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The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) unveils its 2018 program.

MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE said: ‘2018 is shaping up to be one of the MCA’s most exciting and diverse years in terms of programming, with works by exceptional Australian and international contemporary artists at all stages of their careers, and in varied media.’

‘We look forward to engaging a wide range of audiences with art that transcends everyday reality, fires up our imagination and draws us in, but that also gives us the opportunity to be challenged, look at things differently and address difficult issues,’ Macgregor continued.

A highlight of the program is the first major survey of works by John Mawurndjulone of Australia’s most important artists. Working within the long tradition of bark painting, Mawurndjul’s work explores themes of spirituality, mythology and life cycles. Developed and co-presented by the MCA and the Art Gallery of South Australia, the exhibition will span the thirty years the artist has been making work (from 6 July).

The MCA will also present the first solo exhibition in Australia of Sun Xun, one of China’s most exciting young artists, best known for his stop-motion animations that are based on thousands of ink paintings, charcoal drawings and woodcuts. His work has extraordinary resonance internationally, interrogating as it does the absurd incongruities between authorised histories and personal recollections, and ideas around propaganda, post-truth and what we now call ‘fake news’ (from 9 July).

Continuing into the new year is Pipilotti Rist: Sip my Ocean, a Sydney-exclusive major survey of works by Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist, presented as part of the Sydney International Art Series (until 18 February). Also continuing are Word: MCA Collection and Jon Campbell: MCA Collection, which both showcase works from the Museum’s Collection that engage with language and text, encompassing painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and video (until 18 and 25 February respectively).

Other highlights include the 21st Biennale of Sydney,  SUPERPOSITION: Art of  Equilibrium & Engagement, presented across the Level 1 and Level 3 Galleries (from        16 March),Primavera 2018: Young  Australian Artists, curated by Megan Robson (from 9 November), andCompass: MCA Collection, a Collection-based exhibition in which trajectories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women practices are  considered  in dialogue with one another (from 9 November).

The MCA’s touring program will continue to reach audiences nationally, with Primavera at 25: MCA Collection and Hilarie Mais travelling to five venues across four states.

In 2018, the MCA’s socially engaged, Western Sydney-based C3West program will present a critically important project about the history of the Blacktown Native Institution – one of Australia’s most important historical sites – in partnership with Blacktown Arts.

Drawn from the MCA Collection, Today Tomorrow Yesterday focuses on contemporary practices by Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, with work by more than 40 artists from the 1960s to the present. A new Artist Room by Emily Floyd will be presented, as well as new acquisitions by Nicole Foreshew, Kathy Temin and Jonny Niesche.

Conversation Starters, the new program of art and ideas introduced last year with great success, will return in August, exploring difficult ideas around storytelling, post-truth and propaganda in relation to the work of contemporary Chinese artist Sun Xun.