As summer crystallizes into Autumn and deepens into Winter, community, state and regional galleries across Australia are poised to turn over new exhibitions. In Geelong, Clarice Beckett’s moving scenes of suburbia finally arrive while in Cairns Andy Warhol and Roy Lichstenstein take center stage. Whether you’re interested in textiles, pop art, icons or the new, escape any transitional blues with some inspiring art.
VIC
Clarice Beckett–Atmosphere
1 April to 9 July
Geelong Gallery
Bringing together works from public and private collections, this highly anticipated survey of Clarice Beckett represents a precious chance to behold her vision. Undiscovered in her lifetime, Beckett’s scenes of Melbourne suburbia have since been recognised as among the country’s most innovative, distinct and moving.
Melbourne Now
One of Melbourne Now's artists, Heide Yardley's 'Closer'
24 March to 20 August
NGV Australia
Occurring just once a decade, Melbourne Now brings together over two-hundred of Victoria’s most ambitious artists and makers. There will be names you know and names to discover with work across fashion, jewelry, painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, printmaking and more. See why Melbourne is considered Australia’s creative heart.
NSW
The Female Gaze: Women by Women Artists
10 February to 2 July
Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Centre
In this exhibition at Tweed Regional Gallery, the male gaze is subverted. Featuring images of women by women, the question surfaces: Is there something innately different about how women portray other women? What happens when authorship is returned to the subject?
Fantastic Forms
1 April to 18 June
Bundanon
Perched in Illaroo, Bundanon is a unique public gallery, carved from Arthur Boyd’s home. Opening at the start of April, Fantastic Forms examines Arthur’s father, Merric Boyd’s striking ceramics. It will bring together his modernist feats with large-scale sculpture by Nabilah Nordin, a series by Stephen Benwell and stop-motion videos by Rubyrose Bancroft.
Archibald, Wynne and Sulman
6 May to 3 September
AGNSW
The county’s most popular art prizes hit the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Featuring the winners and finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes, this milestone marks your annual foray into the nation’s best in portraiture, landscape and genre art.
QLD
Andy Warhol / Roy Lichtenstein
25 March to 18 June
Cairns Regional Gallery
Two of the world’s most famous pop artists – Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein – are set to hit Cairns, Queensland. Featuring soup cans, self portraits, comic strips and more, the exhibition represents an opportunity to explore pop art in all its brash, thought-provoking and seductive notes.
Courage and Beauty: The James C. Sourris AM Collection
3 September to 24 June
QAGOMA
A celebration of the creme dela creme of contemporary Australian art brought together under one collector’s vision, Courage and Beauty showcases treasures from philanthropist James C. Sourris AM’s collection. There will be significant works by Jon Cattapan, Richard Bell, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Rosslynd Piggott and more. Dare to dream for a collection this awe-inspiring.
Looking In, Looking Out
11 March to 6 August
QAGOMA
In Looking Out, Looking In: Exploring the Self-Portrait, QAGOMA explores self-portraiture against our culture of reality television and social media. With work by Nora Heyson and Vincent Namatjira, this exhibition casts new light on the “selfie”. Say cheese!
Spowers & Syme
10 March to 4 June
QUT Art Museum
Until June 4th, Queensland University of Technology is showing Spowers & Syme – a retrospective of two female printmakers who irrevocably changed Australian art. They were modernists, vanguards and friends.
WA
Peregrinations of a Citizen Botanist
25 March to 19 May
Geraldton Regional Art Gallery
Markedly imaginative in concept and execution, Peregrinations of a Citizen Botanist is a cabinet of curiosities charting the journey of the 18th Century French botanist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardiere to Australia. In her installation, Susie Vickory envisions an alternative history, raising prescient questions about home, history and the environment.
SA
New Exuberance: contemporary Australian textile design
27 February to 23 April
Jam Factory
At Adelaide’s Jam Factory, New Exuberance presents the work of over thirty multidisciplinary creatives from across Australia. In the vitality and diversity of their practice lie new directions in textile practice as art, design and fashion.