Do you believe in magic?

The 2016 Adelaide Biennial will convert the most cynical non-believer that object-based materiality commands the museum and contemporary curatorial concerns.
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Michael Zavros, The Poodle, 2014; Courtesy the artist, Starkwhite, Auckland, and Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane.

‘Every artist is a conjuror,’ says Lisa Slade, Curator of this year’s Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and Assistant Director Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of SA (AGSA).

The theme of her Biennial – which has got the visual art world pondering – is Magic Object. It breaks from the kind of cookie-cutter biennale vernacular we have become accustomed to and, rather, turns to a somewhat analogue material illusionism to question the state of making in Australian art now.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina