Archie Moore (born Toowoomba 1970, lives Brisbane) works across media in portrayals of self and divulged national histories. He questions key signifiers of identity – skin, language, smell, food, dwelling, politics, religion, flags – and points to errors in foundational intercultural knowledge, asking what are the outcomes of misinformation. His practice is embedded in Aboriginal politics and the wider concerns of racism. Uncertainty is a recurrent theme pertaining to his paternal Kamilaroi heritage.
For the 20th Biennale of Sydney in 2016 curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, Moore recreated in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens a 1:1 scale replica of Woollarawarre Bennelong's brick hut built for him by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1790. The inside of the hut, with dirt floor and lined with rusted corrugated iron, was an approximation of Moore’s grandmother’s (Vera’s) house in late 20th Century rural Queensland. Moore was assisted on the project by indigenous architect, Kevin O'Brien.
In March 2017, Moore will present a major installation at Carriageworks, Sydney, commissioned for The National: New Australian Art, the first iteration of three biennial exhibitions, partnered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
Moore presented two solo exhibitions in public institutions in 2015: 14 Queensland Nations (Nations imagined by RH Mathews) at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Les Eaux d’Amoore at the Samstag Museum, University of South Australia as part of TARNANTHI the inaugural Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art (both Adelaide). In the same year he was shortlisted for the Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, presented by the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
He completed his Bachelor of Visual Arts at Queensland University of Technology in 1998. In 2001, he was awarded the Millennial Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship which enabled him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Solo exhibitions include Blood Fraction, The Commercial Gallery, Sydney (2015); 14 Queensland Nations (Nations imagined by RH Matthews), Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Adelaide and Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra; A Circum/Intro/Extro/Retrospective, Bus Projects, Melbourne; False Friends, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin; Les Eaux d'Amoore, The Commercial Gallery, Sydney (all 2014); Flag, The Commercial Gallery, Sydney; Clover, Boxcopy, Brisbane; Mussel, Higure Gallery, Tokyo; 10 Missions from God, Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane (all 2012); Dwelling, Accidentally Annie Street, Brisbane (2010); Depth of Field, Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane (2006); The Archie Comic Book Series, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane (2005); Words I Learnt From The English Class, Black Peppers Gallery, Brisbane (2002).
In 2015, Moore presented a major installation work in a two-person exhibition with Matt Calder, Re-locating the Land, at System Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Group exhibitions include Sixth Sense, curated by Djon Mundine at NAS Galleries, Sydney (2016); Buruwi Burra (Three Skies) - Paddy Sims Japaljarri, Michael Riley, Archie Moore, at The Commercial Gallery, Sydney, The Subtropic Complex, curated by Tess Maunder, Art on James Street for Resort in collaboration with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Courting Blakness: Recalibrating knowledge in the Sandstone University, curated by Fiona Foley, The University of Queensland, Brisbane; SOUTH: Contemporary Art from Australia, Mexico and South Africa, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney; My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and Auckland Art Gallery (2013 & 2014); Mémoires Vives: Une Histoire de l’Art Aborigène, Le musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2013-2014); Experimenta – Speak to Me, 5th International Biennale of Media Art at RMIT Gallery, Melbourne and the University of Queensland (2013 & 2014); Transmission, curated by Carrie Miller and Dr Matthew Hindson, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, Contemporary Australian Drawing 2: Drawing as notation, text and discovery at the University of the Arts, London and Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscape at the Australian Embassy, Washington D.C. (all 2012); Reality Check – Watching Sylvania Waters, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Hazlehurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Sydney and Making it New: Focus on Australian Contemporary Art curated by Glenn Barkley, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (both 2009).
In 2011, Moore began a musical collaboration, ∑gg√e|n, with fellow artist, David M. Thomas, which continues to be active in an expanded form today to include two other visual artists: Geoffrey Vagg and Paul Wrigley.
In 2010, Moore was the winner of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. He has six times been shortlisted for the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013). In 2013, he was commissioned by Newcastle Region Art Gallery to create the sculpture, General Sanders vs Colonel Saunders; Also in 2013 he was invited to participate in the University of Queensland's National Artists' Self-Portrait Prize. His work for this exhibition, Black Dog, was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Moore was one of fourteen artists shortlisted for the prestigious 2015 Western Australian Indigenous Art Award at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Archie Moore’s work is in the collections of the Gilbert and Tobin Collection, Sydney, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS, Sydney, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, the Owen and Wagner collection, North Carolina, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane, the University of Queensland Art Museum, and the University of Technology, Sydney.
In 2024, Archie Moore won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Sources:
The Commercial Gallery
Courting Blakness website, hosted by AustLit.
