The Pilbara is known as Western Australia’s ‘mining powerhouse’, but this is changing. Bringing together 70 artists across the Pilbara, Tracks We Share at the Art Gallery of Western Australia shows the manifold stories and art of the region.
Chloé, the French nude by Jules Joseph Lefebvre, is an Australian cultural icon.
Melbourne’s RISING festival of art, music and performance is something of a fever dream, having been delayed from 2020 and then running for just one night in 2021 before again being impeded by lockdowns. Now taking place this June with over 200 events by 800 artists, it may be tricky deciding what to see—so here’s our top picks, with tickets still available.
For those seeking refuge from the election, the 101st Archibald Prize is almost a politician-free zone. Unless you count Joanna Braithwaite’s amusingly titled McManusstan, a portrait of bird lover Sally McManus. Former Labor minister Peter Garrett painted by Anh Do is in the line up – but more accurately described as a rock star.
Confined 13 shows how art can change lives. With 400 works created by First Nations artists either currently in or recently released from Victorian prisons, the exhibition is a tribute to how artistic expression strengthens a person’s connection to their story and culture, while giving further artistic possibilities.
SIXTY: The Journal of Australian Ceramics 60th Anniversary 1962–2022 is both a celebration of the journal of the same name, but also an exhibition that shows the breadth of 22 makers and artists in this field. Across four years it will tour to every state and territory.
Known as one of Australia’s preeminent art collecting couples, South African emigres Gene and Brian Sherman’s private art collection “bears testament to our life and love as a couple”. Having collected over 900 pieces by artists including Janet Laurence and Ai Weiwei, Gene explains why some of this collection is going to auction—but amidst this is an even bigger conversation on art itself, migration, asylum seekers and posterity.
Ballarat-born now London-based artist David Noonan has a major new Australian exhibition Only when it’s cloudless at TarraWarra Museum of Art—and it’s inspired by defining moments of mise-en-scéne.
Painting since 2018, Carbiene McDonald Tjangala has already held three solo shows and won the 2019 Hadley’s Art Prize for landscape painting. His latest show at RAFT artspace in Alice Springs exhibits his paintings of Tjangala (Dreaming).
Mexican artist Tania Candiani is bringing her large-scale installations to Sydney, in a startlingly poetic work reflecting the flows of waterways, sound, language, migration and eco systems.
The acclaimed UK duo Ackroyd & Harvey are two of the most innovative artists working in environmental art today—and for the current Biennale of Sydney, they’ve bought their grass works to our shores, advocating for a sustainable future.
The pandemic has been a wake-up call. Now, more than ever, the arts are a part of our daily lives. They are not something only “the elite” enjoy; they are an expression of the human condition.
