Art Guide Australia

Sustaining Country: The stories behind four artworks in Emu Sky

Emu Sky invites audiences to reflect on the importance of respecting, resourcing and valuing Indigenous knowledge of Country. This vast exhibition, held at Melbourne University’s Old Quad, showcases work from more than 30 Aboriginal community members across south-eastern Australia. Learn the stories behind four featured artworks.

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“A monumental sculpture”: Margaret Rarru Garrawurra wins the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards

Congratulations to Margaret Rarru Garrawurra for winning the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). Her award-winning work powerfully references her cultural identity and the long-lasting relationships between Yolŋu people and the people of Indonesia—and it’s exhibiting in Darwin alongside other NATSIAA winners and finalists.

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Open hands for healing art: Iluwanti Ken and Betty Muffler in pictures

Iluwanti Ken and Betty Muffler are both celebrated senior Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara artists and Ngangkari (traditional healers) for community and Country. Together, they join forces for a significant and powerful exhibition at Jan Murphy Gallery. View, in pictures, Ken and Muffler’s evocative and illuminating works.

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“We are all connected”: Chiharu Shiota’s State of Being in pictures

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.

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Boldly Feminine: Michelle Ussher’s Afterburner in pictures

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).

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An Embracing Tussle: Five contemporary artists on Picasso

Many artists are charged with changing the course of art—for Pablo Picasso, it’s almost an understatement. Ahead of the National Gallery of Victoria’s The Picasso Century we asked five artists—Eleanor Louise Butt, Yvette Coppersmith, Euan Heng, Wendy Sharpe, and John Wolseley—to each reflect on one Picasso painting in the exhibition.

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Winners of the Victorian Craft Awards announced

The winners of the 2022 Victorian Craft Awards have been announced, with Blanche Tilden winning ‘The Lynne Kosky Award for Contemporary Jewellery’, alongside another five award categories recognising craft in its many forms—and there’s a stunning finalist exhibition on display at Craft Victoria.

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Major Picasso exhibition is coming to Melbourne this winter

‘The Picasso Century’ blockbuster will be opening at the National Gallery of Victoria in June, capturing Pablo Picasso’s extraordinary career, alongside dialogues with the many artists, poets and intellectuals he interacted with, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí and Gertrude Stein.

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Gallery closures and support as floods devastate Queensland and New South Wales

As flood waters devastate south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, a number of galleries, museums and cultural hubs are currently closed. Our thoughts are with those affected. We’ll keep a rolling update of closures online, alongside ways those affected can be supported at this time.

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Smartphone Snaps: Hannah Gartside

Despite being in ongoing lockdown in Melbourne, Hannah Gartside is still creating, giving attention to the tactility, movement and histories of textiles.

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Smartphone Snaps: Vicky Browne

In her Smartphone Snaps photo essay, Blue Mountains-based artist Vicky Browne makes the most of her home studio and furry menagerie, while missing exhibiting.

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Smartphone Snaps: Richard Lewer

In his Smartphone Snaps photo feature, Melbourne-based artist Richard Lewer keeps busy both painting and walking.

Editorial Team