Barnaby Smith

Writer

Barnaby Smith is a critic, poet and musician currently living on Bundjalung country. His art criticism has appeared in Art & Australia, Runway, The Quietus and Running Dog, among others. He won the 2018 Scarlett Award from Lorne Sculpture Biennale.

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David Fairbairn is painting ageing and companionship

David Fairbairn’s deeply felt, emotive portraits are a soulful meditation on ageing and companionship. For Drawn Together at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Fairbairn has brought new dimensions to his ongoing study of intimacy.

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How artists are building limitless worlds

The creation of art is not dissimilar from the creation of worlds: from fantastical responses to personal and collective utopian imaginings, ideas of alternative worlds are being expressed across three innovative exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, State Library of Victoria, and 16Albermarle and Delmar Gallery.

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Art fairs and festivals are back in action

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.

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Five Indigenous art centres celebrate Country in the city: “We are connected to our Country more than ever”

The concept of Country, as defined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, is not only a reference to landscape, waterways and seas: Our Country at Brunswick Street Gallery explores what Country represents for Indigenous artists working from five art centres in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

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Frank Morris on rock, paper, scissors and sighing

Frank Morris’s paintings in Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sigh are an exercise in formal innovation, showing at Art Collective WA—where his art is open to multiple, perhaps endless, meanings

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Steve Lopes responds to identity in landscapes

The son of Italian migrants, Steve Lopes explores how cultural and psychological identity can evolve and expand in an Australian environment, with its “intensity of colour and light”, as he puts it. His latest show is at Orange Regional Gallery.

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Celebrating the exhibiting and conversation of ceramics

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.

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Six new galleries to know about

From Melbourne to Brisbane to Newcastle to Sydney to Mildura, here’s six new galleries with six new and compelling exhibitions.

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“What could be more radical than slowing down?” New exhibition explores the necessity of slowness

In a world defined by speed and acceleration Radical Slowness at The Lock-Up explores slowness through art and thought.

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Alexander Okenyo explores a “love of one’s fate” in Amor Fati

The practice and philosophy of journaling is at the heart of Alexander Okenyo’s Amor Fati at Bett Gallery: the show can be read as a series of time capsules from Okenyo’s life as he negotiates the art world, family, the pandemic, and his community in the Derwent Valley of Tasmania.

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The beauty, history and craft of toys is explored in Toy Stories

The history of toys can tell us much about the history of people and culture. And by this logic, Toy Stories at Midland Junction Arts Centre reveals a pattern of improvisation, experimentation and ingenuity in Western Australia over the last century.

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Textiles are as tactile as they are political in Fresh Material

Fresh Material at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery sees 20 artists transcend conventional ideas of textile art, looking at the medium’s materiality and social resonance, whether that’s through Indigenous culture, queer theory, diaspora or the representation of women.

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Barnaby Smith

Writer

Barnaby Smith's Articles

David Fairbairn is painting ageing and companionship

How artists are building limitless worlds

Art fairs and festivals are back in action

Five Indigenous art centres celebrate Country in the city: “We are connected to our Country more than ever”

Frank Morris on rock, paper, scissors and sighing

Steve Lopes responds to identity in landscapes

Celebrating the exhibiting and conversation of ceramics

Six new galleries to know about

“What could be more radical than slowing down?” New exhibition explores the necessity of slowness

Alexander Okenyo explores a “love of one’s fate” in Amor Fati

The beauty, history and craft of toys is explored in Toy Stories

Textiles are as tactile as they are political in Fresh Material

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