Suggested Reading
Shelf Portraits: Yuriyal Bridgeman’s monograph grapples with representing community-engaged practice
In our ongoing series, Shelf Portraits, Art Guide writers recommend the books—recently published or deserving of more attention—that shed new light on an idea that has long simmered in the art world or has helped them see a familiar medium in a different light.
Jane O'Sullivan
Life Cycles with Betty Kuntiwa Pumani
The paintings of Betty Kuntiwa Pumani form a part of a larger, living archive on Antaṟa, her mother’s Country. More than maps, they speak to ancestral songlines, place and ceremony.
Emma O'Neill
Seeing Double
A presentation of works by Robert Mapplethorpe curated by the British editor Edward Enninful, Enninful x Mapplethorpe, at the 2025 Ballarat International Foto Biennale, finds resonance in opposites while turning binary thinking on its head.
Amelia Winata
Ghosts in the Machine
In a world in which the new wave of AI is reframing our relationship with creative labour, how do artists negotiate an impending crisis of relevance and understand the true value of their work? Stephanie Wood reports.
Stephanie Wood
Senses and symbols with Mitch Cairns
Mitch Cairns’s latest solo exhibition Restless Legs, now showing at the Wollongong Art Gallery, draws on symbols—from literature, mythology, nature, and home life—to find new pathways into painting.
Steve Dow
From the archive: art and the environment
In the last 25 years, there have been few themes as omnipresent as the environment, especially when we look at Australian art. Join us as we revisit pieces from our archive that track artists’ ongoing fascination with the natural world and its changing landscape.