All of us at Orange Regional Gallery have been delighted with the response to the 'Archibald Prize 2024' and 'Young Archie Central West' exhibitions, both of which closed last weekend.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Visitors viewing Archibald Prize 2024 People's Choice award winning portrait of Professor Marcia Langton AO by Angus McDonald.
The exhibitions drew audiences from the region and across Australia, with over 10,000 people visiting the exhibitions. This is the highest attendance for any exhibition in the Gallery's nearly 40 year history.
This extraordinary touring exhibition, presented by the Art Gallery of NSW, is shown roughly every 5 years at Orange Regional Gallery. This is yet another example of the Art Gallery of NSW's commitment to bringing high quality exhibitions to regional audiences. And there is more to come with 'Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio' scheduled for Orange in 2025.
We're also pleased to announce that the winner of the Archibald Prize 2024 People's Choice award in Orange is Angus McDonald's powerful portrait of Marcia Langton AO.
It is an astonishing painting that presents distinguished anthropologist, geographer and academic Professor Marcia Langton AO in exquisite detail, and with great presence. Professor Langton is a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland who has been Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne since 2000.
'Marcia is charismatic, curious, direct and one of our deepest thinkers. She has a well of stories which she relates with razor-sharp detail and humour. At the same time, she radiates kindness and warmth,' says McDonald.
'I wanted to portray her as both a pivotal figure in Australian social history and someone who has lived an incredible life. I placed her just right of centre to suggest a sense of stepping away and handing the baton to a younger group of activists after a lifetime of tireless commitment. She gazes up and to the left to reflect that she has persistently followed her own path. Although she is an analytical thinker, I see her as a mystic who emanates love and wisdom.'
Archibald Prize 2024 is an Art Gallery of NSW touring exhibition.
