Light & Darkness

It’s no mean feat to launch a new museum during the pandemic, but in late 2020 the University of Sydney did just that, with the launch of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Despite months of uncertainty thanks to the 2021 lockdowns, the Chau Chak Wing Museum managed to pull off 20 exhibitions, 46 talks and events, and welcomed over 86,000 visitors in its first year of operation. Now, the museum has announced a host of free exhibitions for 2022.

Among them is Light & Darkness, a major exhibition featuring over 70 artworks across three decades of late modernism. The collection spans the luminal, op and kinetic works of the 1960s, the political and conceptual art of the 1970s, and post-modern artists of the 1980s.

Among the artworks on display are pieces by Argentinian artist Julio Le Parc and his former mentor Lucio Fontana; text paintings by legendary artists from Aotearoa New Zealand, Colin McCahon and Ralph Hotere; a deeply political work by Beat Generation artist Ed Kienholz. The exhibition also features works by Swiss kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely; op art great Bridget Riley; Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara; and world-renowned Australian artists Peter Tyndall and Jenny Watson.

Entry is free and no bookings are necessary.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with the University of Sydney.