Nalini Malani: Gamepieces: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

Nalini Malani’s radically inventive practice spans five decades and is celebrated in this first major Australian survey, exclusive to AGSA. Born in 1946 in Karachi in the year before Partition in the Indian subcontinent, Malani’s own history of displacement as a refugee has foreshadowed her internationally-acclaimed practice.

Literary narratives, epic mythologies and diverse political histories coalesce in the immersive sensorial encounters she creates for audiences. Always ingenious, her art encompasses painting, drawing, installation, projection, film and animation.

Drawing on AGSA’s own substantial holdings of the artist’s work, this exhibition arcs from Malani’s early experimentations in film and photography in 1969, to what she describes as ‘video shadow/plays’ such as Gamepieces, 2003-2020, after which this Australian premiere is named.

Urgent and expansive in her inquiry, Nalini Malani is dedicated to the possibility of change and the power of beauty in uncertain times.