the Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmara artist worked closely with Bendigo Art Gallery’s First Nations Curator, Shonae Hobson. Ms Hobson said the Gallery recognised the important contribution that First Nations artists made towards the regional art scene and was committed to fostering and promoting the careers of these artists on a national scale.

“The Going Solo: First Nations program is an integral part of Bendigo Art Gallery’s schedule and gives us an opportunity to support and work closely with our First Nations artists living in regional Victoria,” said Ms Hobson.   “The augmented reality component of the exhibition will allow audiences to engage with Josh’s art through a dynamic and meaningful way, and also enable visitors to appreciate the nuances of Indigenous visual art and culture.” 

Josh Muir currently lives and works in Ballarat.  He held his debut exhibition Don’t Spit the Dummy in 2013 at the Koorie Heritage Trust and in 2016 Muir was commissioned as a major project artist for White Night Melbourne, and projected his work Still Here on the façade of the National Gallery of Victoria. His most recent exhibition Josh x Muir showcased at the Koorie Heritage Trust in 2018, oversaw the development of an extensive body of work which referenced aspects of hip-hop culture. 

What’s on your mind? runs until March 1, 2020. Bendigo Art Gallery is open every day from 10am to 5pm except December 25.

Going Solo: First Nations is supported by Creative Victoria.