the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art is perhaps the first Australian exhibition to draw together the works of 16 noted Australian and International artists to investigate the meeting point of tattoo culture and contemporary art.
A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art does however assemble works by artists already held in high regard within the arts industry whose work has been impacted to varying degrees by tattooing, the tattoo industry, and tattoo history.
It encourages us to consider afresh the age-old, unsolvable question – ‘what is art, and is this it?’ Is general society’s acceptance of tattooing and tattoo culture putting it on the verge of greater acceptance as a legitimate art form ‘worthy’ of display in our finest arts institutions?
Projects such as A Permanent Mark require the vision and contribution of numerous parties to be successfully delivered. Pinnacles Gallery extends its thanks to all staff and volunteers at Gallery Services and Townsville City Council; to all of the participating artists, and those individuals and institutions kindly loaning works; to the exhibition’s funding bodies, Townsville City Council, the Gordon Darling Foundation through the Darling Travel Grants, and Arts Queensland through the Projects and Programs Fund; and to Townsville’s active and vibrant arts community who support projects such as this with their patronage.
For certain, the contemporary arts industry is not at a point where tattooists are uniformly assumed to be ‘artists’, and perhaps nor should it be. That is a question the exhibition is not able to answer, as each tattooist approaches their practice differently, assigning varying levels of importance to the conceptual and technical elements of their work.
ARTISTS AH XIAN AMANDA WACHOB DON ED HARDY DR LAKRA EX DE MEDICI HOLLY GRECH LESLIE RICE LISA REIHANA MATT ELWIN QIN GA REGAN ‘HAHA’ TAMANUI RICHARD DUNLOP ROB DOUMA RON MCBURNIE THE RUN COLLECTIVE SHAWN BARBER
A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland
Research towards A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art has been supported through the Darling Travel Grants | Domestic, administered by the Gordon Darling Foundation