Australia’s premier satirical art prize, The Bald Archy celebrates humour, irreverence and the larrikin spirit through portraiture. Judged by Professor Maude Cockatoo, the world’s only avian art critic, this long-running exhibition is known for portraits that provoke laughter, spark conversations, and affectionately skewer public figures. Now in its 28th year, the prize continues to charm and challenge, with a line-up of works guaranteed to amuse and surprise.
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.
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.
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.
Described as “a space for reflection, remembrance, and the sharing of truth”, Kattidj Nagãr, now showing at John Curtin Gallery, is dedicated to the Aboriginal people who once resided at the Carrolup Settlement in Western Australia.
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.
In an Australian first, the Art Gallery of Western Australia presents Moving Landscape—an exhibition by internationally acclaimed US artist Sam Contis, curated alongside Dr Anna Arabindan-Kesson.
