Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou is the first major museum retrospective of Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou (1961–2018). Drawing from the NGV Collection and the artist’s estate, the exhibition comprises photographs of the artist’s daughter Olympia. From her birth (1997) until her mother’s death last year, Olympia played a central role in Papapetrou’s image-making, variously assuming the complex roles of model and muse, collaborator and champion.

Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou surveys twenty years of Papapetrou’s practice and includes works from her best-known series, as well as images never before displayed in Melbourne. Influenced by her PhD on the work of nineteenth-century English author Lewis Carroll, Papapetrou’s work explores the representation of children in historical and contemporary settings and their role in society, the complex stereotypes surrounding childhood and, later, issues of identity and the individual.

This free exhibition is on at NGV Australia until 15 March 2020

IMAGE CAPTION: Polixeni Papapetrou, The debutants 2009 from the Between Worlds series 2009, inkjet print, 105.0 x 105.0 cm, Private collection © The estate of Polixeni Papapetrou, Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney) and Jarvis Dooney (Berlin)