We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Tony Albert / Girramay/Yidinyji/Kuku Yalanji peoples / Australia b.1981 / Pay attention 2011 / Digital print on 330gsm 100% cotton paper, ed. 6/25 / 75 x 57cm / Purchased 2011. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Tony Albert
Tony AlbertPay attention 2011
Not Currently on Display
This print from 2011 features many samples from Tony Albert’s own body of work. The text ‘PAY ATTENTION’ refers to a major installation of the same name for which Albert invited 25 Indigenous Australian artists to mirror each of the letters in the phrase, itself a conceptual sampling of a 1973 lithograph by American artist Bruce Nauman (b.1941).
Other works include ASH on me 2008 (Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) and the ‘No Place’ series, in which Albert depicts Girramay warriors wearing lucha libre (wrestling) masks from Mexico; images from his collection of ‘Aboriginalia’ also feature.
Tony Albert was born in Townsville and raised in Brisbane. He is a descendant of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku Yalanji peoples. Albert completed a visual arts degree at Griffith University in Brisbane, majoring in Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art. He worked as an intern and exhibitions project officer at QAGOMA during the 2000s.
Albert interrogates the representation of Aboriginal people and culture through a mix of humour, darkness and poignancy. His works often recontextualise objects from his extensive collection of ‘Aboriginalia’, kitsch items featuring caricatured depictions of Aboriginal people and their culture. As a child, Albert began collecting these objects as a way of connecting with family.