SYDNEY.-The Museum of Contemporary Art opened the exhibit Southern Exposure: Works from the Collection of the San Diego MCA through June 1. Take a walk through the past four decades of contemporary art from America's West Coast, with a new exhibition showcasing works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Works encompass painting, sculpture, photography, video, projection and installation, and explore issues that have shaped our world from the 1960s to the current day—from the anti-war movement to feminist debates and the role of advertising in everyday life.

A key installation is The Reason for the Neutron Bomb (1979) by Chris Burden. Comprising 50,000 nickel coins and match-heads laid in precise rows upon the gallery floor, it references the fleet of 50,000 sophisticated tanks maintained by the former Soviet Union into the early 1980s. Other works explore human perception and emotions through the manipulation of light and colour. James Turrell's immersive environment Stuck Red and Stuck Blue (1970) transforms our awareness of physical space using visual illusion.

Southern Exposure artists include Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Uta Barth, Larry Bell, Jeremy Blake, Andrea Bowers, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Kota Ezawa, Robert Irwin, Glenn Kaino, Robert Craig Kauffman, Barbara Kruger, Sharon Lockhart, Paul McCarthy, John McCracken, Kori Newkirk, Raymond Pettibon, Edward Ruscha, Alexis Smith, Larry Sultan, T. Kelly Mason and Diana Thater, Torolab, James Turrell, and Bill Viola.

A second exhibition showcasing film and video works from the MCA Sydney’s collection will be presented at the MCA San Diego in 2009, as a result of the collaboration between the two institutions.