Footsteps Through Country Footsteps Through Country Jazz and Kristal Matthews – Wilay Designs Belco Arts 11 Jul—24 Aug
Feature Chinese Restaurant Playground: Steffie Yee shares off-menu stories Steffie Yee spent many years gathering stories and images of her family’s history in the town of Branxton, NSW where her parents successfully ran a Chinese restaurant. Yee’s solo exhibition Chinese Restaurant Playground, which celebrates playfulness and joy, recently opened at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery. Jasmeet Kaur Sahi
Preview Wang Zhiyuan and our roles as little dictators In an era of information excess and manipulation, Wang Zhiyuan’s Dictator Training Centre exhibiting at Passage Gallery, reminds us of contemporary art’s potential as an open-ended platform for reflection, dialogue, and shared authorship. Michelle Wang
Book Reviews Shelf Portraits: Critical Currents In our ongoing series, Shelf Portraits, Art Guide writers recommend the books—recently published or deserving of more attention—that shed new light on an idea that has long simmered in the art world or has helped them see a familiar medium in a different light. Jane O'Sullivan
Preview Gordon Hookey is effecting change Waanyi artist Gordon Hookey has been creating artwork for more than three decades. Describing his style as pictograms of a scenario, with images and symbols connecting a sprawling narrative, Hookey’s work, which is now showing at Plimsoll Gallery, is imbued with elements of activism, pop culture and lived experience. Briony Downes
Feature Sensory perceptions Inspired by the ways in which nature informs creativity, the exhibition Material Nature, now showing at Drill Hall Gallery, aims to encourage viewers to think deeply about the human connection to the natural world. Briony Downes
Feature Cosmic connections with Man&Wah With an approach to artmaking drawn from the “fieldwork of life”, twin brothers and artistic collaborators Man&Wah, who are now showing at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, use plant migration to explore duality and movement. Cher Tan