The latest exhibition of photographer Ian North’s work, Antarctica 1915, demonstrates his uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist of our socially fractured and culturally fragmented times.
With past controversies ranging from restoration to public toilets and present ones from oil sponsorship to selfie sticks, Gabriele Finaldi has a daunting task on his hands.
Children’s drawings are an accessible and compelling image of the mandatory detention of children in isolated camps. Is that why they carry so much weight in the media?
Some 23 years after his death, Australian artist Brett Whitely’s vision continues to have resonance and will likely remain a defining representation of late 20th century Australia.
LA photographer Alex Prager is currently exhibiting short films and film stills at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne. There is something authentic behind the artifice of her highly staged…
We hear so much about the integrity of scientific process and the role of data in driving action on climate change – but what role is there for artists in bringing about changes in understandings? Science…
For four days in January, it could be argued that London is the centre of the global market for contemporary art, thanks to the London Art Fair, open from January 21 to 25. But this wasn’t always so. Such…
James Turrell: A Retrospective opens at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra on December 13. The show documents the Californian-born artist’s practice over almost 50 years, including his…
There are about 30,000 professional practicing visual artists in Australia today (see note). By professional, I mean exhibiting regularly in recognised commercial or public galleries and represented in…
In Australia’s somewhat subdued public sculpture scene, the McClelland Sculpture Survey – which runs until July 19, 2015 – provides a rare opportunity for witnessing contemporary public sculpture. This…
Western Australian artist Nola Farman’s practice has never followed a predictable trajectory. Her major work, The Lift Project (1979-82), is an important and influential contribution to Australia’s new…
There’s a problem with the history of western art: we face it from the wrong side of decades of discursive dismantling. The conventional “story” of early 20th-century modernism, in which an advanced guard…
What’s the key to understanding art? Could there be some easy steps to unpacking the meaning of an artwork? The short answer is: yes. I recently wrote an article for The Conversation called Three questions…
Paul McCarthy, the granddaddy of shock conceptual art, has gone and done it again. In a globally reported move, part-installation and part promotional-stunt to mark the imminent opening of Paris’s Foire…
The central premise of American director Lynn Hershman Leeson’s film !Women Art Revolution (2010), which screened at the Melbourne Festival over the weekend, is summarised near its conclusion: “When artists…
Primavera is the Italian word for springtime, and each spring since 1992 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney has a curated selection of emerging artists under 35 years old – in the springtime of their…
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne