In late July the Institute of Modern Art will be transformed by the work of three leading contemporary artists in a series of ‘firsts’: we stage the first solo exhibitions in Australia by Luke Willis Thompson and Maryam Jafri; while Vernon Ah Kee will produce the first iteration of a new initiative, the IMA Courtyard Commission, creating a dynamic outdoor artwork.

Luke Willis Thompson is one of New Zealand’s most exciting young artists. He won the acclaimed Auckland Art Gallery’s Walters Prize in 2014, was included in QAGOMA’s APT8, and will take part in the 32nd São Paulo Art Biennial (2016). Pakistani-born Maryam Jafri is an artist who works across media and genres, and has exhibited extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia. In 2015 Jafri was part of the Belgian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. Brisbane-based Indigenous artist Vernon Ah Kee’s internationally acclaimed practice spans video, photography, painting, printmaking and drawing. He represented Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale in the group exhibition Once Removed, and in 2014 was included in the 14th Istanbul Biennale.

While varied in their approaches, all three artists address unequal power relationships, the politics of representation, and the legacies of colonisation within the Asia Pacific region. Each also redress ‘official’ narratives and overlooked communities, questioning what is remembered and what is forgotten in sanctioned records of the past through work that is symbolically or physically imbued with contentious histories.