A theme of institutionalism emerges in this second issue of Memo, its shadow seeming to lurk throughout the pages. Perhaps it’s because the Tennant Creek Brio, this issue’s artist focus, is about to cross an institutional threshold. Its artists are currently gearing up for the first major survey of the collective’s work at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.

Maurice O’Riordan draws on the late, great conservative art critic Robert Hughes to speak of the shock waves that the Brio continue to produce even as they achieve growing recognition. Jessyca Hutchens also rides one of those waves, reflecting on the 2023 exhibition of the Brio’s work Black Sky that she co-curated. But it is Tristen Harwood, in the most wide-reaching history of the collective published to date, who circles in on the Brio’s breakout. He refers to an “imprisoned energy” whose unleashed force the artists stage rather than proselytise about.

There is plenty more in this issue too. Kate Sutton and David Velasco, editor-in-chief of Artforum from 2017 to 2023, discuss the situation surrounding Velasco’s firing by Penske Media, owner of Artforum, following publication of a collective ceasefire letter in October 2023. Vincent Lê writes on the “hipster death cult” of Wes Anderson’s twee aesthetic; Declan Fry on language’s amoral violence; Philip Brophy on Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece; and Audrey Schmidt on the “Kool” Kim Gordon and Amelia Winata on the “uncool” hyperrealism of Edie Duffie. Elsewhere, you will find Carmen-Sibha Keiso on Alexandra Peters (a 2024 Macfarlane Commission artist) and Rex Butler on Emily Kam Kngwarray, a major exhibition of the eminent artist’s work recently held at the National Gallery of Australia (and set to travel to the Tate Modern).

With Gemma Topliss, Audrey Schmidt, Philip Brophy, Rex Butler, David Velasco, Carmen-Sibha Keiso, Vincent Lê, Lévi McLean, Paul Boyé, Declan Fry, and others.

Featuring Yoko Ono, Emily Kam Kngwarray, Kim Gordon, Wes Anderson, Karen Kilimnik, Alexandra Peters, and many more.