Giovanni Intra Side Effects 2024. Installation view, Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Photo: Justin Spiers
Giovanni Intra Unrequited Passion Cycle – I: Free Barabbas 1993 Archival reproduction. Courtesy of the Giovanni Intra Estate and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Giovanni Intra Unrequited Passion Cycle – XII: Best After 33AD 1993. C-type colour photograph. Collection Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Giovanni Intra Side Effects 2024. Installation view, Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Photo: Justin Spiers
Giovanni Intra Panadology 1996. Acrylic on paper. Collection Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Giovanni Intra Medical Report 1992. Acrylic on paper. Collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery Gifted 2006 by Jim Barr and Mary Barr
Giovanni Intra Twin Intoxicant 1992. Mixed Media on Paper. Courtesy of Michael Lett Gallery
Giovanni Intra Side Effects 2024. Installation view, Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Photo: Justin Spiers
Giovanni Intra No More Hospitals 1995. Acrylic on paper. Collection Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Given 2006 by Jim Barr and Mary Barr. Courtesy of the Giovanni Intra Estate
Giovanni Intra Unrequited Passion Cycle – IX: Not To Be Attempted Without Parental Supervision 1993. C-Type colour photograph. Giovanni Intra Archive, E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Giovanni Intra
Side Effects
16 March 2024 - 25 August 2024
Giovanni Intra: Side Effects examines the inner workings of Giovanni Intra (1968-2002) as he traversed the social impacts of modern medical theory upon society. During the 1990s, Intra formed an observational critique of Western medicine, identifying it as a substitute for religious phenomena. Intra considered art and science to be contaminants of each other, as opposing protagonists, reactive to new technological and social advances. He identified the significance of photography and its role in medical science, particularly in pathology, the study of disease and injury. The works in Side Effects acknowledge these psychoanalytical realisations of Intra’s, proposing reconsideration and relevancy in a present-day context.
Giovanni Intra was an artist, art writer, curator and gallerist working between Aotearoa New Zealand, where he grew up, and the United States. He co-founded artist-run spaces Teststrip (1992-1997) in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and China Art Objects (1999-) in Los Angeles alongside close friends. Intra completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, in 1993 and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Critical Theory at ArtCenter in Pasadena, California in 1996.
Giovanni Intra: Side Effects is a research-led exhibition realised through key works in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection, supported by archival material from the E H McCormick Research Library and private loans. Curated by Anna McLean, Side Effects has been developed through the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Curatorial Internship with support from Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.
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View a list of works – click here