Melbourne Sculpture Biennale promotional image featuring Sean Meilak, Into the night, 2021; Sean Meilak, Un chant d’amour, 2021. Courtesy the artist and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.
Yhonnie Scarce, Nucleus (blue) detail, 2020, Hand blown glass bush plums, 4 pieces, each 30 x 40 x 30cm Image: Simon Strong
Narelle Desmond, Institutional Green (Detail), 2021, Wooden ladders, perspex, timber frame, brass fittings, 362 x 250 x 6cm Image: James Whiting
A new event has arrived in Melbourne’s cultural calendar with the inauguration of the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale. Founded, directed and curated by Adam Stone and Laura Couttie, the exhibition aims to showcase the breadth and diversity of contemporary sculpture in Victoria.
The first iteration of the biennale, titled The Burden of Objects, is being held at the Villa Alba Museum, a heritage mansion in Kew, Naarm/Melbourne. Nineteen Victorian-based artists are involved, all with practices that centre the materiality of sculpture—Yhonnie Scarce, Catherine Bell, Julia Gorman, Louise Paramor, Nathan Beard and Ronnie van Hout among them.
Stone and Couttie said, “We hope that the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale will remind collectors of the dynamism and wonder of the sculptural medium and foster renewed patronage and opportunities for ambitious, critically engaged contemporary sculptural practice.”
View, in pictures, the variety and creativity of the sculptural medium.
Louise Paramor, High Society, Installation view, Fine Arts Sydney.
Yhonnie Scarce, Nucleus (blue), 2020, Hand blown glass bush plums, 4 pieces, each 30 x 40 x 30cm Image: Simon Strong
Steven Bellosguardo, As I stagnate, I Ponder Silent Waters, 2024, Stainless steel, silicone, 180 x 120 x 85cm, Image: Lucy Foster
Hugo Blomley, Untitled, 2024, Fibreglass with gelcoat, 22.5 x 140 x 22.5cm, Image: Leon Schoots
Nathan Beard, Tropical Flesh (vi), 2023, Painted silicone, steel, 28 x 25 x 22cm Image: Christian Capurro
Ronnie Van Hout, Standing Giant, 2024, UV resin, glue, paint, wig
Narelle Desmond, Institutional Green, 2021, wooden ladders, perspex, timber frame, brass fittings, 362 x 250 x 6 cm
Rob McLeish, Sinkhole Holiday (Suspended Model in Black, 001), 2018, Epoxy resin, steel, 175 x 35 x 37cm
Julia Gorman, Pinky, 2007, Aluminium with 2 pack automotive paint, 201 x 148 x 151 cm Image: Greg Weight
Melbourne Sculpture Biennale: The Burden of Objects
Villa Alba Museum
9—13 October
The winning painting of this year’s Archibald Packing Room Prize reflected a changing of the guard in the packing room, as well as an evolution of the broader prize, with artists increasingly choosing to paint their fellow artists. The Archibald Prize 2025 currently is on display at Geelong Gallery.
Mundamurra Ngijinda Dulk—My Island Home at Cairns Art Gallery, is a landmark exhibition dedicated to the late Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, one of the most singular voices in Australian contemporary painting.
Farrago, the University of Melbourne’s student union newspaper-turned-magazine celebrates a hundred years of publication. At a time when print publishing in the arts is under increasing pressure, The George Paton Gallery is exhibiting ‘Farrago 100 Years’, celebrating the editorial legacy and design innovation of the periodical.
Spring1883, Melbourne’s interactive and immersive fair returns, celebrating the collision of contemporary art installed amongst 18th century decor of The Hotel Windsor.
Over 70 fabulous garments of exquisite craftsmanship – some made of silk with gold and silver embroidery and dazzling designs – have been assembled within a context of over 150 paintings, posters, wood block prints, magazines and decorative arts. Although many of the items have never been previously exhibited in Australia, most are now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, with many specifically acquired for this exhibition.
For decades, beginning well before the advent of social media, Barbara Kruger’s prescient use of words and text has invited people to consider their context in contemporary society. In Brisbane, between 4–7 September, audiences may experience her concise, dynamic aesthetic within the internationally acclaimed Gems delivered by choreographer Benjamin Millepied and the L.A. Dance Project.
