The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) is delighted to announce A World Undone, a major exhibition by Australian artist Nicholas Mangan, opening from 5 April to 30 June 2024.
Curated by the MCA’s Anneke Jaspers and Anna Davis, Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone includes works created over two decades by an artist pushing sculpture to new limits. The exhibition charts the evolution of Mangan’s distinctive visual language, culminating with his latest project, Core-Coralations (2021–ongoing), inspired by the history and health of the Great Barrier Reef.
Photo credit: MCA Sydney
Mangan’s art considers humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Working across sculpture and film, the artist fashions surprising materials into compelling installations using everything from coconuts to coral rubble as a point of departure. With an eye on Australia’s place in the Indo-Pacific, his practice brings current affairs, contested histories and deep geological time into dialogue, offering new perspectives into topics at the forefront of public debate. Exhibition highlights include Ancient Lights (2015), a film about our relationship to the sun, powered by solar panels installed on the MCA building; Limits to Growth (2016–ongoing), which compares bitcoin with an ancient form of stone currency; and Termite Economies (2018–2020), a series of sculptures that evoke non-human labour and social organisation.
Photo credit: MCA Sydney