Suggested Reading
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
Looking Forward, Looking Back with Lisa Reihana
Auckland-born and raised artist Lisa Reihana is ever the optimist, creating two new works signifying social cohesion to hang outside two Australian arts venues—Ngununggula, and Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks —just as dark divisions seek to undermine the value of migration and Indigenous sovereignty.
Steve Dow
Max Athans and the proxy breath
The central life-giving gesture of the breath is at the core of Max Athans’ first institutional solo exhibition. Their series of sculptures, collectively titled Breathform, take air into latex ‘lungs’ which create a whistle in the exhale, a deep breathy sound that echoes eerily through the galleries.
Louise Martin-Chew
Depth of Field: Photography at Sydney Contemporary
This year’s edition of Sydney Contemporary marks the launch of Photo Sydney, a presentation that brings together the country’s most acclaimed photographers and gives the medium —and its relevance to our cultural moment—the attention it deserves.
Emma O'Neill
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.