Often it is just one artwork that kindles the idea for an exhibition. Robert Dale’s extraordinary panorama of King George Sound, engraved by Robert Havell and published as A Descriptive Account of the…
Neville Wran had a reputation as a tough guy – but he was also a strong supporter of the arts.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
In 1981, on a short trip back home to Australia from the UK, I saw a job advertised that I thought had been made for me. The Director, Women and Arts, according to the advertisement, was a special role…
Julie Shiels has been repurposing streetside detritus to artistic ends since 2005.
Julie Shiels
It all began with a muselet – the wire cage that holds a champagne cork in place. Flattened on the footpath, its complex pattern caught my eye. I began noticing others, and realised that every squashed…
Character drawings are encoded with cues to help animators understand how the character should move.
Courtesy DreamWorks Animation SKG
When I first started working as an animator on the South Park (1999) feature film in California, I found it remarkable that every Tuesday evening the studio would hold life-drawing classes. It seemed odd…
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, one of many collaborators in Deborah Kelly’s most recent creation.
N.E. Skinner
You may have heard of Deborah Kelly, the well-known Sydney-based artist with a work in the 2014 Biennale of Sydney entitled No Human Being Is Illegal (In All Our Glory). The work features a suite of life-size…
The only surprising thing about the news that Sarah Lucas has been chosen to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2015 is that it has taken so long to happen. Immediate media response to the British…
Large media coverage and biennales tend to go hand in hand.
AAP Image/Quentin Jones
Although some doubted the 19th Biennale of Sydney would proceed after the split from founding sponsor Transfield, the country’s biggest contemporary art event opens this week in Sydney. Debate continues…
Audiences are invited to hop aboard Callum Morton’s Google Ghost Train as part of this year’s Biennale of Sydney.
AAP Image/Quentin Jones
Over its 41-year history the recipe for a successful Biennale of Sydney has remained remarkably consistent. There are three ingredients and all three need to work in harmony for the exhibition to properly…
It is infantile to pick on one holding company while ignoring the central role of the Australian government.
Eoin Blackwell/AAP Image
The Biennale of Sydney, which begins on March 21, has announced it will sever ties with its founding partner Transfield, following weeks of pressure from artists angered by the company’s links to Australia’s…
This is the contemporary art exhibition we’ve been waiting for. Works by Ben Quilty and Alex Seton at the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art.
Art Gallery of South Australia
This is the exhibition we have been waiting for. This is contemporary art as it was meant to be – warning that we are experiencing the dark night of the national soul. The country that once thought of…
The children of the wealthy know that mainstream culture belongs to them.
urbanartcore.eu
The Conversation is running a series, Class in Australia, to identify, illuminate and debate its many manifestations. Here, Joanna Mendelssohn examines the links between Indigenous art and class. The great…
A spectre of evaluation is haunting the arts. The relationships between artists and their audiences are being mediated by an ever-more complex system that determines the value of art. It’s a system driven…
PERKS AND MINI, Melbourne (PAM)
(fashion house)
Australia est. 2000.
Misha HOLLENBACH (designer)
born Australia 1971
Shauna TOOHEY (designer)
born Australia 1976
Black Gold 2013 spring summer 2013 (still) Collection of the artists.
Max Doyle
An exhibit by the Australian fashion company Perks and Mini (PAM) on display at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as part of its Melbourne Now exhibition has been accused of expropriating and exploiting…
Street and graffiti artists such as Ash Keating are recognised in Melbourne Now – in and out of the galleries.
NGV
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne recently opened what may be its most ambitious exhibition: Melbourne Now, on display until March 23 2014. It features hundreds of works selected by 30…
“Stranger Visions” is a series of 3D printed portraits based on genetic material taken from public places, by Heather Dewey-Hagborg.
Image courtesy of the artist
“We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.” These aren’t lines from Nineteen Eighty-Four but the words of Eric Schmidt, Google’s notoriously…
Metamorphosis by Trevor Nickolls, who was posthumously awarded the 2013 Blake Prize.
AAP
There was a moment of silence in the courtyard of the College of Fine Arts when the winner of this year’s Blake Prize was announced last week. The A$25,000 prize is awarded annually for a work of religious…
Principal Fellow (Hon), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, University of Melbourne