“Because what is the substance of our lives, except for the things we thought were significant?” From standing on clifftops to attempting to swim the English Channel, for over two decades Todd McMillan has created art on endurance, melancholia and absurdity—and he’s taking this further with new shows at Nicholas Thompson and Penrith Regional Gallery.
A photograph taken in 1995 is an incredible snapshot of talent, featuring seven First Nations artists who are now crucial figures in Australian art, alongside a very newly elected New South Wales premier, Bob Carr. Why was this picture taken? And what can it tell us now? Brenda L Croft reflects.
Looking at Chiharu Shiota’s art paradoxically offers an uncanny awareness of one’s bodily existence alongside the elusiveness of time. To see Shiota’s latest installation and works at Anna Schwartz Gallery is to be awe-struck.
“It’s not the last word in painting at all”: Like a Wheel That Turns at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) doesn’t focus on what painting is—but what painting can do.
Several major art fairs and festivals are upcoming across Australia, from Sydney to Cairns to Darwin to South Australia—some of which are returning for the first time in several years. Whether it’s Indigenous art fairs or exciting showcases of art and performance, here’s our guide on what to see.
Traversing sculpture, painting and sound Afterburner reveals Michelle Ussher’s quest to represent and challenge understandings of femininity—particularly the shapes, expressions and actions that are associated with feminine artistic expression. View, in pictures, Ussher’s vibrant and evocative works at STATION gallery (Sydney).
“You constantly read about the revival of craft and textiles, but they’ve never gone away.” In a vast new exhibition at CAVES, over 50 artists from Australia and New Zealand shed light on the evolving conversations around textiles.
Although Karla Dickens’s home was spared in the recent Lismore floods, she’s attentively focused on the collective community of the town—and she’s also creating new art showing at Sullivan+Strumpf.
Everyone is capable of taking on the posture of an art critic. An adult thinks their child could paint that, then a child comments their dog could draw that—and as illustrator Oslo Davis shows us, the cycle of criticism goes around.
Nuha Saad’s kaleidoscopically colourful art is a tandem exploration of the ornamental and decorative, while also delicately drawing upon her Lebanese and Australian heritage. Her latest exhibition at James Makin Gallery draws upon a visual military operation known as Razzle Dazzle, which yielded fleets of vessels that looked like floating Cubist paintings.
“When a friend began coaching me to run long distances, I consequently began drawing as well.” – Cherine Fahd
The electric field of light has long held the attention of artists. Light: Works from Tate’s Collection at ACMI presents significant works from artists like Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson and Yayoi Kusama, illuminating how artists in the Tate’s collection have engaged with light for over 200 years.
