Raafat Ishak’s works Apnea 3, Apnea 7 and Apnea 15 (each 2015) are included in the group exhibition Migration and Modernism, spotlighting works by émigré artists in the NGA collection whose practices engage with the development and legacies of Modernism in Australia, and how the country’s cultural infrastructure has been shaped by the patterns and stories of migration.
Emerging out of the artist’s PhD research, where Ishak looked to investigate the relationship between Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Black Sqaure (1915) and the holy Kaaba black cube at Mecca, Apnea included a suite of fifteen A4 sized paintings on MDF, each figuring a half black cube haphazardly occupying interim spaces within the National Gallery of Victoria: corridors, foyers, storage spaces and external courtyards of the museum. The half black cube resists and blocks light emanating from exhibition spaces, articulating its inherent incapacity to socialise with art and in turn its continuous state of flux from one space to another.
Migration and Modernism
23 May 2026 – 7 March 2027
National Gallery of Australia
Canberra, ACT
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country