Critics have long wrestled with the question of how artists and writers influence each other. For Luke Johnson, an encounter with a painting took him in a wholly unexpected direction.
An expansive Queensland Art Gallery survey show of lyrical Indigenous artist Judy Watson, mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri, is both thought provoking and stunningly beautiful.
Jumaadi, ayang-ayang, installation view. Tales of Land & Sea , Bundanon, 2024. Photo: Jessica Maurer.
Hoda Afshar is one of Australia’s most significant photo media artists. A Curve is a Broken Line at the Art Gallery of New South Wales is her first major survey exhibition.
The Kongouro from New Holland, 1772, George Stubbs
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
How did George Stubbs, one of England’s foremost painters of horses and dogs, get Australian animals so wrong?
Raphaela Rosella with Dayannah Baker Barlow, Kathleen Duncan, Gillianne Laurie, Tammara Macrokanis, Amelia Rosella, Nunjul Townsend, Laurinda Whitton, Tricia Whitton, and family, You’ll Know It When You Feel It, 2011–2023. Installation view, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2023.
Photo: Louis Lim.
In You’ll Know It When You Feel It at the Institute of Modern Art, Raphaela Rosella and her co-creators have sought to reclaim and counteract the narratives formed by state records.
Studying in London, the young artist examined the human figure, animals in the zoo and the rich cross-section of theatre life and of life on the streets.
Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne.
Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Coming together for a portrait creates playful opportunities for social interactions among strangers.
Justene Williams, Australia b.1970. The Vertigoats 2021. Mixed media. Installed dimensions variable. Purchased 2021 with funds from the Contemporary Patrons through the QAGOMA Foundation.
Collection: QAGOMA. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA
Daniel Boyd’s solo exhibition Treasure Island, now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is a deeply political and personal interrogation of Australia’s colonial history.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne