SYDNEY.- Seven artists who use language forms and poetic expression in their practices will form this year’s Primavera 2019: Young Australian Artists, the MCA Australia’s annual exhibition showcasing the country’s next generation of up-and-coming artists aged 35 years and younger. Now in its 28th edition, the MCA’s Primavera continues to be a vital platform for emerging Australian artists and curators to present exciting new art.

The Primavera 2019 artists are Mitchel Cumming (NSW/The Netherlands), Rosina Gunjarrwanga (NT), Lucina Lane (VIC), Aodhan Madden (VIC/France), Kenan Namunjdja (NT), Zoe Marni Robertson (NSW) and Coen Young (NSW).

This year’s Primavera exhibition is curated by Sydney artist, Mitch Cairns whose own practice is centred on painting. Cairns has exhibited widely since graduating from the National Art School in 2006, his paintings have been awarded with the 2017 Archibald Prize and the 2012 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.

For this group show, Cairns brings together an artist-led exhibition, curating the show to embrace each artist’s original approach to their individual art-making practice. The exhibiting artists straddle various media combining painting, drawing, sculpture, sound, video and text-based works.

MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, said: “Primavera is a special occasion on the MCA’s annual exhibition calendar as it acts as a springboard for many artists’ careers, introducing the work of younger artists to a wider audience. Cairns has curated an exceptional group of talented young artists, including the work of two young Maningrida painters, which introduces the next generation of artists from this remote community.”

Each of the seven artists contribute a broad range of ideas to Primavera 2019. The selected artists all foster a strong dialogue on the common themes and conceptual ideas presented in the exhibition. Works on view explore ideas around the museum as institution, intergenerational relationships, and different notions of communication, both written and spoken.

On the exhibition, curator Mitch Cairns, said: “The artists participating in Primavera 2019 collectively embrace cultural connection, poetic registers and the vast spectrum of painting in their articulation of new language forms. I have primarily been guided by my work as a painter, as well as an artist with an interest in language and the written word.”

Primavera 2019: Young Australian Artists is a free exhibition and on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Level 1 South Gallery, from 11 October 2019 – 9 February 2020.