The Sydney International Art Series, which last summer brought Louise Bourgeois, Kandinsky and Tacita Dean to Australia, has announced a return for 2024–2025. Three more internationally renowned artists will exhibit exclusively in Sydney this summer, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).
The AGNSW will host two separate exhibitions. The first will be Magritte: a retrospective of Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898–1967) and will feature over 100 works, from early drawings and rarely seen photographs to some of the most iconic and recognisable paintings of the 20th century. It will be the first retrospective dedicated to Magritte shown in Australia, with most of the works never having been seen in this country.
Opening alongside Magritte is Cao Fei: My City is Yours. Guangzhou-born, Beijing-based cyber-futurist artist Cao Fei (b1978) has been labelled one of the art world’s most influential people. Her multimedia work—which spans video, performance, and digital media—explores China’s rapid urbanisation, globalisation and technological transformation. My City is Yours will be Fei’s first Australian retrospective, and will be an interactive metropolis spanning 1300-square-metres of gallery space.
The Museum of Contemporary Art has announced their summer show will be the first major survey in the Southern Hemisphere of influential artist Julie Mehretu. Born in Ethiopia and based in New York, Mehretu creates monumental paintings layered with material and meaning, and has been described by the New York Times as “one of today’s most original and thought-provoking painters”. Julie Mehretu will feature over 80 paintings from 1995 to the present, including some new works created for the exhibition.
“Julie Mehretu, René Magritte and Cao Fei are three of the most recognised and influential artists of their respective generations,” says NSW Minister for Tourism and the Arts, John Graham. “I’m pleased that art lovers will be able to enjoy them in Sydney next summer. The three exhibitions under the Sydney International Art Series 2024-25 program reflect our ambition to ensure Sydney is a global cultural hub where art and creativity is celebrated, a place where locals and visitors can experience the most exciting and cutting-edge cultural offerings, from around Sydney, NSW, Australia and the world.”
Magritte
Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW)
26 October 2024—9 February 2025
Cao Fei: My City is Yours
Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW)
30 November 2024—13 April 2025
Julie Mehretu
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
29 November 2024—27 April 2025
Suggested Reading
65,000 Years brings truth telling to art history
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
Jane O'Sullivan
Oslo Davis reimagines art terms
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
Oslo Davis
The major exhibitions open in each capital city this summer
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
Art Guide Australia
‘About Face’ mirrors the alluring world of contemporary portrait painting
About Face is a smart piece of marketing. The new book on portrait painting from Australia and New Zealand has a mission to change buyers’ minds about the field. But as Jane O’Sullivan discovers, any sales pitch wears thin if it’s repeated often enough, and the close attention to how portrait painting is received by the market means that other important conversations fade to the background.
Jane O'Sullivan
Julie Mehretu and the new contemporary
Julie Mehretu’s first solo exhibition in the southern hemisphere, now showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, attempts to harness the urgency and energy of the Ethiopian-born New Yorker’s multilayered painting practice.
Courtney Kidd
The rhythm of creating
In a new collaborative exhibition at PS Art Space, in partnership with Cool Change Contemporary, five artists with process-lead practices contemplate material ethics through actively engaging in slowness and reuse.