This was the first major survey exhibition of leading Australian artist Diena Georgetti, presented by MUMA in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane. The Humanity of Abstract Painting revealed two decades of Georgetti’s enigmatic and elusive artistic practice—from her early blackboard paintings that achieved considerable critical attention when first shown in the late 1980s to paintings from the mid-2000s that co-opted early modernist styles to new ends. This survey exhibition presented the full scope of Georgetti’s intriguing and diverse oeuvre to date, allowing viewers to take stock of its breadth and development. The show brought together works from various private collections throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as several public collections.

Following her first individual and group exhibitions in Brisbane from 1986, Georgetti held solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1988; IMA, 1989; Store 5, Melbourne, annually from 1990 to 1993; 200 Gertrude Street (now Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces), Melbourne, 1993; and Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, 1994. Georgetti was represented at the 9th Biennale of Sydney in 1992, and Australian Perspecta 1995, both at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and has participated in a significant number of group exhibitions and curatorial projects, including 21st Century Modern, 2006; Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2006; Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects |Store 5 |1st Floor, MUMA, 2005; and Post Contemporary Painting, IMA, 2004.

^{Image: Diena Georgetti: The Humanity of Abstract Painting 1988–2008, installation view, Monash University Museum of Art, Clayton, 2008. Photo: Christian Capurro}