Steve Dow

Writer

Steve Dow is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based arts writer, whose profiles, essays, previews and reviews range across the visual arts, theatre, film and television for The Saturday Paper, Guardian Australia, The Monthly, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Sunday Life, Limelight and VAULT.

Feature

Resisting rules with Janet Dawson

At 90, Janet Dawson has spent a life drawn to the light and energy of the natural and celestial worlds as she crosses boundaries of abstraction and figuration. A retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales charts the evolution of her practice.

Feature

Cultural exchange on the international stage

Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890–1940, co-curated by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, celebrates 50 Australian women artists who travelled to Europe during the early 20th century.

Feature

Janenne Eaton reflects the impact of the digital world on the natural

Janenne Eaton’s first major career survey, Lines of Sight—Frame and Horizon opens at Geelong Gallery. With a lifetime of environmental work and appreciation, the work reflects on the omnipotence of technology, capturing the essential commentary of humanity’s effect on the natural world.

News

Bruce Johnson McLean appointed First Nations curatorial fellow of the 2026 Biennale of Sydney

Bruce Johnson McLean, one of Australia’s leading voices on First Nations art, has been appointed the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain First Nations curatorial fellow for the next Biennale of Sydney. Steve Dow talks with Johnson McLean on his storied history, and what he hopes to achieve in the 2026 Biennale.

Feature

Senses and symbols with Mitch Cairns

Mitch Cairns’s latest solo exhibition Restless Legs, now showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, draws on symbols—from literature, mythology, nature, and home life—to find new pathways into painting.

Feature

Shadow hunting with James Tylor

The quietly evocative work of James Tylor reimagines imperial legacies and illuminates a hidden past. Turrangka… In The Shadows, Tylor’s touring retrospective exhibition, is now showing at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.

Feature

Marikit Santiago’s divine interventions

In her audacious new exhibition, the Filipina Australian artist Marikit Santiago skewers the myths of the western canon and give pleasure and power—as experienced by women of colour—an arresting new form.

Preview

Imants Tillers gets metaphysical

In his latest exhibition, now showing at Bett Gallery, Postmodern painter and writer Imants Tillers is influenced by a variety of sources including the metaphysical style of Italian artist Georgio de Chirico.

News

Khaled Sabsabi on the 61st Venice Biennale: “We need a way forward to exist and co-exist.”

After announcing last week that artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino would represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, Creative Australia has made the unprecedented decision to drop the team.

Preview

All that glitters with The Huxleys

Partners in life and art, Will and Garrett Huxley’s sequined wonderland pays homage to their queer artist forebears. Their first collective survey, now showing at Fremantle Arts Centre, unfurls a decade of photography, music recordings, costume, film and performance.

Feature

Telly Tuita’s life in technicolour

Tongan legends and pop culture heroes face off in the work of Telly Tuita, an artist whose freewheeling visual language articulates the light and shade of experience and the multiple selves we contain. Tuita is now showing as part of Sydney Festival.

Feature

Jonathan Jones on Country and kinship

bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, curated by Jonathan Jones and now showing at Bundanon, highlights a long history of Indigenous art on the New South Wales south coast, with works and installations from Jones, Aunty Julie Freeman, Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Mickey of Ulladulla.

Search

Steve Dow

Writer

Steve Dow's Articles

Resisting rules with Janet Dawson

Cultural exchange on the international stage

Janenne Eaton reflects the impact of the digital world on the natural

Bruce Johnson McLean appointed First Nations curatorial fellow of the 2026 Biennale of Sydney

Senses and symbols with Mitch Cairns

Shadow hunting with James Tylor

Marikit Santiago’s divine interventions

Imants Tillers gets metaphysical

Khaled Sabsabi on the 61st Venice Biennale: “We need a way forward to exist and co-exist.”

All that glitters with The Huxleys

Telly Tuita’s life in technicolour

Jonathan Jones on Country and kinship

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Sign up to our weekly newsletter