The growing cultural interest in art books reflects the enduring power of the printed word. Jane O’Sullivan takes a closer look.
About Face is a smart piece of marketing. The new book on portrait painting from Australia and New Zealand has a mission to change buyers’ minds about the field. But as Jane O’Sullivan discovers, any sales pitch wears thin if it’s repeated often enough, and the close attention to how portrait painting is received by the market means that other important conversations fade to the background.
Natalya Hughes has a conflicted fascination with modernist men like Freud, Kirchner and de Kooning. Jane O’Sullivan takes a look at The Interior, the Institute of Modern Art monograph on her recent practice, and discovers difficult and provocative questions about not just the representation of women in art and culture, but also the careers of women artists in Australia.
Madjem Bambandila: The Art & Country of Kelly Koumalatsos is a community approach to storytelling. A testament to living culture, the new monograph published by Museums Victoria centres on a cultural activist and artist known for reviving possum skin cloak making in the South East of Australia.
Artist books are sometimes treated like exhibition postcards and not much more than mementos, but they grapple with intriguing questions about what to document, and how. Jane O’Sullivan reviews three artist monographs from Elizabeth Newman, Kate Tucker and Louise Haselton, and finds some very different strategies.
Video and time-based art is a mutant medium with a disjointed history. Jane O’Sullivan reviews Outside the Frame: Art and the Moving Image, which takes a snapshot of contemporary practice through 21 recent moving image commissions.
Welcome to the first iteration of our monthly book review series, where we share the latest curation of titles straight from the Art Guide Bookstore. With each instalment, we’ll celebrate what’s on offer in the world of Australian art book publishing.“Creativity is never an individual competitive practice.” Jane O’Sullivan reviews CoUNTess: Spoiling Illusions Since 2008, a recent book exposing the data on gender inequity in the arts.
In 1841, the women aboard a British convict ship crafted a large-scale quilt known as ‘The Rajah quilt’. It’s one the most requested items from the National Gallery of Australia’s collection—and it’s now showing alongside a further 21 quilts, many crafted by women.
From revelling in biography to what artists wear to creative workshops, Jane O’Sullivan writes on a new artistic retreat, revealing the joys of learning directly from artists.
Kirtika Kain’s Western Sydney apartment on Dharug Country is crowded with boxes of materials and new canvases. She came back from a residency in Italy in late 2022 and since then she’s been living alongside her work, preparing for her solo exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 and for the Biennale of Sydney next year. The cohabitation has been intense and sometimes messy, but Kain says studio life is teaching her new confidence.
Why are we so hard on pink? Thinking Through Pink at Wollongong Art Gallery revels in a lush, complicated colour.
Lydia Wegner’s photographs urge audiences to question what they see. Wegner’s latest work at Arc One Gallery presents audiences with visual abstractions that cause reason to pause and pay attention.
