Congratulations to Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, finalists in The Walters Prize, for their work Whol Why Wurld, 2017. Whol Why Wurld was originally exhibited in The National at Carriageworks in 2017 and in The Shape of Things to Come, Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne earlier this year.
Walters Prize, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki, 18 August 2018 - 20 January 2019

Jon Campbell's band Gloss Enamel will be playing at Coburg RSL from 7 pm on Saturday 18 August. Don't miss it!

Jess Johnson is included in The Public Body 03 curated by Talia Linz and Alexi Glass-Kantor at Artspace, Sydney until 28 October 2018.
The exhibition situates the body as detached from or encompassing much more than mere physical form.

Jon Campbell's It's a World Full of Cover Versions, an artists book made in collaboration with Aaron Beehre of Ilam Press, Christchurch New Zealand, is a finalist in the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards.

Jon Campbell's 'it's a world full of cover versions' designed by Aaron Beehre, Ilam Press, has been announced as a finalist in the 'Editorial and Books' category for the Best Design Awards 2018, Designers Institute of New Zealand.

Jacob's Ladder celebrates humankind’s relationship with space and our enduring attempts to fathom the unfathomable. Historical works are placed alongside contemporary artists whose work considers the imaginative territory between Earth and space.
Ben Cauchi's work has been placed alongside David Austen and the other pairings are: Vija Celmins; Susan Derges; Ian Hamilton Finlay; Richard Forster; Marine Hugonnier; Alicja Kwade; Peter Liversidge; Jonny Lyons; Georges Méliès; Garry Fabian Miller; Cornelia Parker; Katie Paterson; Frank Walter and the crews of Apollo 8 & 9.
Jacob's Ladder, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh until 20 October 2018

Big Supermarket has a full length LP debut release available for pre-order through Hobbies Galore Bandcamp. Big Supermarket is: Andrew Myles, Katrina Webster, Matlok Griffiths and Travis MacDonald. The release is limited to 300 copies and features artwork by the great Robert Rooney.

Jon Campbell's work Pros and Cons 2017 has been selected as a finalist in the 2018 Sunshine Coast Art Prize. Forty finalists have been selected for exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.
Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, 16 August - 14 October 2018

Rob McHaffie's work Hunter Gatherer 2017 has been selected as a finalist in the 2018 Sunshine Coast Art Prize. Forty finalists have been selected for exhibition at the Caloundra Regional Gallery and the winning work will be added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.
Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, 16 August - 14 October 2018

15 Artists is an annual acquisitive exhibition which is into its 20th year. The exhibition highlights exciting new works by a range of invited artists with work focusing on culture, identity, spirit and sense of place. This year’s artists include Kathryn Blumke, Nadine Cameron, Jon Cattapan, Jun Chen, Chantal Fraser, Denise Green, Nicola Hooper, Winnie Luk, Donna Marcus, Tom Moore, Rosella Namok, Robyn Stacey, Alex Standen, Charlotte Tegan, and Alick Tipoti.
15 Artists 2018, Redcliffe Art Gallery, Brisbane, 25 August - 13 October 2018

By the 1980s, colour photography was widely used by artists to explore a range of photographic approaches and techniques, from the immediacy of ‘point-and-shoot’ to staged compositions. Their work referenced narratives of history and power and appropriated artistic strategies from advertising, cinema, and the televisual. The Dark Rooms exhibition including Robyn Stacey surveys works that are emotional and intensely charged. Evocations of intimacy, fantasy, and trauma appear alongside humorous, politically astute, and confrontational pieces.
Dark Rooms: Women Directing the Lens 1978-98, curated by Naomi Evans, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane until 25 August 2018

Painting amongst other things brings together works that examine how contemporary painting might be encountered within an expanded field. The exhibition juxtaposes significant historical precedents and contemporary works, showing how artists have continually reappraised the boundaries of their art by means of an engagement with 'the real'.
Painting Amongst Other Things, curated by Oscar Capezio, ANCA Gallery, Canberra, 8 - 26 August 2018

Ben Cauchi and Ronnie van Hout are included in Strangers curated by James Hope, a group of works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection exploring feelings of eeriness and unease. It looks at the vein of ‘New Zealand Gothic’ running through New Zealand art, focusing on the darker aspects of life.
Strangers, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand until 19 August

Soft Core presents artistic practices that explore the many facets of ‘softness’ - from large-scale inflatables to forms made from soft materials to materials that simply look soft.
Soft Core at Wagga Wagga City Gallery, 11 August - 28 October 2018

Michelle Nikou is included in From Will to Form: TarraWarra Biennial 2018. The exhibition seeks to understand the ways human will can be embedded in sculptural form and considers how the forces that animate behaviour might be expressed by solid matter. The TarraWarra Biennial was established in 2006 by TarraWarra Museum of Art as a platform for identifying new contemporary and cutting-edge work. From Will to Form: TarraWarra Biennale 2018, 3 August - 4 November 2018

The Melbourne Art Foundation 2018 Commission was awarded to Ronnie van Hout. Commissioned for the first time in partnership with a regional Victorian institution, the ambitious large-scale work was unveiled at Melbourne Art Fair before moving to its permanent home at Bendigo Art Gallery.

Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's Webwurld 2017 screened continuously on the Fed Square Big Screen from 30 July - 5 August as part of Melbourne Art Fair's video exhibition platform, TIME.
Webwurld offers a glimpse into the hallucinatory netherworlds of New Zealand artists, Jess Johnson and Simon Ward. In their new video the screen becomes a dark window to a dimensional world, where activities may be taking place simultaneously to our own.

Jon Campbell is a finalist in the 2018 National Works on Paper Prize at Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery. A biennial exhibition, the prize supports and promotes contemporary Australian artists working on or with paper. The works will be on display 20 July - 9 September 2018.

'No one is watching you: Ronnie van Hout' is a major solo survey of van Hout’s singular practice, curated by Melissa Keys at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne from 12 July – 21 October 2018. Bringing together works that span more than twenty years of practice, this exhibition encompasses sculpture, video, photography, embroidery and text, and features major new installations. 

Robyn Stacey is included in 'Dark Rooms: Women Directing the Lens 1978-98', curated by Naomi Evans, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, 12 July - 25 August 2018. Photographic media proliferated throughout Australia during the 1970s, following the increased affordability of snapshot cameras and colour film processing. By the 1980s, colour photography was widely used by artists, who continued to explore a range of photographic approaches and techniques, from the immediacy of ‘point-and-shoot’ techniques to staged compositions. Their work referenced narratives of history and power and appropriated artistic strategies from advertising, cinema, and the televisual.

Noel McKenna is included in 'From Here to There: Australian art and walking' at Lismore Regional Gallery, 7 July - 26 August 2018. This exhibition presents the work of Australian artists who use the everyday act of walking in their art. Curated by Northern Rivers-based curators, Sharne Wolff and Jane Denison, the exhibition features work by Lauren Brincat, Dean Brown, Daniel Crooks, Alex Karaconji, Noel McKenna, Liam O’Brien, Sarah Mosca, Agatha Goethe-Snape, Sarah Rodigari and Rebecca Gallo.

Jon Campbell is a finalist in the 2018 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, on at Geelong Gallery until 19 August 2018. This is a $30,000 acquisitive award for contemporary painting hosted by the Geelong Gallery on a biennial basis. The prize showcases the work of Australian practitioners and enriches the Gallery’s permanent collection of contemporary Australian art through the acquisition of a winning work.

Michael Kieran Harvey (piano), Richard Piper (actor) & Neil Kelly (composer) present "Dissonant Continents" at Ace House Collective, Yogyakarta, Friday 22 June 2018 and the Farrell Centre, Friends' School, Argyle St, Hobart, Tasmania on Saturday 30 June at 7.30 pm.

"Dissonant Continents" is part of an extensive examination of three closely related works: "Moscow Stations", a prose poem (1969-70) by Venedikt Yerofeyev; "Caravan/Expedition To Circumvent The World", an unrealised utopian art project (1975) by George Maciunas; and "Metro-Net", an installation project (1993-1997) by Martin Kippenberger. These works each propose fragile and esoteric networks: Yerofeyev documents a hallucinatory and metaphysical journey that occasionally intersects the Moscow train network, Maciunas proposes an expedition route that can only be followed within an alternate space-time continuum, and Kippenberger builds entrance portals to an inter-continental underground train network that doesn't exist.

Completely separately, in 1977, a group of musicians associated with the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, California (John Bischoff, Jim Horton, Paul DeMarinis, David Behrman) were working with an experimental arrangement of KIM-1 micro-computers, each controlling an analogue synthesiser, arranged in a circular network topography using four-bit latched data lines. This network of machines, a characteristic manifestation of West-Coast utopian thinking, is reconstructed and then dispersed along Maciunas' imaginary expedition route: artist Danius Kesminas works with film-maker Jonas Mekas and violinist Tom Chiu at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan (North America); composer/performers Anthony Pateras and Rohan Drape work at the isolated Schloss Solitude in Baden-Württemberg (Europe); and composer/performer Michael Kieran Harvey, composer Neil Kelly and actor Richard Piper work at the Kunci Cultural Institute in Djokjakarta (Indonesian Archipelago) and at The Friends School (Australasia).

Ronnie van Hout's work 'Sick Chimp' 2002 is included in 'My Monster: the human animal hybrid' at RMIT Gallery until 18 August 2018. The exhibition explores our enduring fascination and revulsion with the merging of the human and animal, and coincides with the 200th anniversary year of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Artists Talk

Join Ronnie as as he discusses his inspirations, practice and the monstrous with cinema historian, Barbara Creed in 'Contemporary Hybrids: Ronnie van Hout Artist Talk' at RMIT Storey Hall, 20 July 2018, 12.30-1.30 pm.

Michelle Nikou's 'a e i o u' exhibition moves to the final destination of its tour at Western Plains Cultural Centre from 16 June - 2 September 2018.
Nikou draws on surrealism in a reflective and productive way to transform mundane domestic objects and materials into sculptures of humour, poignancy and marvel. In this exhibition of new and recent work she utilises surrealist strategies such as chance, psychological metaphor, deadpan wit and juxtaposition, and inventively mingles high and low art sources and cultural references. Her work intentionally blurs and extends the boundaries between fine art and craft and often invests unremarkable or overlooked facets of daily existence with new and unexpected significance.

Louise Weaver and Charlie Sofo are both included in 'Bowerbird: Clinton Bradley and the Art of Collecting' at the Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo until 26 August 2018.
For Clinton Bradley collecting is more than just amassing works by his favourite artists, it is a creative dialogue with the artist, dealer and audience. Born and raised near Molong, NSW, Bradley has been collecting art since 2007 and has curated a collection of works spanning sculpture, digital and conceptual art. This exhibition explores his ongoing interest in collecting and surveys his collection to the present day.

Noel McKenna is included in mother's tankstation limited's presentation at Art Basel, Basel from 14-17 June 2018. Hall 21, Booth K1.

Kenzee Patterson is currently living and working in Broken Hill and has created Cosmopolitan Decline, an artist's studio and gathering place located at 347 Blende Street, which will operate between May and November 2018. It contains a reference library and hosts readings, talks, screenings, performances and showings.The first event in the new space is a screening of 'Kangaroo' on Sunday 2 June at 6.30 pm.

Robert Rooney's 'Kind Hearted Kitchen Garden IV' 1968 can currently be seen in 'The Field Revisited', at the National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Melbourne until 26 August 2018. The original 1968 exhibition was the National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural exhibition at its new premises on St Kilda Road and the first comprehensive display of colour field painting and abstract sculpture in Australia.

Hahan's 'Letters to the great Saatchi' 2011 was first shown in APT7 in 2012. It is now included in 'Young Ones', which features the work of 6 artists under the age of 35. These artists were children at the turn of the twenty-first century and their work draws from various facets of contemporary life while remaining grounded in art history, forging a fresh style that resists yet enfolds the lessons of their predecessors.

See new work by Tim Woodward in 'Central Station' at Kuiper Projects, Brisbane, 18-26 May 2018. Tim will be giving a talk at Kuiper Projects on Friday 18 May at 5.30 pm.

Ronnie van Hout - Uncommon Knowledge, 2018 lecture series, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Monday 21 May, 6-7pm.

Ronnie van Hout discusses his lifelong fascination with UFOs in the second lecture of the eight part series, Uncommon Knowledge: Artists on their special interests. The series gives eight artists a microphone and an hour to speak about topics that inspire their art and thinking. Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2018-lecture-series-uncommon-knowledge-tickets-41131400125.

Hahan is included in Art Jog 11 - 'Enlightenment' at the Jogja National Musuem, Yogyakarta, Indonesia until 4 June 2018. His piece Universal Value(s) 2018 continues his exploration of the monetary and non-monetary value of art.

Ben Cauchi is included in 'Twenty', an exhibition to celebrate 20 years of Ingleby Gallery and their new premises in Edinburgh. The exhibition runs until 14 July 2018.

Anthony Hopkins is currently featured in 'Duende: Artists Translating Spirits' at Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, until 9 June 2018.

Read Margaret Gordon's Sydney Morning Herald Article 'Surreal virtual reality show Terminus moves viewers to tears' on Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's remarkable VR experience currently on display at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Join James Morrison in conversation with Julia Powles at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne on Thursday 10 May at 6.30 pm. This is a free public event.

Hahan is included in 'Indonesia Contemporary Art Exhibition: Manifesto 60: Multipolar, Art after 20 years of Reformation' at the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta until 17 May 2018.

Read Hannah Watkinson's review of Aberhart Starts Here'', the exhibition of Laurence Aberhart's early Christchurch images at Christchurch Art Gallery earlier this year, in Photoforum, New Zealand.

Joanna Mendelssohn mentions Noel McKenna's Wynne Prize entry in her article, 'The 2018 Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes show a changing of the guard' in The Conversation.

The new issue of ACCLAIM features Mariam Arcilla's interview with Hahan (Uji Handoko Eko Saputro). He chats about his experiments with art fairs, punk music, and comic culture — and why hacking the market is healthy for the art world. 

Hahan currently has work in 'Remembering, or Forgetting' at Arario Gallery in Seoul, Korea. Arario Gallery recently opened its second Seoul branch with the inaugural exhibition featuring 25 pieces by seven Asian artists in their mid-30s to early 40s. Among them, Hahan presents an installation of painting panels and neon. The work entitled 'Baby Booming' mixes the iconography of Western religious paintings with comic characters and logos of luxury brands to satirize capitalism in the art market.Read more in Moon So-Young's article in the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Read about Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's immersive VR experience currently on display at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Read about Michael Stevenson's remarkable work 'Serene Velocity in Practise: MC510/CS183' 2017 in 'A conversation with Michael Stevenson' on Ocula. This piece is currently on display at Carriageworks as part of the the 21st Biennale of Sydney, (16 March–11 June 2018)

Noel McKenna's 'Door, Hunter Valley' 2018 was selected as a finalist in the 2018 Wynne Prize. The work came about after spending time in the Hunter Valley and becoming involved in protests against a proposed coal mine in the region.

'Staying Power', MARS, Melbourne 3 - 26 May 2018.
Penelope Davis and MARS Director, Andy Dinan have co-curated this exhibition by a group of established women artists including Jennifer Mills. These artists have consistently made exceptional work over a long period of time and developed their practices conceptually, materially, and aesthetically. They have carved out independent careers for themselves, consistently forging their own path. Staying Power celebrates their grit, determination and persistence.

'Hard Feelings', curated by Serena Bentley, features work by a group of Australian and New Zealand artists who aren’t afraid to get personal. It includes early work by Saskia Leek along with works by Katherine Botten, Rea Burton, Anastasia Klose, Natasha Matila-Smith, Jenny Watson and Kaylene Whiskey. Spanning installation, drawing, painting and the moving image, this group of seven emerging and established artists interweave autobiography and fiction. Together, they expose intimate revelations, daydreams and hard truths. 'Hard Feelings', Honeymoon Suite, Brunswick, Melbourne, 4 May - 2 June 2018.

Congratulations to Jon Campbell, finalist in the 2018 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize.

Read about Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's forthcoming installation at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Ronnie van Hout is included in 'The Watched' at the Murray Art Museum, Albury, NSW until 10 June 2018. This exhibition considers the impact of contemporary forms of surveillance on daily life. Curated by Alex Gawronski, The Watched presents new work by Jasmin Guffond, Carla Cescon, Scott Donovan, Ronnie van Hout and Alex Gawronski.

Read about James Morrison's art practice in this interesting article by Ariela Gittlen - '6 Artists Pushing the Limits of Paper' on Artsy.

'White Rainbow', Ramp Gallery, Hamilton, New Zealand, 23 April - 23 May 2018
This exhibition features work by contemporary painters: Kirstin Carlin, Judy Darragh, Johl Dwyer, Cat Fooks, Selina Foote, Peter Gouge, Saskia Leek and installation by Richard Maloy. It is an exploratory mission to reframe the spatial and perceptual notions of the white cube space. Using cardboard and colour as his chosen materials, Richard Maloy transforms this pristine environment - renegotiating typical understandings of surface, colour and flow. A series of contemporary works are hung within and adjacent to Maloy’s unique environment. Each of these paintings have their own part to play in this unusual scenario. White Rainbow has been developed in partnership with Tauranga Art Gallery and curated by Karl Chitham.

'Australian Exotica', Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, 21 April - 1 July 2018
'Australian Exotica' is a touring exhibition from Monash Gallery of Art, Victoria. It draws on the gallery's nationally significant collection of Australian photography and showcases a range of work that engages with the theme of the exotic antipodes. Artists include: Brook Andrew, Michael Cook, Destiny Deacon, Peter Dombrovskis, Marian Drew, Leah King-Smith, Joseph McGlennon, Tracey Moffatt, Darren Siwes, Robyn Stacey and Christian Bumbarra Thompson.
On Saturday 21 April at 3 pm, join Monash Art Gallery Director, Anouska Phizacklea and artist, Robyn Stacey in conversation with Mosman Art Gallery Senior Curator, Katrina Cashman on the imagery and ideas in 'Australian Exotica'.

Join Jess Johnson for a floor talk about her work, 'Whol Why Wurld' 2017, five looped, single channel 4K videos with a soundtrack which is part of the Buxton Collection.
Buxton Contemporary, Tuesday 19 April at 6.30pm

Robyn Stacey's 'Rouse and the Cumberland Plain' 2010 is included in An Empire of Things at the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Abbotsleigh, Sydney until 26 May 2018.

See screenings of Jon Campbell and Henry Jock Walker's short film, PERFECT WAVE in 'Night Watch', a screen based project curated by Rebecca Ross at The Walls on the Gold Coast. Next screenings are at 7.10 pm on 19, 20 and 21 April.

'Obsessed!, Compelled to Make' moves to Cairns Regional Gallery from 15 April - 17 June 2018. Obsessed! explores how obsession and a commitment to making shapes the lives and work of Australian designers, artists and craftspeople. Developed by Australian Design Centre with the support of a Visions of Australia research grant, this touring exhibition tells the stories and experiences of some of the most respected and exciting makers in the country today. By focusing on the notion of obsession and its particular hold over Australian makers – especially in light of current creative, social and economic climates – Obsessed! Compelled to Make will offer a rich and fascinating study of the making experience in Australia today.

Filmmaker and photographer, Angus Lee Forbes has produced an informative video of Louise at work in the studio to accompany this touring exhibition.  

Kushana Bush Curator's Talk, Whangarei Art Museum, Saturday 14 April at 2.30pm.
Join Dunedin Public Art Gallery Curator Lauren Gutsell and take a tour through 'Kushana Bush: The Burning Hours', discussing the recent development of Bush’s work, her influences, her process of making and the origins of her practice.

Chris Bond is included in 'Chaos & Order, 120 Years of Collecting at RMIT' which celebrates over 80 Australian and international artists in an ambitious survey of the RMIT Art Collection.
RMIT Gallery, Melbourne 13 April - 9 June 2018.

Read about 'the Trekka', a vehicle celebrated in Michael Stevenson's Venice Biennale installation of 2003 and now on display in 'This is New Zealand' at City Gallery, Wellington until 15 July 2018.

Michael Stevenson's Serene Velocity in Practice MC510/CS183 (2017) makes the cut in Ralph Rugoff's top 5 works in the current Sydney Biennale.
“A provocative and creepy installation of an imaginary California college featuring apocalyptic classrooms animated by the rhetoric of right-wing Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel and a new age/Christian fraudster.” Artnet News.

Hahan is included in '5 x 5 - The Artist and the Patron' at Penrith Regional Gallery until 20 May 2018. The exhibition focuses on the artist-collector relationship by exploring the trajectories of five artists and their respective collectors. Each artist-collector pairing is represented by works from an existing personal collection and newly acquired artworks. These newly acquired artworks seek to extend the reciprocity and respect inherent in these pairings. The results are five artists, five collectors, five collections and five sets of recently acquired works.

Click on the link to read an interview on collecting with Ricky Swallow in Arts Project Australia's, 'Collectors Corner # 4: Ricky Swallow'

Robert Rooney's photographic portraits of artists and collegues, Peter Booth, Robert Hunter, Meredith Rogers and Jenny Watson are included in 'Express Yourself' at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra until 9 September 2018.

Rob McHaffie has been selected as a finalist in the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize. His work, 'I saw her on the way to fix my fixie in Fitzroy. Was she visiting from Denmark or somewhere? I could show her the way to Smith and Daughters to share some bitey black beans and chewy hominy (like rehydrated puffed giant corn kernels)' 2017, will be exhibited at the Gallery at Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne from 18 May - 8 July 2018.

Artists in Conversation: Champion Playoff, Jon Campbell vs Richard Lewer, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Tuesday 27 March, 5pm for 5.30pm–6.30pm conversation play off.
In this unique event, Lewer and Campbell will talk art and sport over a friendly match of table tennis. Find out more about Campbell’s knockabout nicknames of AFL legends heroically pieced together in his winning work Dream team and how Lewer drew on the very public moments of failure and disbelief in his checkerboard of twelve paintings The theatre of sport. Come along as a spectator and see who has the better backhand.

Congratulations to Jess Johnson and Simon Ward, who were recently announced by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as finalists in The Walters Prize, for their work 'Whol Why Wurld', 2017. 
The Walters Prize exhibition will be presented at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki from Saturday 18 August 2018 to Sunday 20 January 2019. 'Whol Why Wurld' was originally exhibited in 'The National' at Carriageworks in 2017 and is currently on display at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne. (Installation photo courtesy of Buxton Contemporary/ Christian Capurro) 

See Laurence Aberhart's work in ANZAC: Photographs by Laurence Aberhart, Ipswich Art Gallery, Queensland, 17 March – 29 April 2018.
ANZAC is a Dunedin Public Art Gallery touring exhibition curated by Aaron Kreisler and the result of Laurence Aberhart’s thirty year journey photographing World War One Memorials across New Zealand and Australia. Focusing on the lone ‘digger’ memorials Aberhart’s photographs chart a seemingly simple pathway through the landscapes of these two nations, reflecting the scale the conflict had on these regions.

Michael Stevenson is inlcluded in Superposition, 21st Biennale of Sydney, 16 March – 11 June 2018
Michael Stevenson presents Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183 at the Carriageworks venue of Superposition, 21st Biennale of Sydney. This installation was shown at Auckland Art Gallery from November 2017 to February 2018. Taking the form of an imagined tertiary institution of two classrooms, Serene Velocity in Practice is based on two seemingly unrelated academic courses, MC510 and CS183, which were modules taught for a short time in Californian higher-learning institutions – one by Vineyard Ministries founder, John Wimber, the other by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel. Both academic courses referenced in the installation were transformative in their respective fields, and each quickly developed a mass following globally, resulting in best-selling books and a multitude of spin-off courses. While previously unrelated, Stevenson brings these two courses together in Serene Velocity in Practice as an installation of two conjoined structures.

Michelle Nikou has been announced as one of the artists included in 'From Will to Form', The TarraWarra Biennale 2018 from 3 August - 6 November 2018.
'From Will to Form' will explore the ways human will can be expressed in physical form. It considers how the wild, intangible forces that animate behaviour might be expressed by solid matter.The TarraWarra Biennial was established in 2006 by TarraWarra Museum of Art as a platform for identifying new contemporary and cutting-edge work.

Michael Stevenson is included in the 21st Biennale of Sydney Artist Talks at Carriageworks, Wednesday 14 March, 10am
Hear from 21st Biennale of Sydney artists, Laurent Grasso, Marco Fusinato, Semiconductor and Michael Stevenson in artist talks at Carriageworks.

Michael Stevenson is included in 'This is New Zealand', City Gallery, Wellington, Toi Whare Toi until 15 July 2018
This Is New Zealand explores the role art has played in asserting and questioning notions of national identity. New Zealand has been going to the Venice Biennale since 2001, declaring its internationalism. However, some of the chosen artists have taken the opportunity to tackle old themes of national identity, playing on the Biennale’s anachronistic national-pavilion structure, so reminiscent of World Fairs and Expos. This Is New Zealand re-presents Venice works (by Michael Stevenson, Michael Parekowhai, and Simon Denny), alongside New Zealand works created for World Fairs, Expos, and other diplomatic contexts (by Marcus King, John Drawbridge, Inia Te Wiata, Hugh Macdonald, Para Matchitt, Douglas Lilburn, and Fiona Pardington), and films, TV ads, and early tourism campaigns. There are also new projects exploring national iconography (by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Gavin Hipkins, and Emil McAvoy).

Jess Johnson, James Morrison and Ricky Swallow are included in 'The Shape of Things to Come', Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, 9 March - 4 June 2018.
The inaugural exhibition, curated by Melissa Keys, features more than 25 artists from the Buxton collection and explores a constellation of ideas around the role and agency of the artist in culture, society and politics – as visionary, storyteller, dissenter and alchemist.

Continuing its tour of New Zealand, 'The Burning Hours' is currently on show at Whangarei Art Museum, Te Manawa Toi until 27 May. Created between 2014-2016 and inspired by illuminated manuscripts, Persian miniatures, European art history and modern life, Kushana Bush's extraordinary series of gouache and pencil works examine what spirituality, ritual and community might mean in a contemporary world. The exhibition is toured by Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Louise Weaver is in Soft Core at Shepparton Art Museum, until 18 March 2018
Soft Core presents artistic practices that explore the many facets of ‘softness’ - from large-scale inflatables to forms made from soft materials to materials that simply look soft.

Jon Campbell is in the 2017 Archibald Prize Tour, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, until 18 March 2018
Jon Campbell’s portrait of the Oxley brothers ‘Two Sunny Boys’ is now on show at Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, as part of the ongoing 2017 Archibald Prize Tour.

Jon Campbell is included in Play On: The Art of Sport - 10 Years of the Basil Sellers Art Prize, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, until 29 April 2018
Play On: The art of sport is a selection of key works from the Basil Sellers Art Prize, a biennial exhibition of new commissions that reflect upon sport and sporting culture. One of Australia’s richest and most prestigious art awards, the Basil Sellers Art Prize has inspired innovative and complex explorations of sport from a roll call of Australia’s most accomplished artists. Play On distils the best of these works into an engaging touring exhibition that gives audiences throughout Australia the opportunity to view familiar sporting concepts through a sometimes surprising lens.
Jon Campbell was the winner of the 2012 Basil Sellers Art Prize with his work Dream team, a series of 22 paintings featuring the nicknames of well-known AFL players. To coincide with the touring exhibition, Play on: The art of sport, MPRG presents Jon Campbell, a collection of works by the artist that reference aspects of our sporting culture.

Ricky Swallow, 4, Modern Art, London, 3 March – 14 April 2018
Work by Ricky Swallow is now on show at Modern Art's Helmet Row gallery space, featuring a new group of wall and plinth-based bronze sculptures.

Chris Bond is included in 'Sauced Material', Goulburn.art Regional Gallery, 2 March - 14 April 2018
This show includeds Chris Bond, Ricky Emmerton, Tara Marynowsky, Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Nicola Smith, bringing together a group of artists who extend the narrative or form of existing media. Their works have been shaped, moulded and crafted from film, music, personal histories and literature. This adaptive approach orients audiences to and from a new point of orbit in reference to the work. Memory is at play - but so are the politics of origin and ownership.

Saskia Leek is included in Colour & Form, Home@735, Sydney, opening Thursday 1 March 2018.This Art Month Sydney satellite exhibition features artworks by Ron Adams, Sydney Ball, Angela Brennan, Belle Blau, Celia Gullett, Michael Johnson, Saskia Leek, Sean Meilak, Jonny Niesche, Tomislav Nikolic, John Peart, Madeleine Preston, Kate Rohde and Louise Tuckwell.

Ronnie van Hout has been selected to undertake the 2018 Melbourne Art Fair Commission.
The Melbourne Art Foundation 2018 Commission has been awarded to prominent New Zealand born, Melbourne-based artist Ronnie van Hout. Commissioned for the first time in partnership with a regional Victorian institution, the ambitious large-scale work will be unveiled at Melbourne Art Fair before moving to its permanent home at Bendigo Art Gallery. 

Darren Knight Gallery is now representing Elizabeth Newman and Robyn Stacey
We are pleased to have Elizabeth Newman and Robyn Stacey join our group of represented artists. Works by both these artists will be included in our booth at Sydney Contemporary, 13-16 September 2018. Elizabeth Newman will present a solo show at the gallery from 29 September - 27 October 2018. Robyn Stacey will exhibit at a later date to be announced. Welcome to the gallery.

Accompanying the presentation of the ‘Lady and the Unicorn’ tapestries from the Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris, Louise Weaver will feature in a display of complementary works from the Art Gallery of NSW’s permanent collection. Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, 10 February – 24 June 2018.

Investigating that uniquely compelling, frustrating and motivating drive to create, Obsessed! explores how obsession and a commitment to making shapes the lives and work of Australian designers, artists and craftspeople. Developed by ADC with the support of a Visions of Australia research grant, this touring exhibition will tell the stories and experiences of some of the most respected and exciting makers in the country today asking: What is it about the making experience that drives designers, artists and craftspeople to dedicate their lives to a creative practice? What role does creative obsession play in the making process and how does it drive the development of skills and expertise? By focusing on the notion of obsession and its particular hold over Australian makers – especially in light of current creative, social and economic climates – Obsessed! Compelled to Make will offer a rich and fascinating study of the making experience in Australia today. 8 February - 24 March 2018.

Ben Cauchi is included within the Centre for Contemporary Photography's new exhibition 'Runes: Photography and Decipherment'. Curated by Justine Varga and Geoffrey Batchen, the exhibition features small photographic works that rupture or ruin any clear distinction between legibility and illegibility.

Although sometimes abstract in appearance, these works are nevertheless all indexical traces of specific phenomena or actions; despite appearances, they are, in other words, insistent manifestations of the real. This confrontation of realism and abstraction is joined by other, equally striking oppositions: intimacy and scale, vernacular and fine art, old and new, chance and deliberation, instantaneity and duration, obscurity and insight. The aspirations of science join the alchemy of photography and the logic of drawing to inspire the gathering of this enigmatic conglomeration of objects. Fascinating as individual works, the diverse components of Runes collectively ask viewers to reflect on the activity of decipherment in relation to photographs, making this exhibition a critical rumination on inscription, meaning and knowledge. On show from 2 February - 11 March 2018.

Chris Bond has been selected as a finalist in the 2018 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing for his recent work 'I am Wes Thorne (Yosemite)', graphite on paper, pen on found book, 2017.

Forty-four finalists were selected from almost five hundred entries from across Australia by Anne Ryan, Curator Australian Art, Art Gallery of NSW, which will be displayed in the Adelaide Perry Prize Exhibition of Finalists, 3-29 March 2018. The winner of the $25,000 acquisitive award will be announced at the exhibition opening, on the 2 March 2018. A people's choice award of $2,000 will be announced at the close of the exhibition.

PLC Sydney’s Adelaide Perry Gallery, Corner Hennessy and College Streets, Croydon.
Weekdays 8.30 am - 4.00 pm and Saturdays 11 am - 4.00 pm.

Opening today, the NGV Triennial is a celebration of some of the most creative artistic minds of today and features over 100 artists and designers from around the world. Taking over the NGV International for 4 months, the exhibition includes Kushana Bush (NZ) and Uji Hahan (INDO).

Bunjil Place Gallery's inaugural exhibition 'Let’s Play: The art of our time', curated by Rodney James and featuring Jess Johnson and Maria Kontis, opens tonight.

Bringing together works from public and private collections across Australia, the exhibition explores how toys, role-play and technology are used by contemporary artists today. Until 25 February 2018.

Michelle Nikou, a e i o u, Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, 6 December 2017 - 28 January 2018

Michelle Nikou draws on surrealism in a reflective and productive way to transform mundane domestic objects and materials into sculptures of humour, poignancy and marvel. In this exhibition of new and recent work she utilises surrealist strategies such as chance, psychological metaphor, deadpan wit and juxtaposition, and inventively mingles high and low art sources and cultural references. Her work intentionally blurs and extends the boundaries between fine art and craft and often invests unremarkable or overlooked facets of daily existence with new and unexpected significance.

Jon Campbell's largest ever wall painting, 'Absolutely Disgusting' opened to the public this week. Commissioned by the MCA, the work stretches 2.5 x 65 metres around all four walls of Level 1 of the North Gallery and surrounds Campbell's towering installation 'Stacks On' (2010), comprising illuminated perspex boxes and suspended fabric banners.

This exhibition is presented by the MCA in conjunction with 'Word: MCA Collection' and together the exhibitions showcase works from the Museum’s Collection that engage with language and text.

Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, presents 'The Burning Hours' by Kushana Bush, 25 November 2017 - 28 February 2018.

Following successful exhibitions at Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery, 'The Burning Hours' continues its tour and opens at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery next week. Join artist, Kushana Bush, and exhibition curator, Lauren Gutsall, for an opening-day floor talk in the exhibition on Saturday 25 November 2017 (click on link below for further details).

QAGOMA presents the exhibition, 'Noel McKenna: Landscape Mapped' from 18 November 2017 until 2 April 2018.
For the very first time, McKenna's fifteen-year project of large 'Map' paintings are presented in full. The series orders the contents of Australia along themes such as public swimming pools, racecourses, shark and ray species, dangerous creatures, lighthouses, BP stations and 'big things'. Instilled with a sincere interest in his subjects, these labours of love reflect on who we are as a nation.

Louise Weaver is included in 'Cross Section' at the Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne, 18 November 2017 - 3 February 2018.
Cross Section is a special exhibition of key works by a selection of leading contemporary Australian Artists that have been produced at the APW over recent years and launches with the APW Print Fair on Saturday 18 November.

Euan Macdonald's installation, 'The Fields' is included in 'The Time. The Place. Contemporary Art from the Collection at the Henry Gallery', University of Washington, Seattle, USA, 4 November 2017 - 25 March 2018. 'The Fields' is a 2 channel video alongside a large installation of alternating photos and LPs from the artist's sound effect archive which was acquired by the Henry gallery in 2015.

Jon Campbell undertakes a major wall painting at Shepparton Art Musuem in 'Wall Painting #29: Jon Campbell', opening 27 October 2017. The work will be on display until 31 January 2018

Ben Cauchi presents As above, so below at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City, 26 October - 25 November 2017.This is his first solo exhibition with Yossi Milo Gallery.

Chris Bond is included in 'A Gathering', an exhibition which brings together a selection of artwork from the La Trobe University Collections. The exhibition represents a snapshot of the variety of artworks in a large collection as well as a dynamic expression of the relationships that exist between artworks, eras and styles. 21 October - 25 November 2017.

Ronnie van Hout is included in Hyper Real, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 20 October 2017 - 18 February 2018
From eerily lifelike sculptures to out-of-this-world virtual reality, this major exhibition charts the evolution of hyperrealism into the 21st century.

Watch a video with Melbourne artist Jon Campbell, whose unique artworks combine his love of music, graphic design, lettering and slang. He discusses his love of zines and self-publishing, and his book of handwritten set lists from the early 1980s, included in the State Library of Victoria's Self-made: zines and artist books exhibition, on display until 12 November 2017.

Chris Bond and Jon Campbell are in TEXT, Adelaide Perry Gallery, PLC, Sydney, 12 - 24 October 2017
This group show includes Chris Bond and Jon Campbell along with Michael Lindeman, Jenette Seibols, John Peart, Robert Mcpherson, Stella Rosa Mcdonald, Connie Anthes, Lynne Barwick, Mona Ryder, Andrew Antoniou and Sassy Park. It will be opened by artist and writer Rebecca Gallo.

Maggie Finch has selected a number of Robert Rooney works which are currently on display in a new collection hang at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

Jess Johnson selects some of the curious and wayward images and image makers that have inspired her practice, from antique allegorical engravings to psychedelic sci-fi comix. Read more in this insightful article in Vice Garage Magazine.

Louise Weaver is included in 'Spring Feast' at the Australian Print Workshop, 16 September - 11 November 2017. The exhibition is a selection of original limited edition prints celebrating the essence of spring.

See photographs by Laurence Aberhart, Murray Cammick and Robert Rooney in 'An unorthodox flow of images', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Presented with Melbourne Festival, 30 September–12 November 2017

Kenzee Patterson is included in A Working Model of the World, Sheila C Johnson Design Centre, New York, 28 September - 13 December 2017
The artists in the exhibition explore the role of models in human experience, including work by Brook Andrew, Corinne May Botz, Ian Burns, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Kate Dunn, David Eastwood, caraballo-farman, Emily Floyd, Andrea Fraser & Jeff Preiss, Glen Hayward, Jo Law, Palle Nielsen, Kenzee Patterson, Sascha Pohflepp & Chris Woebken, Karolina Sobecka and jackie Sumell.

Jess Johnson and Simon Ward exhibit 'Whol Why Wurld' 2017, an installation of five looped videos, in the 4th Documentary Exhibition / Stress Field, Hubei Museum of Art, China.
September 15th - October 20, 2017.

Chris Bond is included in Ways of Seeing, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath,  Villa Empain - Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 22 September 2017 – 18 Feb 2018
This exhibition features more than 25 artists, and consists of 70 works, spanning a variety of media from painting, sculpture and photography to sound, film and installation. 
From 2 June - 13 August Ways of Seeing was exhibited at ARTER, Istanbul.

Noel McKenna presents Not too hot, Not too cold,  Mother's Tankstation Limited, Dublin, 20 September - 28 October 2017
Noel McKenna exhibits works inspired by his recent residency and small-scale retrospective at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Centre, Long Island, 2016. 

Opening tonight and showing until Oct 7, Rob McHaffie presents a selection of new work alongside Julia Gorman and Noriko Nakamura at C A V E S gallery in Melbourne.

"Whilst working behind the desk at the art shop Julia and I were looking at Ingres paintings and came across Princesse de Broglie. ‘They don’t make them like they used to’ I said. Julia agreed. I went on to talk about Ingres’s prowess in painting such smooth, curvy and tonally exquisite portraits and shoulders. Julia spoke about how she loved the buoyant blue forms and rippling shapes that bring the princesses dress to life. We got talking about how people can love and see totally different aspects of the one painting. Two became three and Noriko Nakamura joined the conversation.

We met in the NGV café together, sipped tea and Noriko spoke about the gesture of the carefully posed hand and glove in the painting and how it would inspire one of her limestone sculptures. Three different artists finding three quite different inspirations in the one Ingres painting that sits safely in the Met Museum in New York. Receiving only internet and postcard imagery of the original work it makes us realize how far in time and space we are from Princesse de Broglie, and museums like the Met. The hope is that after our CAVES gallery homage to Ingres, the Met gallery might call us and ask to exhibit our work along with the original painting at the museum. We’ll have a great time in NY!"

Rob McHaffie, 2017

Jess Johnson's exhibition 'Everything not saved will be lost', opens tonight at Jack Hanley Gallery, New York. Click on link for more information.

The Gippsland Print Award is an acquisitive prize open to all artists living and working in Australia, for prints that have been completed since 1 September 2015. Rob McHaffie has two lithographs included in this exhibition, Committed (2017) and A little bit more foliage should block out the Empire State bastard next door (2017). Both were printed by Adrian Kellet of Sunshine Editions, Melbourne.

Soft Core presents artistic practices that explore the many facets of ‘softness’—from large-scale inflatables and forms made from soft materials to materials that simply look soft. Artists include Tully Arnot, Mikala Dwyer, Tully Moore, Tony Oursler, Michael Parekowhai, Patricia Piccinini, Todd Robinson, Koji Ryui, Kathy Temin, Louise Weaver, Simon Yates and Paul Yore. Soft Core is curated by Michael Do, in conjunction with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program. It will be shown at Cowra Regional Art Gallery from 26 August - 8 October

Meryl Ryan has curated this exhibition which brings together works by artists Chris Bond, Deidre Brollo, Simryn Gill, Julie Gough, Stephen Goddard, William Kentridge, Archie Moore, Brigita Ozolins, Patrick Pound, Cyrus Tang and Ahn Wells, who acknowledge the power of books. Collections of tales, truths and histories – in the written form as books, ledgers and libraries – promise the revelation of secrets and imaginative ideas, facts and pathways to enlightenment, as well as deceits and loss. More than any other found (or lost) object, the book has a uniquely complex resonance. The book-related motif, therefore, whether literal or conceptual, offers artists countless possible layers of meaning.

Earlier this year Chris Bond was announced as the winner of the inaugural BalletLab McMahon Contemporary Art Award. Bond received a cash prize and a 4 week residency at South Melbourne Temperance Hall to research, develop and create an exhibition of new works. 'Congress' is the result of this residency. It an an exhibition which plays with the legitimacy of documentation, questioning its role in performance practices, and engages with the politics of reconstruction.

Loop/Critical Cities is a series of artist films that were originally shown in Melbourne's Longford Cinema in the 1990's. This screening is a rare opportunity to re-watch these films, including one by Darren Knight Gallery artist Andrew Hurle. Artist Callum Morton, curator of the project whose work also features in the film, will introduce the event. This screening is free, but bookings are essential.

Jon Campbell's new artist book 'it's a world full of cover versions' is a collection of two-colour Risograph prints of painted text cards from previous music performances.

Designed and printed by Aaron Beehre at Ilam Press, University of Canterbury, Christchurch on the MZ Risograph printer.

First edition of 100 signed and numbered, 20 pages, 40.5 x 29.7 cm, $100

Jon and Aaron will perform a few songs at each launch

Tuesday 15 August 6 - 7 pm @ Hell's Kitchen, Melbourne
with guest disc jockey Jensen 'Mario' Tjhung

This exhibition explores contemporary art’s role in the process of occultation (a term first used by Andre Breton in his 1930 Surrealist Manifesto). It brings together New Zealand and international artists who push the symbolic, formal and material languages of esoteric or occult traditions into new forms. Working across drawing, painting, sculpture, book making, film, sound, printmaking, photography, the artists are brought into conversation with key historical figures of the occult tradition. A suite of ‘nightmare paintings’ by English occultist, ceremonial magician and poet Aleister Crowley and a selection of contemporary esoteric books published by FULGUR will be displayed alongside the trance-induced work of Crowley’s Antipodean devotee Rosaleen Norton. Born ‘during a thunderstorm’ in Dunedin in 1917, Norton moved to Sydney, where she became known as ‘the Witch of Kings Cross’ and was persecuted for her transgressive behaviour and for her mystical art works summoning pagan entities. This is the first time either Crowley or Norton have been exhibited in New Zealand.

PUNKASILA are performing at the GRIND n ROLL open air festival in Klaipėda, Lithuania.
Saturday 5 August, Free Admission

Presented in association with Melbourne Festival, The Score is an exhibition which includes examples of music and dance notation, from Medieval manuscripts through to graphic notation of the 1960s, alongside artworks and performances by local and international artists. Scores and notation are considered as a starting point to explore the current cross-disciplinary trend in contemporary art, which has seen dance, music and vocal performance increasingly incorporated into visual artworks. The Score presents a range of contemporary and historical artworks that shift between one discipline to another. A performance program will accompany the exhibition.

'Every Dog Will Have Its Day' is a group exhibition of ten contemporary Australian artists exploring the emotional connection between people and dogs. Curated by emerging curators Sophia Cai and Kathleen Linn, the exhibition features work spanning across diverse mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture, video and performance. While immediately playful and humorous in nature, 'Every Dog Will Have Its Day' provides a broader platform to consider the enduring relationship between humans and dogs. Dogs are embedded in myth, ritual and the human experience; their roles span from beloved pet, surrogate child, guard and working dogs, to dark, symbolic representations. At the heart of all these is the enduring symbiotic relationship of loyalty and empathy that bind people with their dogs.

Each of the artists in 'World Dictionary' find ways to employ writing or the text doc. within a bramble of hyphenated production. The exhibition continues until 5 August.

Brothers Peter and Jeremy Oxley play in the Sunnyboys, one of Jon Campbell’s all-time favourite Australian bands.

‘I met Peter around 2002 at the Darren Knight Gallery in Sydney. I had made a Sunnyboys “setlist” painting, which was hanging in Darren’s office. Peter came in a few times to check out the painting, which he later purchased, and got to know Darren. I met him soon after and we have remained friends,’ says Campbell.

The band reformed in late 2012 and Campbell attended their first gig in Melbourne. In 2013, a documentary called The Sunnyboy was released, which followed Jeremy’s journey as he emerged from a 30-year battle with schizophrenia.

‘The film was very emotional and set the story straight about Jeremy’s illness and why the Sunnyboys disbanded in 1984,’ says Campbell.

‘The movie made me appreciate the closeness and love between them, which helped them through many trying and dark times. I tried to present this by literally painting them with their noses almost touching.’

My work FNQ – as in Far North Queensland – is a scene made up from a combination of photos I have taken or seen in books and magazines. I grew up in Brisbane so I know the Queenslander-style house very well. However, I have never been to Far North Queensland, so my work is imagined but features things I know are there like palm trees, Hills Hoist clotheslines and the mountains in from the coast.

On Friday 14 July join SLAVE PIANOS with Terra Bajraghosa (film) Michael Kieran Harvey (piano) Helen Hughes (text) Antanas Kesminas (set design) Barney McAll (upright piano) Maria Moles (drums) Natalia Novikova (narrator) Anthony Pateras (organ, revox) Richard Piper (actor) Francis Plagne (text) Erkki Veltheim (violin) Adelaide Williams (folk dancing) Stepas Levickis & Gabi Staugaitis (folk singing) and the Australian-Lithuanian Women’s Welfare Association (food)

As they perform MOSCOW STATIONS / LAST STOP EAST PART II: CONTINENT OF SORROW

7:30 pm Friday 14th July
Lithuanian House, 44 Errol Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
Tickets: $10 - $20. Pre-sale here or cash on door
“So. You’ve seen the States,” mumbled Black Moustache. “How very, very unusual. You say they don’t, and never did, have negroes there. O.K. I’ll accept that. But tell me this: is it true that they don’t, and never did, have freedom? Does freedom remain nothing but a phantom on that continent of sorrow? Well?”

Sources:
M. Kippenerger: Metronet
G. Maciunas: Expedition to Circumvent the World
V. Erofeev: Moscow Stations

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Noel McKenna in 'Artist Profile: Australasian Painters 2007 – 2017', Orange Regional Gallery, NSW until 10 September 2017.

This exhibition brings together a selection of paintings by over 140 artists featured in Artist Profile magazine over its 10 year history, providing a comprehensive overview of Australasian painting from 2007 to 2017.

Drawing from alternative currencies, banking archives, pop culture and contemporary art, Creative Accounting scratches below the surface of the economic system to reveal money’s enigmatic side. Money is many things at once: an abstract rendering of value; an agent of propaganda; a decorative device. It plays a central role in all of our lives yet is often overlooked as an object of contemplation. This exhibition will connect diverse local audiences with ideas around currency, economic systems and historical quirks at a time when money is becoming increasingly abstract in the digital age. It will present a multiplicity of ideas, mediums and narratives drawn from a wide sphere, with local archives ‘mined’ for content to complement the international and Australia content. Creative Accounting is curated by Holly Williams from The Curators' Department in conjunction with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery and toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW. It is on show at Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga, NSW from 7 July - 8 October 2017.

Unplugged Live returns to NGV Australia this winter, running over six Sundays from 18 Jun and hosted by Jae Laffer of The Panics. Set in the surroundings of the 'Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990s' exhibition, Unplugged Live sees music and art meet at the NGV

In this exhibition of new and recent work, Adelaide-based artist Michelle Nikou draws on surrealism to transform mundane domestic objects and materials into sculptures of humour, poignancy and marvel. Her work intentionally blurs and extends the boundaries between fine art and craft, utilising chance, psychological metaphor and juxtaposition to inventively mingle high and low art sources and cultural references with deadpan wit.

Friday 30 June - Friday 1 September 2017

'A small show of imperfect paintings' is a modest gathering of failed paintings by twenty one accomplished artists.

The works in this exhibition hover in a space where control over concept, aesthetics, motivation and technique has been lost or abandoned. This space is the domain of wabi sabi ‒ of imperfection, impermanence, irregularity, modesty, neglect, damage and incompletion.

Chris Bond (with Drew Pettifer) and Rob McHaffie are included in this exhibition.

Established in 2016, the $10,000 invitation-only BalletLab McMahon Contemporary Art Award (BMCAA) is awarded each year to a contemporary artist who demonstrates a commitment to brave and innovative practice that contests and re-imagines the boundaries of contemporary art in new and significant ways.

The BMCAA provides a valuable opportunity for one outstanding Victorian artist to progress their practice through the creation of a new work inspired by and exhibited at South Melbourne’s Temperance Hall, home of Philip Adams BalletLab (PABL).

Max Delaney, Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art was the inaugural BMCAA Judge and selected Chris Bond from a shortlist of five Victorian artists. 

The 2017 BMCAA shortlist panel included Serena Bentley (Assistant Curator, Australian Centre for the Moving Image), Michael Brennan (Independent curator and Artist), Hannah Mathews (Curator, Monash University Museum of Art), Patrice Sharkey (Director, Westspace) and PABL Artistic Director, Phillip Adams with philanthropist, Dr Marcus McMahon who share a committee seat. 

Chris Bond will present his winning work at Temperance Hall in August 2017.

Australian artists Mitchel Cumming and Kenzee Patterson present a two part exhibition '# A dolphin in bronze / A dolphin out of bronze #' that is ocurring simultaneously at Artistic Bokeh in Vienna and at KNULP in Sydney.

"Looking back through our shared notes and conversations. If I were to try and sum it up I would say the show (or at least our thinking surrounding it) is about the strange fluctuations of language between its material and immaterial states. To go a bit deeper, I suppose we are both interested in how this material/immaterial dichotomy of language impacts its relationships to value, meaning and the body (human and otherwise). Is this the kind of description Andrew is after for the show, or is he more interested in what we are proposing to present?”

Every two years the Bendigo Art Gallery invites artists to submit entries for the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize. The most outstanding work as judged by the selection panel is awarded an acquisitive cash prize of $50,000. The Prize was initiated by Mr Allen Guy C.B.E (1917-2007) in honour of his brother Arthur Guy (1914-1945). Works from the shortlisted artists will be on display from 17 June – 20 August.

Several of Wallace's works from her 'Wolston Park' and 'Forgotten/Now Remembered Australians: Portraits' series will be included in a one night only exhibition held in the foyer of Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The exhibition has been organised by Access Arts in partnership with the Mental Health Commission.

'In the psychic heart of the Lodge, a throne sits empty. Something begins to stir.' A new collaboration between Jess Johnson and Andrew Clarke can be viewed as part of Dark Mofo, in the Throne Room of one of Hobart's Masonic Lodges from Thursday 15–Saturday 17 June between 8.30 pm and 3 am. For more information and tickets visit the website.

In Kushana Bush’s meticulously detailed, stage-like world, religious themes blend with secular narratives, often manifesting in ritualistic violence. Her grand narrative constructions examine what spirituality, ritual and community might mean in a contemporary world. This new body of work from 2014–16 is rich with detail – each surface of gouache and gold is filled with references to illuminated manuscripts, Persian miniatures, European art history and modern life. These disparate sources bind Bush’s works to both the past and the present; the historical and the contemporary. Human interactions, humour, dramatic tension and intimate scale are her tools to draw viewers into a private conversation and, in some cases, a spiritual space.

Alt-facts, fake news, gaslighting, and cognitive dissonance have become so commonplace in contemporary society that we find ourselves wondering at times what, if anything, constitutes our collective reality. An unrealpolitik has emerged, a return to a system of ideology, spectacle, and demagoguery. In unrealpolitik artists deal with this foreboding quandary using dark humor, pop culture, and cryptic imagery that represents our contemporary State. A mash-up shouting-match of talking-points and counter-points struggling for dominance, dense and complex narratives reduced to a single image, an underwater political landscape, a literal house of cards on the brink of total collapse.

An exhibition curated by Micheal Do, in conjunction with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and toured by Museums and Galleries of NSW, 'Softcore' presents artistic practices that explore the many facets of ‘softness’ - from large-scale inflatables and forms made from soft materials to materials that simply look soft.

'Unseasonal Work' (will be) (could be) a group of works that are made by moving in circles, around things (buildings, people, rivers), over & over again, finding & attempting to establish a network of warmth (hopefully), or being out in the cold (& being out of sync with unusual weather). This is Sofo's first solo exhibition since returning from a residency at Monash University Prato Centre, Italy in 2016. The exhibition runs from 7 June - 1 July.

Drawn from the NGV Collection, it provides an in depth look at a period characterised by dramatic change as artists adopted new technologies and increasingly heterogeneous approaches to making art. The exhibition offers an overview of art made from 1990 to 2000 and includes works in various media from video, installation, photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, fashion and design, as well as selected ephemera relating to various artist collectives, artist run spaces and various subcultures that emerged during this dynamic period in recent art history.

Taking its cue from Ways of Seeing (1972), John Berger’s critical text on visual culture, this group exhibition explores the various formalistic strategies that artists employ to re-configure our perception of the world. Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, the exhibition posits the surface of the artwork as a space of encounter between the internal aesthetic deliberations of the artist’s creative process and the external often-conditioned gaze of the viewer. Ways of Seeing presents contemporary paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos, alongside artworks that span several centuries by artists such as Ghada Amer, Salvador Dali, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Grayson Perry, Cindy Sherman and James Turrell. It unfolds along a non-linear temporal thread whereby the viewer’s desire to 'understand through seeing' is constantly challenged through artworks that refuse to operate along the rigidity of styles, genres, and so-called 'isms'. In doing so, we are reminded that 'the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled'. It is in this inherently political process of searching, that we begin to discover several ways of seeing...

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 200 page, bilingual Turkish / English publication. It is co-edited by Sam Bardaouil, Süreyyya Evren, and Till Fellrath. With contributions by Mary Acton, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, and Stephanie Moser.

A group show curated by Art Program’s ArtEx Coordinator Alex Kiers, Memory Bliss touches on the cognitive experience of artist and audience in the context of painting. In moments of production and reception, maker or viewer, we often find ourselves confronted with what could be described as a moment of bliss. Colour, shape, form and emotive expression from a range of artists will bring vibrancy to the corridors of the Hospital.

For her first solo show in WA, Jess Johnson will transform the Fremantle Arts Centre with a wallpaper installation based on the densely patterned and constructed worlds in her drawings.

Now based in New York, Johnson’s highly detailed works are populated with recurring fleshy forms, symbols, architectural features and humanoid figures. Appearing to draw on arcane imagery and science-fiction, Johnson’s drawings have developed their own complex visual cosmology and heavily reference one another.

Hex Nemesis presents Jess Johnson and Simon Ward's collaborative video work Worldweb Allthing along with a suite of Jess's drawings within the immersive installation of her wallpaper.

The Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award is now on show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney.

Featuring Jennifer Mills' work 'In the echo chamber (red/yellow palette)' 2017, the exhibition includes diverse works by artists from across Australia including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, printmaking and video.

The exhibition continues until 16 July 2017.

Held at Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo and Giardini Marinaressa, Venice, Italy from 13 May- 26 November 2017

Curated by Melissa Keys & Kendrah Morgan, a e i o u is a NETS, Victoria touring exhibition developed in partnership with Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2016. Combining new and recent work, a e i o u sees Nikou intentionally blur and extend the boundaries between fine art and craft, investing unremarkable or overlooked facets of daily existence with new and unexpected significance. Nikou’s practice is also characterised by a deep engagement with language and she forges connections between art and literature that invoke suburban life, family interactions and food. Seemingly disparate concepts and materials are regularly combined to produce unsettling and sometimes absurd effects, such as the fried eggs made in bronze that lend the exhibition its title, the flattened egg forms suggesting the vowels of the alphabet.

On show at Cairns Regional Gallery until 25 June.

Continuing the legacy of the Dobell Prize for Drawing, this curated exhibition presents the work of six Australian artists whose practice is connected by narrative, memory and experience. Exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2016, the Western Plains Cultural Centre is the only other venue to present this body of work. Maria Kontis' seven drawings are based on a group of found photographs the artist has been collecting for the past twenty years. The intricate detail of Kontis’ work is not a faithful copy of the original, rather a reinvention and poetic interpretation that elevates each photograph to a captivating new level. Noel McKenna’s series Animals I have known chronicles the artist’s encounters with animals throughout his life – tracing the profound emotional impact of those interactions since his childhood.

'The End of Time. The Beginning of Time.' is the final exhibition to be held at Gertrude Contemporary's premises at 200 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy before the space relocates to Preston. The exhibition pays tribute to the dense legacy of artistic production in the current building and the communities that have contributed to and formed around it.

Jon Campbell's 1987 work 'Guitar Player' and Mark Hilton's 2007 piece 'Shit Happens' will be some of the historical works included.Other works such as Danius Kesminas' 'Best Kept Secret', 1994 reference the imminent move. Taking the form of a real estate sign indicating the sale of the building, and being presented in the front window, the work now seems aptly prophetic. At the time the instigator of many phone calls to the director expressing interest in the acquisition of the building (the listed enquiry line on the original sign was Gertrude’s direct telephone number as opposed to that of a real estate agent) the work has a relevance that has only amplified in prescience.

On show until 10 June

From dioramas to dolls' houses, atomic models to cloud-chambers, mandalas to maquettes – 'A working model of the world' gathers together charismatic objects created to help us understand the world around us and imagine new possibilities.The exhibition explores the way models are used to create and share knowledge. It asks how we use models to contemplate, experiment, invent and teach. Presenting new and existing artworks alongside emblematic and evocative models borrowed from public, private and research collections, the exhibition stages a conversation between different forms of material thinking from many disciplines. This exhibition is being developed and presented in partnership with UNSW Galleries, Sydney, the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York and The Curators’ Department, Sydney. The exhibition will be shown in New York from September - December 2017.

'Unproductive Thinking' features moving image, drawing, photographic, ceramic, sculptural and painting-based artworks by leading and emerging Australian artists.

Curated by James Lynch, the exhibition seeks to inspire visitors’ imaginations by revealing the humorous, poetic and mundane means of artists and how they use or misuse their thought processes for the purposes of creativity.

"Charlie Sofo’s site specific 'Seasonal Work' offers the last figs of the season, picked from neighbourhood trees around Brunswick and surrounding Northern Suburbs, to be replenished throughout the course of the exhibition. The gesture of gathering and giving is integral and embodied within this work. Sofo is interested in how these gestures initiate conversations, about histories and passions, particularly in relation to personal family histories. Sofo’s practice focuses on the gathering of seemingly non-art materials and configuring them in a way that embodies the traces of their original usage. Figs, though perishable, still have the power to contain information about social contexts, and the environment, as subject to change." Excerpt of text by Lauren Ravi 2017

Freshwater considers how water reflects ecological, cultural, political and economic realities. Through the works of over 20 Australian artists and artist collectives, alongside historic works drawn from the Shepparton Art Museum Collection, Freshwater highlights how water remains central to identity, and to how and where we live.

The National: New Australian Art presents the latest ideas and forms in contemporary Australian art, curated across three of Sydney’s premier cultural institutions: the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. A six-year initiative over three editions in 2017, 2019 and 2021, the curatorial vision for the exhibition represents a mix of emerging, mid-career and established artists drawn from around the country and Australian artists practicing overseas. New and commissioned works encompass a diverse range of mediums including painting, video, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance. 

Ronnie van Hout's work will be displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney from 30 March – 18 June and Chris Bond and Jess Johnson's work will be shown at Carriageworks from 30 March – 25 June. 

An exhibition curated by Micheal Do, in conjunction with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and toured by Museums and Galleries of NSW, Softcore presents artistic practices that explore the many facets of ‘softness’ - from large-scale inflatables and forms made from soft materials to materials that simply look soft.

We are sad to say that gallery artist and friend Robert Rooney passed away on 21st March. He was 79 years of age.

Greatly admired and loved by his friends Robert was a man of great integrity for whom being an artist and life were one and the same thing.

Robert spent all but the first two years of his life in East Hawthorn where he lived with his mother, Beatrice until her move to an aged care facility a couple of years ago. Beatrice passed away on 26 January. Robert only left Melbourne once during his life, a round trip to Sydney (to review the Archibald Prize) and to Canberra. He was happy to never leave Melbourne again.

I first met Robert in September 1992 when he visited my gallery’s very first exhibition. The gallery was originally located in Smith Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne. At this time, Robert was both an exhibiting artist and the art critic for the Australian newspaper. As a critic he had a reputation for idiosyncratic reviews that blended his daily activities and wide ranging cultural interests with his impressions of the exhibitions, galleries and museums he visited. As a critic he spoke the truth as he saw it, unafraid to express his opinions or offend his fellow artists.

With this reputation preceding him it came as some surprise to meet the modest, shy, funny and thoroughly decent man who started visiting my gallery in 1992. Robert was one of the few regular visitors to my gallery in its early Melbourne years. His thoughtful and encouraging reviews of our early exhibitions were important milestones for the gallery.

With my gallery’s move to Sydney in 1997 came the opportunity to exhibit Robert’s work. He’d had two previous exhibitions in Sydney, at Terry Clune Galleries in 1964 and at Roslyn Oxley Gallery in 1984. We presented the first exhibition in 2003. Other solo exhibitions followed in 2006 and 2008.

As an artist, Robert set a bench mark for artistic integrity, individuality and commitment to an artist’s life. It was an honour to have known and worked with him.

Campbell's work On for Young & Old will be featured in this years Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize held at the National Art School. The prize's unique format sees 22 established artists each chose an emerging artist to create a work to show alongside them, creating mentoring relationships between different generations of artists and a dialogue between their work. Campbell has selected Melbourne-based emerging artist Kenny Pittock to show alongside him.

Mark Hilton, Kate Newby and Tove Storch have an exhibition opening at Raising Cattle, Montreal today 25 March 2017

A good analogy doesn’t need to be concrete, it only needs to be expressed in terms of an idea you already know deeply. Like the idea of deep cement poured on a hot day, hosed as it cures to prevent cracking.

In metallurgy hardness is defined as the ability of a material to resist plastic deformation or indentation. Like metals, the hardness of an idea is important to measure, so as to choose whose hands, and how rough to handle. Sometimes soft ideas need rough hands. Some hard ideas are better left untouched. The opposite may be true, you need to measure.

Plus solids is an exhibition of sculpture, where solids are to sculpture what milk-solids are to milk. Some sculptures sit pressed and numbered, anchored to the world of objects. Others exist as a suggestion of something imminent, resting in wild flax grass, or propped in the backseat of a taxi in traffic. In this exhibition the visible sculpture coalesces with the invisible, and like a small insect colliding into a flinching eyeball (observed in profile and mistaken for a wink) the disparity between what is seen and unseen is the structure of the exchange.

For his first solo exhibition at New York Gallery Maccarone Swallow has rendered utilitarian materials such as leather, rope, cardboard, and wood into patinated bronze sculptures, expanding his translation of an object, form, and material into an alternative preserved kinetic state. Dimpled leather, looped rope, and precarious assemblages become formal studies of levity, grace and precision. Several works stand and coil up from plinths seemingly driven by their own inert tension and humble intimacy. Larger industrial corner works, integrating spheres, suggest a structural punctuation to the architecture. Several works conform to and dictate the corners and passages of the exhibition itself.

LOOSEN is a week-long program dedicated to development and presentation of performance based practices in Melbourne. On Wednesday 8 March Woodward performed A three year old story about a stolen bicycle that I still feel slightly responsible for (2017), a conversation following a story about Emma Sumner’s stolen bicycle, which was taken from outside TCB during a visit to the exhibition House Lights in May, 2014

'Formally Yours' features new and recently made works by seven Australian artists who are engaged with notions of form through their art practice. Across a diverse range of mediums, the works intervene and activate the space at different points throughout the exhibition.

The Ancestors contains works by contemporary artists who invoke the continuation of the past in the present. Works by Laurence Aberhart as well as Lottie Consalvo, Stevie Fieldsend, Abdullah M I Syed and Judith Wright, are shown alongside ritual art from Ancient China, India & Timor.

Patterson has relocated to Vienna for five months to take part in an international exchange at the Academy of Fine Arts object sculpture studio under Professor Julian Göthe.

Bendigo Art Gallery celebrates 130 years in 2017 and to mark the occasion they have presented a dynamic new exhibition of historic and contemporary works from the gallery’s collection. Visitors will see new acquisitions, alongside highlights of the collection, such as Weaver's Auk (In advance of the glacier) and some of the first ever works acquired by the founders of the gallery in 1887.

This group exhibition, sourced from the Museum of Brisbane collection and City of Brisbane collection showcase works by 21 Brisbane artists who have captured views and aspects of life in Brisbane.

Drawing from old currencies, banking archives and contemporary art, Creative Accounting scratches below the surface of our economic system to reveal money's enigmatic side. Money is many things at once: an abstract concept of value; an agent of propaganda; a tool of the powerful; and a decorative device. It plays a central role in all of our lives yet is often overlooked as an object of contemplation. At a time when money is becoming increasingly abstract, Creative Accounting speculates on its wider value. This exhibition is curated by Holly Williams, in conjunction with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery and toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW.

Adelaide-based artist Michelle Nikou draws on surrealism in a reflective and productive way to transform mundane domestic objects and materials into sculptures of humour and marvel. In this exhibition of new and recent work she utilises surrealist strategies such as chance, psychological metaphor, deadpan wit and juxtaposition, and inventively mingles high and low art sources and cultural references. Her work intentionally blurs and extends the boundaries between fine art and craft and often invests unremarkable or overlooked facets of daily existence with new and unexpected significance. Nikou’s practice is also characterised by a deep engagement with language and she forges connections between art and literature that invoke suburban life, family interactions and food. Seemingly disparate concepts and materials are regularly combined to produce unsettling and sometimes absurd effects, such as the fried eggs made in bronze that lend the exhibition its title, the flattened egg forms suggesting the vowels of the alphabet. As a result of imaginative exploration Nikou has evolved a distinctive visual vocabulary and sophisticated practice with a strong conceptual basis in its play of poetics, aesthetics and forms.

The camera receives and frames the world through the lens. This aperture is a threshold that demarcates the distinction between the scene and its photographic echo. It is both an entrance and a point of departure.

Examining the way apertures haunt photographic images long after the shutter has closed, this exhibition attends to and exposes the poetics of the portal.

Each artist featured treats the aperture – the chasm, fissure or interstice – as a thematic or poetic motif. Sink holes and port holes abound. In each crevasse or cavity that appears within the work on display we witness a circumspect allusion to that elemental photographic gesture – the taking of the shot – but also to the edge of the image. It is the lens that defines the perimeter of a photograph’s visual field. Enlisting the lens as both a motif and a means of representation, these artists remind us of its outer limit but also of its limitations. They speak to subjects that remain buried and unseen within (and in spite of) the image and to the black bars that separate each frame on a strip of film – that abyss into which the invisible falls. They speak to the information that gets lost in the blink of an eye and to the inherent instability of perception.

An elegy to apertures returns to origin stories and the point zero of the photographic event, attempting to distill this fleeting instant – to hold the aperture open – and devise an allegorical framework for a self-reflexive study of the medium.

Intrinsic Properties / Inherent Vice brings a small group of artists together who interrogate glass as a medium, it foibles and its breadth of meaning.
The exhibition is curated by Holly Williams from The Curator's Department and will be opened by Ben Wright from Urban Glass, NY during the official opening on Saturday 28 January at 7.30 pm.

Jess Johnson joins Hany Armanious, Simon Denny, Beau Emmett, Eva and Franco Mattes, Soda_Jerk, Alexis Mailles and Yujun Ye, Ryan Presley, Zoe M. Robertson, Suzanne Treister and Pope Alice Xorporation in 'New World Order', an exhibition of exposés, conspiracy theories, cybernetic tarot cards, hacked city-scapes, UFO blanket paintings, alternate currencies, illusions, paradoxes and alternate endings. New World Order is an opportunity to think about how we make sense of the world in a post-internet era.

Opening 9 December 6pm
with guest speaker Jaimie Leonarder from Mu Meson Archives
and a ceremonial appearance by Her Divine Holiness Pope Alice Walking to the New Jerusalem

Olympic Doughnuts will be playing at our end of year drinks on Friday 9 December from
5.30 pm. Olympic Doughnuts is a collaborative project by artists Jon Campbell and Matthew Griffin. The band formed in Melbourne in 2009 and have released several hit songs including My Side, Ditch The Pit, Fish And Chips Or Pizza & Ten Fishing Commandments.

'Sugar Spin' is an exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of QAGOMA. Featuring over 250 contemporary artworks exploring light, space, architecture and the senses from brand-new immersive works to large-scale visitor favourites, the exhibition reflects on our complex connections to the natural world with an explosion of colour, sensation and spinning delights. Weaver's work Phoenix, Indian Blue Peacock (Pavo Cristatus) 2008-09 purchased 2010 with a special allocation from the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation will be on show as part of this major exhibition.

MARS Gallery’s represented artists have each chosen a guest artist to exhibit with them in 'Drawing to an End [December works on paper]'. Opening on Saturday 3 December, the exhibition shows a diverse selection of works on paper ranging in size, medium and subject matter from more than 35 Australian contemporary artists. Jennifer Mills has been chosen to exhibit by MARS artist Steven Haley and she will be showing a work from her recent '99 Problems' series.

Kushana Bush's exhibition 'The Burning Hours' opens at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Friday 2 December 2016. The Otago Daily Times interviewed Kushana during the exhibition install. Click link below for the article and interview video.

Louise Weaver and James Morrison in Birds: Flight Paths in Australian Art at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 2 December – 12 February 2017
This exhibition considers how Australian artists have incorporated birds in their work to explore and tell stories of our environment, history and identity. Birds symbolise many aspects of humanity, as well as being subjects of scientific and cultural enquiry, curiosities, objects of desire, beauty and song, motifs for home or fashion and emblems of empire and nationhood. In a country proud of its unique birds - our kookaburras, emus, galahs and cockatoos - contemporary artists are now looking at how our fragile ecology is under threat. Birds: Flight paths in Australian art will take the viewer on a revelatory journey through Australian art history by exhibiting 80 works, including iconic works by colonial and early 20th century artists alongside several contemporary artists.

Henry Jock Walker and Jon Campbell have collaborated on a new film clip to accompany Jon's song, 'Perfect Wave'. Launched at Bus Projects, Melbourne on 26 November, the clip can now be seen on vimeo.

Robert Rooney and Louise Weaver are included the Australian Print Workshop's annual 'Impressions' exhibition. The artists have kindly donated editions to support the programmes and activities of the APW, Melbourne, 25 November 2016 - 25 February 2017.

She will join Jana Hawkins-Andersen, Peter H. Johnson, Bridie Moran, Jade Muratore, & Katie Winten with Flora Grant & Emily O’Connor as Firstdraft continues to present innovative work across its exhibition, curators, writers and Firstdraft Presents program streams.

Congratulations to Michelle Nikou on being awarded a NAVA Visual Arts Fellowship
Aimed at mid-career artists these prestigious new Fellowships ensure recipients can explore the next major development in their practice.

Drawing on the centuries old tradition of trompe l’oeil painting (or trick of the eye), this exhibition brings together works that are intentionally illusionistic, play with perspective or are something other than what they first appear to be. Tricking the eye—contemporary trompe l’oeil investigates the work of these contemporary Australian artists in a new and engaging context, drawing links with numerous art historical precedents.

Join Jon Campbell and Henry Jock Walker at Bus Projects, Melbourne on Saturday 26 November from 3-4 pm for the launch of the video clip Jock has made for Campbell's song Perfect Wave. Campbell will be playing a few songs.

Congratulations to Michelle Nikou on being awarded one of NAVA's inaugural Visual Arts Fellowships.
Aimed at mid-career artists these prestigious new Fellowships ensure these exceptional artists can explore the next major development in their practice. Nikou will utilise the Fellowship to develop a new body of work through research and collaboration at the Lombok village of Sukarara, Indonesia. She will be learning traditional techniques of weaving incorporating natural dyes and materials.

Imbued with the qualities of precious relics from the pre-digital age, the seven drawings by Maria Kontis in the exhibition are based on a group of found photographs the artist has been collecting for the past 20 years – assorted snapshots from anonymous sources cast adrift into the world. The intricate detail of her work is not a faithful copy of the original, rather a reinvention and poetic interpretation that elevates each photograph to a captivating new level.

Louise Weaver in 'Human/Animal/Artist' at McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery until 19 February 2017.

Human / Animal / Artist includes a diverse range of established and emerging artists who emulate, incorporate or refer to the works of animals, whether nest, web, hive, shelter, structure, design, trace, song or dance. It explores how the exquisite, elaborate and sophisticated works of certain animals can have a direct, fecund and illuminating relationship with contemporary art. By showing how the human artist has been inspired by the animal's original design or production, Human / Animal / Artist acknowledges the profound shift that has taken place regarding animals in recent decades. This shift is the result of our concerns about the natural world due to climate change and its devastating impact on the earth's many ecosystems. Human / Animal / Artist focuses on artists who display a unique and sensitive perspective about the originality, design, structure and aesthetics of works by non-human animals and reveals how it has influenced their practice. The artists include international and local sculptors, painters, photographers and musicians.

From the Studio celebrates the artistic yield of the artists and writers who have completed a yearlong Bayside Artist in Residence at the Billilla historic mansion since 2013. The exhibition incorporates all disciplines of artistic practice from textile works to painting, and sculptural assemblage to video installation.

This group show features works by Thaddeus Wolfe, Martha Grover, Olivia Erlanger and Jess Johnson. It is on view 24/7 in the window of 291 Grand Street, New York.

Creative Accounting is a touring exhibition which explores ideas around money, economic systems, perceived value, and the aesthetics of currency at a time when money is becoming increasingly abstract. The exhibition traces the development of Australia’s financial and accounting systems and offers a fascinating insight into the evolution of banking and financial management practices over the last 200 years. Creative Accounting unlocks a range of intriguing archival objects, and includes often underappreciated artefacts and cultural material held in regional collections across Australia. Complemented by this archival and historical material, the exhibition includes work by contemporary Australian and international artists who address its themes.

Jon Campbell has collaborated with artist Henry Jock Walker on a surfboard for Jock Walker's current solo exhibition Locals Only at Bus Projects, Melbourne. The board is emblazoned with Campbell's text 'Just Piss Farting Around' and 'Fuck Yeah'. On show until 26 November.

Rough Machine/Soft Power is a dance piece that combines musical instruments, costumes, banners and a musical performance on stage and in a public space. In this work, the collective Punkasila and Fitri Setyaningsih—both residing in Yogyakarta—focus on how chaos and fear are being managed as a cultural asset of a society. To those in control of power—the state, the market, or the paramilitary—the ability to create and control chaos is a valuable political asset. On the contrary, to the repressed, chaos is a means to challenge the dominant, reigning regime. On the streets, the way of various groups in society to challenge authority is by organized noises and visibility. The noises of engines, the choreographed route for the vehicles, and various other performance aspects, which are the collective language in the power contest arena.

Undreamed of … 50 Years of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship commemorates the 50th anniversary of the University of Otago’s Frances Hodgkins Fellowship. The exhibition, hung in both the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Hocken Collections, includes work by all 48 of the Fellows and offers a snapshot of the rich diversity of artists and art practices that have been fostered by the Fellowship – painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and digital media are all represented. Recent works by many of the artists will be shown alongside those made during the Fellowship, revealing how their practice has developed over the intervening years.

The Popular Pet Show expresses the joy and warmth that many of us derive from our animal companions, and will celebrate their trusting, unpretentious ways. Comprising exuberant recent Australian paintings, many on a large scale, it will include portraits of famous and obscure Australians and their pets by contemporary artists. Many works have been created especially for the exhibition.

Noel McKenna and Jennifer Mills in the 2016 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery until 10 December.

Established in 1988, the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award has been the means by which the Grafton Regional Gallery has gathered a unique collection of contemporary Australian drawing, with over one hundred works acquired by leading, established and emerging artists. The winner of the $30,000 prize will be announced on opening night and the exhibition will tour eight regional and metropolitan galleries until mid 2018.

Jon Campbell is in this group exhibition curated by Emma Busowsky Cox at Arts Project Australia until 25 November.

Featuring a selection of artists from the Arts Project Australia studio alongside external contemporary artists, i heart rock (rock is the total work of art) is a playful exploration of fandom, nostalgia and homage through art devoted to and about rock music. Five of Campbell's love song banners are included in this exhibition.

Jon Campbell and Kenzee Patterson are included in 'Contour 556: interventions in the landscape', Canberra's new public art festival. Held on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra the fesitval takes place around the major cultural institutions, the National Library of Australia; the National Gallery of Australia, the High Court of Australia and the Kingston Arts Precinct. Featuring fifty national and international artists and encompassing artworks, performances, sound installations, music, and digital projections the festival asks artists to respond to the layers of Canberra’s history.

'Portal for Propositions' is a project premised on the public generating ideas for the content of an exhibition via a web portal. The public will be asked to fill out various fields to submit their ideas for a whole exhibition, single artwork or installation. These public responses will be collated and documented, and after a selection process, one or three works will be made by the artists, either individually or collaboratively, and be installed in Bus Project’s two east side galleries. Documentation of all propositions submitted by the public will be on display at the exhibition and a PDF listing all submissions will be available as a public document or resource for ideas for future works.

Soft Core includes work by thirteen artists whose practices explore the many facets of ‘softness’ - from large-scale inflatables to forms made from soft materials, to materials that simply look soft. This exhibition has been curated by Micheal Do and will tour nationally until 2018.

'Wildthing' is an exhibition examining the animal in contemporary Australian art and is part of the celebrations of the centenary of Taronga Zoo. 'Wildthing' includes works drawn from the Western Plains Cultural Centre collection as well as public and private collections. It has been produced in partnership with Western Plains Cultural Centre and Lake Macquarie Art Gallery, following the success of their joint 2014-2015 exhibition 'Wildside'. On show until 27 November

Charlie Sofo is included in this exhibition at CCP which looks at documentary photographer Walker Evans’ practice, charting the enduring effect he has had on Australian art today.

Curated by Michael Brennan, Tormentor consists of fictional documentary material and sculptural works made in the body-mind of imagined Norwegian artist Tor Rasmussen (a temporary resident at Bond’s house in late 2014). The results are at once deceptive, self-deceptive, characterised and representational, and speak of discord and fracture. Tormentor charts Bond’s relationship with Rasmussen (also known as Kraken), determining the value of embodying and performing multiple invented artistic identities within a practice, encouraging imbalance and enabling unlikely action.

Kenzee Patterson's exhibition 'A tree branches, so does a river' is on show now in the Vicki Fayle Gallery at Lismore Regional Gallery. The exhibition continues until 3 December 2016.

This exhibition looks at the roles two of the artist’s ancestors played, in the logging of red cedar in the Lismore area during the mid-nineteenth century, and the construction of the old Lismore Post Office clock tower.

The interconnectedness of time and materiality is delineated through a series of steel sculptures that relate to the wrought iron belfry of the clock tower. The forms of these sculptures echo the chemical structures of pheromones released by red cedar trees and cedar tip moths, hinting at the complex ecological relationships that are often imperceptible to humans.

Anne Wallace is one of the most recent additions to the James C Sourris AM Collection of contemporary Australian artist interviews, part of the Australian Library of Art at State Library of Queensland.

A screening of this interview will be shown at the State Library of Queensland on Friday 30 September at 6.30 pm, followed by a discussion the artist.

Country & Western: landscape re-imagined is one of the most comprehensive and inclusive landscape exhibitions of recent times. With works by leading Australian artists the exhibition brings into focus our evolving attitudes and perceptions of the national landscape over the past twenty-five years.

The vexed issues of dispossession, identity, collaboration, mining and land degradation, along with the country’s natural splendour are all viewed from differing cultural perspectives.

The works in the exhibition have been sourced from major public galleries and private collectors throughout the land. Country & Western features artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as they re-imagine the post-bicentennial landscape with verve and rigour.

Chris Bond and Jon Campbell are finalists in the R&M McGivern Prize, opening tonight at ArtSpace at Realm, Maroondah, Victoria.
The $25,000 prize is awarded every three years for an outstanding artwork in oil, gouache, acrylic or watercolour. This year’s theme is 'text'. The exhibition continues until 20 November

A single sculptural figure by Ronnie van Hout will occupy the window of Gertrude Contemporary from 9 September - 15 October before being shown as part of his solo exhibition at STATION later in the year. Clad in pajamas, van Hout’s figure stands pointing at the viewer and the street with an accusatory menace. Through this van Hout performs a tangential shift within self-portraiture to cast the viewer as the subject, reprimanding us for looking and returning power to the lone figure in the gallery.

Jennifer Mills' work' In the echo chamber (18 brown + 18 blue = 36 missing persons found)' is shortlisted for the 2016 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize at Geelong Gallery.

The biennial $30,000 acquisitive prize for painting features works by 33 Australian artists, revealing the diversity of painting practice today. The selection panel includes guest judge, Victoria Lynn (Director, TarraWarra Museum of Art) along with Jason Smith (Director, Geelong Gallery) and Lisa Sullivan (Curator, Geelong Gallery).

Noel McKenna is in New York for a residency at The Watermill Center. During the month long residency McKenna will create a series of works relating to the local landscape. He will also study works in the Watermill Collection—an eclectic collection of objects ranging widely across many cultures and continents.

Curated by White Columns director Matthew Higgs the show includes the work of more than 30 international artists.The exhibition continues until 25 September.

'Outside' refers to both physical place (i.e. the world around us) as well as a psychological state (as evidenced by the mercurial sensibilities of so-called ‘Outsider’ art.). The artists in Outside, of many generations, both conventionally and unconventionally trained, subscribe to no recognizable ideology or tendency. Outside ultimately suggests that our sense of ‘place’—like our sense of ‘self’—remains elusive: a shape-shifting terrain, constantly in flux.

Charlie Sofo is currently undertaking a three month residency at the Monash Prato Centre in Tuscany. The MUPC Visual Residency Program is a collaborative initiative between the Monash Prato Centre and the Monash Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and offers established and emerging creative practitioners the opportunity to incubate new ideas, undertake research, and engage with local institutions and industry.

During his residency Charlie will develop a project of research, social engagement and art-making. Creating a new series of works using methods of writing, drawing, video and sculpture making. When asked about his expectations regarding the residency Sofo replied: For me, my interaction with Prato isn’t one of simply representing experience or exchange. Rather it is my hope that I will cultivate attentiveness to bodily experiences, of being “with” people and things. Through a process of collecting, walking, observing and note taking, I will seek to create a minor phenomenology. This process has the potential of allowing for moments of material poetry, pleasure and discovery.

Jess Johnson will undertake a ten week residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska. This residency is open to artists who explore themes of science fiction, defined or identified through its motifs and relationship to past sci-fi film and literature, magical realism, dystopian and utopian futures, robots, alternate timelines, transhumanism and bodily transformation, space opera, afrofuturism, futuristic identity as explored by costume and dress, the post-apocalyptic world, threats to territory and frontier, outer space, and investigations in artificial intelligence.

The second chapter of this major institutional exhibition of contemporary Australian painting is now on show until 25 September.

Rooney's work 'The Guilty One' is displayed in the main exhibition hall, hung on a 90 metre wall painting by Sam Songailo. The exhibition brings together a broad range of dedicated and rigorous practices that each use painting as a critical or conceptual form, reflecting the ways in which artists remain keen to work with traditional mediums and explore the role of the artist’s hand in the digital age.

Spaced 3: north by southeast is a residency program organised by International Art Space, Perth, which explores the cultural, social and environmental parallels between the Nordic countries and Australia.

Danius Kesminas is currently undertaking this residency at the FABRIKKEN for Kunst og Design in Copenhagen where he is developing new works in response to the social, environmental and historical contexts of Copenhagen.

Drawn from the MCA's Collection, Today Tomorrow Yesterday considers the impact of the past and the influence of history on artistic practice today. Swallow's 2008 work Caravan is on show.

From contemporary interpretations of ancestral stories to the continuing effects of early to mid-twentieth-century avant-garde ideas, each room presents a different perspective on the history of the present. Including work by more than forty artists from the 1960s to the present, recent acquisitions and a number of new commissions, Today Tomorrow Yesterday tells the story of the ever-evolving nature of contemporary art.

This year’s prize offers a major prize of $25,000 sponsored by Audi Centre Sunshine Coast and Sunshine Coast Council plus a residency at Montville Country Cabins. The winning work is added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection.

A non-acquisitive Highly Commended $5,000 prize sponsored by the Proost- De Deyne family and People’s Choice $2,500 prize are also on offer.

Charlie Sofo's exhibition 'A gap opens up' was made during his residency at Melbourne's Living Museum of the West. The exhibition is open every day until 27 August at the Living Museum of the West's Visitor's Centre, Pipemakers Park, Van Ness Avenue, Maribyrnong

Rob McHaffie's work 'She is...' 2016 is included in this group show initiated by Singer and songwriter Ben Abraham in which 14 Australian artists respond to songs from his debut album Sirens.

Each artist has created a new work for this project as a means of visually articulating and responding to a specific song from the album. Visitors will have the opportunity to listen to songs from the album as they view the corresponding artworks via a specifically developed app. The exhibition continues until 3 September.

A collaborative exhibition of artworks based on the Chapter House Lane curated Group Show, launched in 2015 in Melbourne. The exhibition marks the second instalment of the successful 2015-16 presentation of Group Show, building on the partnership between Arts Project Australia and Chapter House Lane. Featuring work by Alan Constable, Matlok Griffiths, Benjamin Lichtenstein, Julian Martin, Pia Murphy and Georgia Szmerling. Curated by Louise Klerks, Director, Chapter House Lane

Maria Kontis and Noel McKenna are included in this exhibition, which features the works of six Australian artists for whom drawing is a central part of their practice and whose work engages with narrative, memory and experience. Maria Kontis is presenting seven pastel on velvet paper works from her series Private Life and Noel McKenna's work Animals I have known 2015-16 is a collection of ink on paper portraits of wild and domestic animals. The exhibition runs from 30 July - 11 December 2016

Painting. More Painting will be the first major institutional exhibition of contemporary Australian painting in over a decade. The work of fourteen influential Australian painters will be presented in a series of solo studies offering in-depth insights into the evolution of these artists’ interests, techniques and approaches. These will be complemented by an extensive panoramic survey presented in ACCA’s main exhibition hall that brings together works by over sixty senior, mid and early-career Australian artists.

Eclectrc Panoptic is a bridging portal into Jess Johnson's other realm. The installation takes its genesis from the psychomagic group rituals conceived by the visionary filmmaker and comic book writer Alejandro Jodorowsky; and the technological themes of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune. Concealed within the space is Ixian Gate, a virtual reality artwork that can only be experienced through an Oculus Rift headset, plunging participants into the dystopic world of Johnson's drawings

An exhibition curated by Holly Williams, in conjunction with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, and toured by Museums & Galleries NSW, Creative Accounting explores ideas around money, economic systems, perceived value and the aesthetics of currency, at a time when money is becoming increasingly abstract. It traces the development of Australia’s financial and accounting over the last 200 years, and unlocks a range of intriguing archival objects and cultural material held in regional collections across Australia. The exhibition also includes work by contemporary Australian and international artists addressing these themes.

This project is supported by Arts NSW’s Curatorial Support Initiative grant, a devolved funding program administered by Museums & Galleries of NSW on behalf of the NSW Government. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Mark Hilton and Jennifer Mills are finalists in the 2016 National Works on Paper Prize opening at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery tonight. The winner will be announced on 16 July and the exhibition continues until 11 September.

The Joke is an exhibition in two parts spanning two locations, Neon Parc and Bus Projects, exploring humour’s relationship to power. More specifically, the subject’s relationship to its power source—how it is revered, critiqued, and subverted.

With its slippery nature, humour dissolves certainties and creates new realties – it encompasses self-doubt, the release of tension, play, and takedown. In this exhibition humour is a strategy used by artists who take on various power sources: institutional, patriarchal, global, sexual, and personal. These artists, in early, mid and late career stages, contest the modern view of the world in a way, which is intrinsically comic yet also acknowledges a painful edge.

The exhibition’s mediums encompass photography, painting, video and sculpture. While some works are jokes in themselves, others comment on humour, or contain its mechanisms.

To expand its dissemination, the exhibition will be accompanied by an online catalogue, which will evolve over the course of the exhibition, and will include an essay and commissioned writing.

Country & Western: landscape re-imagined is one of the most comprehensive and inclusive landscape exhibitions of recent times. With works by leading Australian artists the exhibition brings into focus our evolving attitudes and perceptions of the national landscape over the past twenty-five years.

The vexed issues of dispossession, identity, collaboration, mining and land degradation, along with the country’s natural splendour are all viewed from differing cultural perspectives.

The works in the exhibition have been sourced from major public galleries and private collectors throughout the land. Country & Western features artists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as they re-imagine the post-bicentennial landscape with verve and rigour.

This group exhibition at GAG includes four works by Anne Wallace alongside artists Stephen Bush, Gretchen Gordon and Tom Polo. The show runs from 29 June - 24 July.

Ixian Gate is an animated VR experience that enables audiences to enter the hypnotic spaces depicted in Johnson’s artworks. POP 01 is a pop up installation of VR, music and art presented at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Ronnie van Hout's newly commissioned sculpture 'Quasi' has been installed on the roof of the Christchurch Art Gallery. The five-metre tall sculpture was commissioned by the Christchurch Art Gallery and funded from their annual exhibitions budget. Quasi is a temporary artwork, standing above the junction of Gloucester and Montreal Sts until the end of 2017.

Van Hout created the artwork by scanning his own hand and face, then combining them into a single figure, as a surreal gesture. The name of the sculpture refers to the fact it is a quasi object as it is neither a hand nor a person, but also referred to Quasimodo, the fictional hunchback who dwelt in the belfry of Notre Dame.

Tim Woodward is currently participating in a residency at Mes 56, which has culminated in this exhibition opening 11 June.

For Ear in the afternoon Woodward has collaborated with parrot breeders to record the voice of the native Beo bird talking to their owners. The exhibition takes the form of a performance with the birds perched on sculptures made from Javanese Coffee Wood inspired by the structure of the Cochlea, and the magnified anatomy of the human ear. The show continues until 25 June. Tim will be giving an artist talk during the exhibition.

Signs & Wonders is an installation of four home-built flight simulators, which take viewers on a flight to/from the airstrip of an isolated Papua New Guinea Highland mission, where small planes play a vital role in navigating the difficult terrain.

This exhibition at Carl Freedman Gallery is the third iteration of Signs & Wonders, having previously been shown at Kunsthalle, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen in 2015 and Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis 2016. There will be an artist talk with Jan Verwoert, German art critic and contributing editor of Frieze Magazine, on 9 June at 7.30 pm and the exhibition is open from 10 June - 9 July.

Curator Peter Hill asks us to bring both our doubt and faith to this group exhibition which also includes works by Glen Clarke, Josh Foley, Tony Garifalakis, Grant Hill, Peter Hill, Patrick Pound, Michael Vale and Robert Zhao. “I have a great sympathy with both doubt and faith as beacons for navigating this sublime universe,” says Peter Hill. “Remembering that the sublime in art, as in life and death, hovers between beauty and terror. The Museum of Doubt is on show from 8 June - 3 July.

Jon Campbell is supporting Lower Plenty at the Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford, Melbourne on Sunday 5 June at 7 pm. Entry is Free!

Hahan's 'Speculative Entertainment no.1' is being exhibited as part of Art Jog 2016 at the Jojga National Museum until 27 June.

Hahan has divided a 750 x 260 cm painting into 1619 equally sized 10 x 10 cm lots. Audience members can buy between 1 - 16 lots which will be signed by the artist and certified by Art Jog Committee. Buyers can also consign their lot to be resold by Art Jog during the exhibition.

Ten Cubed gallery are currently exhibiting Noel McKenna works from their collection. The exhibition will be on view until 27 August. The gallery will host a Q & A with the artist and Gregory O'Brien on 8 June at 11 am.

Noel McKenna’s paintings depict the ordinary and unremarkable to reveal a simple beauty. Often the works have a sense of playfulness to them, frequently he captures a moment of whimsy and familiarity tempered with a hint of melancholy. McKenna is a master of painting, printmaking and ceramics. His dry sense of humour and personal perspective is present in all his work.

'Celebrating Wood: back to the future' is on show now at the Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland.

Curated by Paul McNamara, this exhibition features works by Laurence Aberhart which celebrate the vernacular building material, alongside museum/gallery collection items and scientific exhibits on the conservation of trees.

The exhibition is on show until 2 July before touring to Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne and Whakatane Musuem & Gallery, New Zealand. Each host venue has selected different collection items to display in response to Aberhart's photographs.

An exhibition curated by Holly Williams, in conjunction with Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, and toured by Museums & Galleries NSW, Creative Accounting explores ideas around money, economic systems, perceived value and the aesthetics of currency, at a time when money is becoming increasingly abstract. It traces the development of Australia’s financial and accounting over the last 200 years, and unlocks a range of intriguing archival objects and cultural material held in regional collections across Australia. The exhibition also includes work by contemporary Australian and international artists addressing these themes.

This project is supported by Arts NSW’s Curatorial Support Initiative grant, a devolved funding program administered by Museums & Galleries of NSW on behalf of the NSW Government. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

This project takes its name from the foundational American Hardcore Punk band, Negative Approach and examines how the intent and aesthetic residue of Heavy Metal and Punk continues to manifest in art and culture as a methodological approach to making and art.

With only ever releasing one studio album (Tied Down, 1983) much of what remains of Negative Approach lies across scattered compilations, demos and bootlegs. This project brings together nine artists to chart a similar course through contemporary practice, exploring subcultural influence and material focus across both practice and medium.

Rob McHaffie has been awarded The Local Art Prize, a $3,000 non-acquisitive prize which forms part of the 2016 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize.

McHaffie's work 'Private School Pash' (2016) will be on show in the finalists’ exhibition until Sunday 26 June 2016.

Mark Hilton and Jennifer Mills have been announced as finalists in the 2016 National Works on Paper Prize held at Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery.

Winners will be announced on 16 July with the exhibition running from 16 July - 11 September.

Luminous is the first exhibition in twenty-five years to feature the National Gallery of Victoria’s outstanding collection of watercolours and gouaches. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary diversity of the medium, with works by fifty artists including Hans Heysen, Albert Namatjira, Joy Hester, Fred Williams and John Brack.

Wolifson’s exhibition ‘tensions/translations/transitions’ brings together work by several artists employing physical and psychological markers and layers to evoke the tensions, translations and transitions occurring in our relationships with space and place. In bringing together these works Wolifson questions if perhaps new or unexpected tensions, translations or transitions will emerge to the viewer.

The exhibition continues until 28 May.

Jon Campbell will perform several songs from his latest Vinyl LP at the Melbourne Art Book Fair, NGV International, Sunday 1 May at 1pm. Entry is free!

Campbell will also discuss the process involved in designing the cover for the record.

Tim's 2016 work 'The Foreign Spokesman' is part of the show. The work features field recordings from the Perth Protection Zone, made on a Blackberry Bold 9000 mobile handset. The Perth Protection Zone is a stretch of beach surrounding the SEA-ME-WE3 submarine fibre cable. This fibre cable stretches the ocean floor from Perth to Jakarta, and carries the bulk of Australia's international voice and data traffic. The Blackberry Bold 9000 was the phone used by Indonesia’s previous Foreign Spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal. An attempt by the Australian Signals Directory (ASD) to covertly listen in to the conversations of Dino and other Indonesian politicians was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. ASD's own motto is ‘Reveal Their Secrets - Protect Our Own’.

An exhibition spanning more than three decades of work and covering Aberhart's travels to China, Japan, Australia, France and the United States. This exhibition is curated by Catherine Benz and forms part of the 2016 Head On Photo Festival. On Show until 22 May.

Four of Ronnie van Hout's works from his 2012 exhibition 'The Leavings' are on show in 'Design & Play' at Design Hub, RMIT, Melbourne, 29 April - 14 May.

This exhibition probes the interdisciplinary and poetic role of play within the everyday through the eyes of designers and artists.

Adelaide-based artist Michelle Nikou draws on surrealism in a reflective and productive way to transform mundane domestic objects and materials into sculptures of humour and marvel. In this exhibition of new and recent work she utilises surrealist strategies such as chance, psychological metaphor, deadpan wit and juxtaposition, and inventively mingles high and low art sources and cultural references. Her work intentionally blurs and extends the boundaries between fine art and craft and often invests unremarkable or overlooked facets of daily existence with new and unexpected significance.

This exhibition of new and recent work is on show at Heide II until 28 August 2016.

Future Nature probes the current state of the world in a post-natural age and the implications for the future. Rather than an apocalyptic demise by technology as E.M. Forester predicted in “The Machine Stops,” nine artists present questions of land use, citizenship, migration, and political action. Through their interventions for Future Nature, Edgardo Aragón, Michael Assiff, Jess Johnson, Marie Lorenz, Mathieu Pernot, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Khvay Samnang, Clement Siatous and Hiroki Tsukuda each explore an imagined, alternate reality as a result of mankind’s interruptions in nature.

James Morrison will talk about his exhibition 'Re-imagining Papua New Guinea' and the role of memory, imagination and fantasy in his landscape paintings.

The talk will take place on Wednesday 20 April at 5pm. RSVP essential

The Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize finalists’ exhibition will be open to the public between 11am – 5pm Wednesday to Friday and 1 – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday from Saturday 7 May – Sunday 26 June 2016.

This exhibition of new and recent works is the first to bring together a collection of the artist’s imaginary landscapes relating to Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea. On show until 19 June.

In writing about the exhibition Julia Powles says 'The various geographic locations in which Morrison spent his childhood and adolescence, especially the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea are an enduring location for Morrison, who often uses these sites as the ‘stage’ or setting for his narratives. In such locations we can find figures, significant to Morrison, such as the authors Patrick White and Ray Bradbury and the historical figure Bungaree, famous as the ‘first Australian’ an Aboriginal of the Broken Bay clan in NSW who accompanied Matthew Flinders on an early circumnavigation of Australia. Such figures in Morrison’s work are present as a respectful personal ‘homage’, and as ciphers for decoding a range of possible narrative interpretations.'

Country & Western: landscape re-imagined brings into focus the contrasting insights and cultural imperatives, both Indigenous (Country) and non-Indigenous (Western), that have given shape and substance to our evolving attitudes and perceptions of the national landscape over the past twenty-five years. In traversing the Australian landscape through a disparate body of work by a significant group of thirty-nine artists working in various media, the exhibition reaffirms the impact landscape exerts on the national psyche.

The exhibition was launched in Townsville in July 2015 is travelling to S.H.Ervin Gallery Sydney, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Katoomba, Mornington Peninsula Gallery Victoria, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery NSW, Cairns Regional Gallery Qld and concluding at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin in March 2017.

Campbell will be playing a selection of songs off his debut solo album as part of Milk & Cookies too, a performance night at Conduit Arts hosted by Eric Demetriou and Travis John.

Launched last year at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark, the exhibition includes three pairs of home-built flight simulators, which take viewers on a flight to/from the airstrip of an isolated Papua New Guinea Highland mission, where small planes play a vital role in navigating the difficult terrain.

Prior to the exhibition reception, Stevenson and anthropologist Jon Bialecki will have a conversation about the works in the exhibition and Bialecki's research interests. This conversation takes place at 4pm on Saturday April 2.

Laurence Aberhart and Ben Cauchi are included in this exhibition of outstanding photographs at Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington. The exhibition continues until 16 April.

Jess Johnson’s installation at Art Basel Hong Kong includes 14 new framed works on paper and one new video animation. The imagery from these works will spill out onto custom designed wallpaper, enveloping the entire booth and geometric tessellating carpet tiles will coat the floor, creating a sensory encounter for viewers and a unique visual experience.

Campbell and his band will be playing the album from start to finish on the night, with support from fellow artists Darren Sylvester and Georgia Spain, with Bullshit Rare on decks. The record will be available to purchase, it comes in a hand numbered edition of 300 (vinyl). $10 entry on the door.

Taking place in Gertrude Contemporary’s recently opened project space, Gertrude Glasshouse, In Concert will chart the boundaries of these art collaborations, examining the shifting and dynamic nature of the process across practice, medium and location.

Jon Campbell is playing some tunes from his new self-titled LP at Third Drawer Down, Prahran, Melbourne on Friday 4 March at 6pm! Plus get a free Jon Campbell stubby holder to keep your drink cool!

Facilitated by the Art Gallery of South Australia Contemporary Art Curator Leigh Robb, this panel coheres around the resurgence of the performative in contemporary practice as seen in the work of Irish artists Michelle Browne and Sandra Johnston (exhibiting in Border Crossings at the SASA Gallery), Destiny Deacon (exhibiting in Boo! at Tandanya) and Biennial artist, Chris Bond.

John Ward Knox's latest exhibition 'a deep and tumbling kind of laughter' is on show at the Hocken Gallery, University of Otago, Dunedin.

Magic Object draws its inspiration from the ‘Wunderkammer’ rooms or cabinets of wonder dedicated to the display of magical objects. Held every two years since 1990, the Adelaide Biennial remains the country’s longest-standing survey of contemporary Australian Art.

Bond's work will be presented at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, 55 North Terrace, Adelaide and in the satelite project Lovers of Neptune's Closet, curated by Lisa Slade at the JamFactory, 19 Morphett Street, Adelaide.

In November 2012 SLAVE PIANOS commissioned science fiction writer and art critic Mark von Schlegell to write The Lepidopters, a three-part science-fiction comic set in Indonesia which was drawn and water-coloured by Yogyakarta artist “Iwank” Erwan Hersi Susanto.

The comic nominally tells the story of an invasion of the Indonesian archipelago by alien moths, who plan to colonise Earth by engaging in inter-species reproduction.
The text is also a cipher, correlating works by seminal American artist Robert Smithson with the work of SLAVE PIANOS and the multi-disciplinary Yogyakarta art collective Punkasila, and connecting these to ancient Javanese mystical systems, the musical structures that traditionally articulated these, and the derivations and misconstruals of colonial European & post-colonial American visitors.

Derived from this comic, The Lepidopters: A Space Opera is a multivalent work for choir, virtuoso keyboard player, just intonation mystic-punk band, automated Gamelan, flute, clarinet, electric guitar, organ, percussion and video.

Campbell's songs bare all the traits of his paintings, in their witty, affable nature. Musically, Jon cites Jonathan Richman and Velvet Underground as major inspirations.
The record comes in a hand numbered edition of 300 (vinyl).

Presented in association with Darren Knight Gallery, the exhibition includes new and recent works and is on show until 12 March.

McKenna's work 'Stand by your Man, Lucy Turnbull' 2008 will be shown alongside international, as well as emerging and mid-career Australian artists. The painting reproduces a letter Lucy Turnbull wrote and distributed to the electorate of Wentworth in the lead up to the 2008 Federal election. It was first shown in Noel’s solo exhibition 'The Weekly Bus-Rail Ticket - The Return Journey' (Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, 23 August - 20 September 2008), which dealt with aspects of Sydney’s character and identities.

For almost four decades Aberhart has been photographing Australian and New Zealand World War One memorials using an old-fashioned view camera, long exposures and only available light.
In 2013 Aberhart made a concerted effort to finish this series of photographs, travelling to the far reaches of New Zealand and Australia, documenting the final components of the portfolio. ANZAC – a major exhibition of more than sixty prints – is the stunning result of this work which was launched at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2014 in time for the WWI centenary commemorations.

A work from Mark Hilton’s recent 'Half Flush' exhibition is on show now at STATION, Melbourne for their group exhibition 'its only castles burning.'

'Ring Around the Dowser' was first presented in an exhibition of the same name at the Geomuseum, Munster, Germany in 2014 while Woodward was on a residency at the Förderverein Aktuelle Kunst, and was shown in GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art, Gallery of Mondern Art, Brisbane last year.

Filmed amongst the Donald Judd sculpture on Lake Aa, in Munster, the films central idea is that of profanation.

The exhibition takes works from the Artbank collection and contextualises them within the dynamic colour compositions of Vassallo and Lieutenant’s wall-based work.
'Counter Compositions' opens on January 21 continues until April 16.

The second exhibition in Ward Knox's two part series has opened at Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington. A big exhibition of tiny works, it is on show until 2 February 2016

Luminous World brings together a selection of contemporary paintings, objects and photographs from the Wesfarmers Collection in a conversation about light. The exhibition includes works by 50 leading Australian and New Zealand artists.

Responding to the question 'What can painting offer that other art forms cannot?', the artworks selected and commissioned for this survey of 20 established and emerging New Zealand painters share a focus on material and form, and are deliberately open ended.

'Tender Thing: Contemporary Art and Archives' opens today at the Adelaide Town Hall. Featuring the work of Michelle Nikou this exhibitions pairs the works of 9 South Australian artists with pieces from the Adelaide City Council's archives to explore the way we keep and treasure memories. On show until 5 February 2016.

John Ward Knox's latest exhibition 'bodies of water (rising)' is on show now at Robert Heald Gallery Wellington. A big exhibition of tiny works, this is the first in a two part series. Ends 23 December.

Noel McKenna has been named as one of the last artists collected by Ten Cubed, a private collection based in Melbourne, which is open to the public. Founded by Dianne and Jack Gringlas and Ada Moshinksy, Ten Cubed focuses on the in depth collection of ten key Australian artists.

'Ixian Gate' is the centerpiece of the exhibition, where visitors are invited to don virtual reality headsets and immerse themselves in a 360-degree, dystopic world. Using Oculus Rift technology visitors are submerged in Johnson's altered reality, with the walls of the exhibition creating an additional layer through geometric patterning, visual motifs and a suite of drawings.

Ben Cauchi and Professor Geoff Batchen will engage in conversation about the opportunities and limitations associated with deploying antique processes in a contemporary art practice. 10am - 5pm, Saturday 5 December SCA Auditorium, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, Kirkbride Way, Rozelle

Noel McKenna is showing some new works with mother's tankstation at Art Basel Miami Beach, 3-6 December 2015.

This year c3 have engaged a field of curators to each develop an idea of a fictional gallery exhibiting at a faux art fair within c3. Each space will present 2-10 artists, depending on the curator’s vision and all works will be for sale with 50% commission paid back to the artists. All remaining proceeds will go directly to lowering the gallery fees for c3 exhibitions in 2016.

Following on from his current solo exhibition at Darren Knight Gallery (12 November - 14 December 2015), Perimeter Editions are hosting the launch of HALF FLUSH in Melbourne. Join Mark Hilton for the launch and a book signing this Saturday 28 November, from 3 - 5 pm at Gertrude Glasshouse, 44 Glasshouse Road, Collingwood. The book features an essay by John Thomson, co-director of Foxy Production, New York.

PAMELA is the brainchild of Melbourne artists Jon Campbell, Minna Gilligan and Georgina Glanville. The band formed in the painting department of VCA to play the end of year BBQ in 2011 and have kept on going. The PAMELA sound is classic folk/pop, vocal heavy, with acoustic strumming and tambourine flourishes. Witty songwriting and sing along choruses will leave you smiling and clapping.

Bush’s work will be shown alongside Grayson Perry’s tapestry 'Map of Truths and Beliefs' (2011) at City Gallery Wellington. Bush's intricate and colourful tragi-comic paintings comment on modern life but are loaded with references to arts of other times and places—to Indo-Persian miniatures, and Japanese prints, illuminated manuscripts and early-Renaissance paintings.

The exhibition includes three pairs of home-built flight simulators, with take viewers on a flight to/from the airstrip of an isolated Papua New Guinea Highland mission, where small planes play a vital role in navigating the difficult terrain.

Each simulator is arranged in a way where time is suspended by a tension that exists where the aircraft collide and do not collide.

The exhibition continues until 21 February 2016.

Join Michael Stevenson in conversation with German art critic Jan Verwoert, contributing editor at frieze magazine, tonight as they discuss Stevenson's artistic practice and his new, comprehensive installation Signs & Wonders, opening tomorrow at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark. Thursday 19 Nov 5 - 6.30 pm, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark.

Curated by Suzanne Buljan, Cherine Fahd & Dr. Martyn Jolly this exhibition features work by 25 artists from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Thailand who use experimental darkroom processes to exemplify new analogue/digital forms that collapse historic processes and future innovations.

On show until 6 December.

Feeling Material' is an exhibition that presents 10 newly commissioned works at c3 Contemporary Art Space and across various sites at the Abbotsford Convent and beyond. At its heart, this project seeks to provide a space to facilitate the adventurousness and precision of sculptural and spatial practice in Melbourne. Working across propositions, actions, movement, sculpture, sound, and landscape/architectural processes, the artists involved traverse a wide spectrum of approaches to constructing, highlighting and viewing many phenomena.

John Ward Knox's new site responsive work, Hardly Held Lightly, has been installed on the sculpture terrace of Auckland Art Gallery.

More than a kilometre of industrial chain has been transformed into three vast weavings, imitating the webs of a giant spider. Ward Knox draws on an arachnid's sensibility, by modelling the complex decisions about shape, link and length required to create a natural spider's net.

The installation has been supported by the Chartwell Trust and will be up until 5 June 2016.

Lurid Beauty comprises over 200 paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, fashion, films and photographs as well as theatre and performance in an in-depth exploration of Surrealism and its influence on Australian art and creative life.

Technologism, a major group exhibition bringing together forty-three historical and contemporary artworks, including several new commissions from Australian practitioners. Technologism wrestles with the profound cultural, social and political impact technology has made on art since the 1960s.

In 'The Dark Pool' van Hout considers the point where art crosses a line—and society turns against it.

In 1971, successful American toy company Aurora and acclaimed film director Stanley Kubrick both released products into the world that generated strong negative reactions. A firestorm of controversy saw Aurora close its doors, and Kubrick retreat from public life, withdrawing his film from view.

Aurora's toys and Kubrick's film crossed an invisible boundary—becoming a threat to the normal social and family structures, threatening to throw them into chaos. Society retaliated, pushing these products back, down to the dark pool, to wait for the day they could return.

Deadpan is an exhibition that features five Australian artists brought together by their use of humour in contemporary practice. Pranks, stunts, one-liners, these artists' use comedic strategies to articulate the human condition and the figure of the artist.

Opening 29 September, Jon Campbell, Takeo Hanzawa & Devin Troy Strother exhibit at Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, Japan.

Ronnie van Hout photographs are included in Body parts, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 September 2015 - 31 January 2016.
Body parts features a selection of works by Australian and international artists that focus on photography’s ability to communicate the extent of the body both physically and metaphorically.
The featured artists are: David Bailey, Ruth Bernhard, Robert Besanko, Jamie Bradbeer, Warren Breninger, Jane Burton, Paul Cox, Lynn Davis, Max Dupain, Ralph Gibson, Douglas Holleley, Ronnie van Hout, Simone Mangos, Tracey Moffatt, Lewis Morley, Sue Paull, JeanLoup Sieff, Shomei Tomatsu and William Yang.

Jon Campbell's lithograph, 'Up Shit Creek' has been included in the Freementle Arts Centre Print Award, 25 September - 15 November 2015.

Works by 40 artists, from 15 Asian countries including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines and Australia will be displayed, as well as a series of dynamic performances and an International Art Conference.

Comprising more than 60 prints, taken over a period of three decades the exhibition features poignant images of WWI monuments from across Australia and New Zealand. Each of Aberhart's images, document a single ANZAC figure, all photographed using long exposure and available light, and gives a unique insight into the memorialisation of war.

The 2015 panel of judges included Tattersall's Club Committee Member Michael Paramor, Curatorial Manager of Australian Art QAGoma, Jason Smith, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Nick Mitzevick and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Education and Art at the Australian Catholic University, Lindsay Farrell.

In late 2014 Bond invented a Norwegian artist named Tor Rasmussen (also known as Kraken), who came to stay at his house for a six week domestic residency. During this time he caused significant upheaval, documented through photography, video, and textual correspondence. Bond plays Kraken, the residency program manager Julie Redfern, as well as a version of himself, simultaneously dissolving and expanding the self. Primary motivation for assuming these personae lies in the possibility of using channelled, imagined forces to break self-conditioned responses to ideas and materials, and imagine new ways of being, acting and making. This exhibition forms part of Bond's Master of Fine Arts study at the VCA, and includes the launch of the book KRAKEN:TEXT.

This exhibition was first shown in 2014 at Monash University Museum of Art reflecting, as part of the First World War commemorations, on issues such as memory, loss, destruction and trauma.

'Concrete' Istanbul brings together 22 Australian, Turkish and International artists to explore the concrete, or the solid and its counter: change, and the malleable flow of time. The exhibition continues until 26 September.

An exhibition of limited edition prints produced in collaboration with APW by artists who are currently participating in the 2015 Venice Biennale, and those who took part in the APW's 2007 Venice Project. This exhibition continues until 29 August.

This years festival, which carries the theme DAN DAN, is being held over 18 days in the Garden Culinary Condong Catur, Yogyakarta, where the public can enjoy a variety of art and cultural events, both traditional and contemporary as well as culinary treats.

CACSA Contemporary 2015 celebrates the leading contemporary art produced in South Australia, and features the work of Michelle Nikou. The exhibition is spread across multiple venues and continues until August 30.

Charlie Sofo is included in the group exhibition Pedestrian, at Hoff Project Space, National Art School, Sydney, 5 - 7 August.

Curated by Jaime Tsai, this is an exhibition about the slowness of walking, the flows of traffic, and the mundane experience of the everyday.

Tim Woodward is a finalist in The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize at Griffith University Art Gallery. The winner will be announced on the opening night Friday 31 July and the exhibition continues until 29 August

Kreuzberg Pavillion is an independent non-profit project space, offering regular shows each Saturday. Since their inception in 2010 they have held over 120 exhibitions by 800 artists. Ben Cauchi will show his work alongside artists Sinta Werner, Hanna Mattes, Fred Sandback, Markus Wüste, Daniele Bornino, Marc Philip van Kempen and Sean Hannan.

Join Matlok Griffiths for the launch of his new book 'Comfort Room Forms' at Long Division Gallery, School House Studios, 81 Rupert St, Collingwood on Saturday 25 July from 3 - 5pm.

The 80-page book is a mix of 4-colour and 1-colour reproductions of Griffiths' drawings, which he made whilst living in the tropical island city of Dumaguete in the Philippines surrounded by the smell of fried chicken and gasoline.

Matlok will be doing a book signing, and a selection of works on paper from the book will also be on view.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of this major private collection, the exhibition will present works by 16 of Australia's leading artists including Jess Johnson's recent work 'The Wurm Turns Against' 2014, Ricky Swallow's 'Last of the unnatural acts' 2007, Ronnie van Hout's 'Bed/Sit' 2008 (pictured) and Louise Weaver's large installation 'Taking a Chance on Love' 2003. The show runs from 18 July - 27 September 2015.

The Fountain of Prosperity was created after Stevenson's extensive research into the Phillips Machine or Moniac - a hydro-mechanical computer invented in 1949 by Bill Phillips with the purpose to represent fiscal and monetary flows in a national economy. The Monaic was initially used for educational purposes but it was later marketed to developing countries. Stevenson's sculpture is inspired by this market shift, and stems largely from archival and field research in Guatemala, where the central bank purchased a Moniac in 1953.

An accompanying public program includes presentations by critic Justin Farago, curator Lauren Cornell and anthropologist Michael Taussig, each discussing the work through a different lens. Copies of Stevenson's related publication c/o The Central Bank Guatemala will also be available.

This work is presented in collaboration with the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, through its 'Viewing Room' program. Viewing hours are Thursday - Monday 11 am - 6 pm.

Kesminas will discuss his recent projects, including his fixed installation in the forest of Nida, Lithuania titled 'Tunnel in Kaliningrad' which deals with topics of borders and communication.

This event is organised by the Baltic branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts with support from Nida Art Colony, Lithuania and Gate art space.

Tim Woodward's work 'Ring Around the Dowser' is featured in the exhibition 'GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art' opening at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art today. The first of a series of exhibitions profiling Queensland visual artists, this exhibition aims to reflect the dynamic culture of Queensland Art today.

Shot amongst the Donald Judd sculpture on Lake Aa, in Munster, Germany, Woodward's film sees Father Thomas Frings from the Church of the Holy Cross speak for 11 minutes on what profanation means to him.

GOMA Q runs from 11 July - 11 October 2015.

Jon Campbell has been announced as a finalist in the 2015 Geelong Acquisitive Print Awards for his work Fuck Yeah 2014. 42 works by 44 leading and emerging Australian artists have been shortlisted for the award, with a prize pool totaling $9,500

The shortlisted works will be on display at Geelong Gallery from 22 August - 22 November 2015, with the winner announced on 21 August. This years selection panel includes Geelong Gallery director Geoffrey Edwards, curator Lisa Sullivan and Wendy Garden, senior curator at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.

Noel McKenna's work Domestic Interior: Door A 2015 has been shortlisted for the 2015 Sulman Prize, held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 18 July - 27 September 2015.

McKenna is a previous recipient of both the Sulman and Wynne prizes, having won the Sulman Prize in 1994 and the Wynne prize for Watercolour in 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2005. Last year his works Domestic Interior 2014 and Wharf, Palm Beach 2014 were hung in the Sulman and the Wynne respectively. Winners of this years prize will be announced on Friday 17 July.

Having just completed his six month Australia Council Residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York, Mark Hilton has been awarded a 12 month residency at the studios, which commenced July 1.

Hilton will return to Australia for two months in September, and take up a studio at Artspace, Sydney while he completes work for his forthcoming exhibition at Darren Knight Gallery, 14 November - 12 December.

Danius is currently participating in the NIDA Art Colony Artist in Residency program in Nida, Lithuania. Located on the Curonian Spit, the program aims to foster critical thinking, creativity, innovation and collaboration between artists,critics, researchers, designers and architects from Lithuania and across the world.

Having recently completed his six month Australia Council residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, Hilton will be giving a talk at the studios from 6:30pm on 30 June. Hilton will discuss what it means to be human in contemporary society by asking the question: is altruism really a form of self-interest?

Patrick Hartigan is included in the group exhibition Casual Conversation, opening today at Minerva, Sydney. The exhibition continues until 8 August.

A Surrogate For Fear of Sculpture is a new work by Melbourne artist Tim Woodward, developed while in residence at Fremantle Arts Centre. Focusing on FAC’s 150 year transformation from convict asylum to cultural institution, Woodward has explored the effect of this cultural site as a curious collapse of discipline and leisure. Creating a discursive mix of sculpture and storytelling, his public installation is inspired by the globus sculptural villain of the BBC Spy-Fi series ‘The Prisoner’ (1967-68).

A Surrogate For Fear of Sculpture is offered as a place to sit and read short fictional stories written by the artist, each story imagining a different sculptural antagonist into the FAC compound. On display from 26 - 28 June.

Writing Art illustrates how the use of text has evolved into an integral and multifaceted aspect of contemporary art. Featuring the work of over 40 artists, this exhibition, curated by Scott Donovan, opens Thursday 25 June and continues until 16 July.

Rooney's work is included in the exhibition Art as a Verb on show at Artspace, Sydney until 26 July. The exhibition, first displayed at Monash University Museum, is a major thematic show which addresses the concept of art as action, presenting a range of projects from the 1960's to today that challenge the traditional role of the artist, the art object and the exhibition space.

This major exhibition of more than 60 prints, taken over a period of three decades features poignant images of WWI monuments from across Australia and New Zealand. Each of Aberhart's images, document a single ANZAC figure, all photographed using long exposure and available light, and gives a unique insight into the memorialisation of war. This touring exhibition, was launched at Dunedin Public Gallery in April 2014 as part of the 2014 WWI commemorations and is subsequently touring across Australia and New Zealand. The exhibition is on show at Auckland Art Gallery until 6 December 2015.

Matlok Griffiths and Rob McHaffie both have works in the exhibition 'Shots Off the Dices' opening tomorrow at Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne. The exhibition has been curated by Rhys Lee and continues until 19 July.

Somewhere in the city explores the fabric of our urban environment and aspects of daily life through both individual and collective experiences. Everyday, mundane routines and scenes are re-imagined, revealing the way that built environments can both activate and impede our engagement with our surroundings. Set against the backdrop of the city and the suburbs, quotidian rituals unfold through visions that are familiar and unexpected. From quiet, overlooked corners of the metropolis, to the drone of rush-hour traffic and city crowds, the artists navigate shared spaces and the structures that form them.

‘MR FAVISAR’ is the course code for ‘Masters of Research Fine and Visual Arts’, at the University of Melbourne. ‘Who is Mr Favisar’ is a group exhibition made up exclusively of MFA candidates graduating from VCA in 2016, which raises questions regarding the position of a post-graduate fine arts student, within both the emerging art scene, and the institution. ‘Who is Mr Favisar’ also addresses the issues of identity within the emerging arts scene – how does one carve a position for themselves, and make themselves more interesting, more desirable?

Indo Pop: Indonesian Art from APT7 showcases works from the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Comtemporary Art (APT7). The touring exhibition will feature works in a variety of media and styles, and represents a young and exciting group of artists gaining widespread international attention. The selection highlights the importance of the exciting emerging arts centres of the Asia Pacific region and raises some of the artistic, political and social issues of one of our closest neighbours.

Kenzee Patterson is featured in Right Here Right Now, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, 6 June - 23 August 2015. This exhibitions showcases the work of twenty Sydney artists who are challenging the traditions of painting through experiments with colour, form, material and space.

Bringing together works from the AGNSW's Australian and International collections, Colourwheel celebrates the dynamic ways in which artists have used colour. Encompassing plastic, embroidery, video, digital animation and even bread the exhibition reflects the revolution that occurred in the modern age, when new technologies created new colours which vastly changed the way we viewed the world. Colourwheel is on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 30 May 2015 - 29 May 2016

Mills' 2015 work 'In the echo chamber (double take, Geoghegan College, 1984)' was shortlisted from more than 1,500 entries and will be in the running to win the $15,000 major prize. The Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award 2015 is on show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, 30 May - 26 July 2015.

Kenzee Patterson's work is featured on the cover of John Metcalfe's latest album 'The Appearance of Colour', produced by Real World Records.

Darren Knight Gallery is pleased to announce its representation of Melbourne based artist Matlok Griffiths. Griffiths will hold his first solo exhibition with the gallery in February 2016.

This touring exhibition of over 70 artworks by Australian and international photographers, collected by the University of Sydney and the Museum of Contemporary Art over a 50 year period is now on show at Artspace, Mackay. The exhibition provides a broad overview of photographic practice and explores themes such as documentary photography, serial photography, performance photography and the manipulation of the photographic image.

Chris Bond's collaborative exhibition with Lynette Smith opens tonight at Blindside Gallery, Melbourne. The exhibition continues until 23 May.

Field (wooden cypher) is part of an open-ended investigation of the way we find meaning in things and events. To ‘find it’, it seems that all you have to do is be present. The world and its interpretive possibilities seem given to you in some way. Chris Bond and Lynette Smith are interested in how that happens and the blindness that, paradoxically, makes it possible to see that meaning as a given. We know there is no way of getting around that so we look instead for the possibility of pleasure (or another truth) in obscurity, uncertainty, incompleteness, deception and the inauthentic.

Rob McHaffie has been announced as a finalist in the 2015 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, with his work Sylvia 2015. The exhibition will be on show from 2 May - 13 June, with the winner announced on 7 May.

Open Studios is a free three-day event when the public is invited to view international contemporary art at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn. Twenty-eight innovative artists are currently in residence, including individuals from 17 countries in Asia, Europe, and North and South America, who will present work in their studios. Open Studios provides access for the public to experience 28 “studio visits,” to see and talk about art in its place of origin and to share conversations with ISCP residents from all over the world.

The opening reception is Thursday 23 April 6-9pm. The Studios are open Friday 24th and Saturday 25 April from 3-8pm.

Mnemonic Pulse references an instrument described in Frank Herbert's 'Dune' novel, designed to imprint images upon the mind of the wearer. Unhinged from time and place, Jess Johnson’s immersive animation propels us through a first-person viewpoint into an eerie, arcane and seductive parallel universe.

Monash University Museum of Art's latest exhibition 'Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits', curated by Lars Bang Larsen and Marco Pasi, and featuring the work of Jess Johnson opens 21 April.

The major group exhibition takes as its departure point the art of forgotten Victorian-era Spiritualist Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884), and features contemporary and historical painting, sculpture, video and photography that both explore and adopt Spiritualist practices and methodologies.

The exhibition is on show until 27 June.

In this exhibition Bond and Smith explore the way we find meaning in things and events, suggesting we can find pleasure in obscurity, uncertainty, incompleteness, deception and the inauthentic. The exhibition is on show from 10 April - 9 May.

This exhibition explores the many different ways in which people explore or are stimulated by the cultural experience of visiting or living in other countries. In 2011 McHaffie took up an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in Malaysia, after which he lived for a period of time in Thailand. Since returning to Melbourne in 2013, McHaffie's work has dealt with issues of cultural tourism, and been influenced by traditional Thai arts such as puppetry.

Bond's VCA Masters work is on show in the VCA Student Gallery for one day only, on 2 April. Gallery hours are 9am - 3pm.

GNAP15 is a $20,000 biennial, acquisitive art prize administered by Federation University and presented in association with the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The finalists exhibition is on show at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and Post Office Gallery, Federation University from 11 April - 31 May.

The 2015 Collectors Space comprises works from five different private collections in Sydney, and features the works of eight Darren Knight Gallery artists. Curated by Glenn Barkley, the exhibition is an amalgam of differing styles and tastes, yet is expertly grouped to convey each owners' love for contemporary art and their passion for collecting. Collectors' Space closes this weekend.

Back to the Future is a survey exhibition presenting works created by three artists at Ace House Collective, over the last decade. The exhibition focuses on the importance of drawing in each of these artists' practices. The exhibition continues until 11 April.

In 2013 Laurence Aberhart completed the final phase of his WWI memorial photographic series, which he had been working on for over thirty years. This major touring exhibition of over sixty prints is on show at Tauranga Art Gallery, New Zealand until 10 May.

This touring exhibition traces the development of contemporary photographic practice over the last 50 years. Drawing on works from both the MCA Collection and the JW Power Collection, the exhibition presents Australian photographers alongside international artists and illustrates the story of the recent history of photography from the 1960s to present day.

Jon Campbell’s practice has explored vernacular language and popular culture through paintings, drawings, neon light works, installations and musical performance. The new paintings proposed for Art Basel Hong Kong 2015 will be a continuation of Campbell’s ongoing exploration of the visual potential of language.

It’s gonna take a lotta love is a group exhibition that explores ideas about inclusivity, authenticity, and commonality in an age of anxiety, isolated individualism, and virtually lived experience.

Unhinged from time and place, Jess Johnson’s immersive animation installation 'Mnemonic Pulse' propels us through a first-person viewpoint into an eerie, arcane and seductive parallel universe. This animation will be accompanied by a pair of site-specific wall paintings.

Jon Campbell has two neon works included in the exhibition 'Written in Light' at Geelong Gallery, Victoria until 10 May

For the MCA's upcoming exhibition of works from the collection, artist Christian Capurro has invited Chris Bond to create a response to his work 'Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette' (1999-2004). Bond has responded by creating a replica of the work which will be on show at the MCA from 18 December - 22 February 2015.

An exhibition of new ceramics and works on paper by Rob McHaffie will be on display at Schoolhouse Studios from 4 - 25 December.

The annual pop-up event is on again in Melbourne. This year the TDF team are building a house from scratch and will include works by Jon Campbell. The event will be open to the public for four days from 4 -7 December, location still to be announced.

Late last year Laurence Aberhart completed the final phase his WWI memorial photographic series, which he has been working on for over thirty years. This major touring exhibition of over sixty prints will be on show at Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare O Rehua, Whanganui from December 2014 - March 2015.

Last year the Australia Council announced Mark Hilton as a recipient of the International Studios and Curatorial Program residency, New York. Mark will take up the residency in December this year. The resulting works will be exhibited at DKG in 2015.

Jon Campbell will undertake his residency at Greene Street Studios in December. These works will be shown at the gallery in 2015.

Kenzee Patterson is included in this exhibition curated by Toni Bailey at Casula Powerhouse, which looks at the role drawing plays in sculptural practice.

Maria Kontis and Jennifer Mills are finalists in the Paul Guest Prize at Bendigo Art Gallery. The $12,000 acquisitive prize for contemporary drawing runs from 15 November 2014 - 26 January 2015.

Wallace's work Green Impala (2013) has been included in the exhibition Cars = My Automolove, on show at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery from 22 November - 31 January 2015. The exhibition looks at our love affair with the car, and its role in contemporary society.

Curated by Iakovos Amperidis, this exhibition, a tribute to artist Mike Kelley, takes the form of a curated installation over both of 55's gallery spaces and includes a recent sculptural work by Ronnie van Hout.

Geelong Gallery have created a new video for their 'Geelong Gallery Channel', in which Rob McHaffie, the recipient of the 2014 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, discusses his artistic practice and the intentions behind the winning painting, Preserve this fruit (2013).

Video by Ross Bird. Stills by Jesse Marlow.

Gertrude Contemporary’s 2014 Studio Artists’ exhibition presents new work from the sixteen studio artists at Gertrude Contemporary. Jess Johnson continues to chart points within a shifting reality, with a large wall drawing extending the space into a physical portal to speculative worlds.

Rob McHaffie is included in the exhibition Incidents Above A Bar (part 3) - I Probably Don’t Like You, curated by Nick Devlin and Fergus Binns

A selection of Robert Rooney's portraits from 1978-1987 are on show at Tolarno Galleries.

This exhibition brings together 25 leading painters from across the country, who share an interest in the landscape as subject.

Jon Campbell is interviewed by The Design Files for their online blog. Read the full interview at their website.

Jon Campbell, Rob McHaffie, Noel McKenna and Chris Mason have works in the upcoming Arts Project Australia Charity Art Auction held at Leonard Joel, Melbourne on Sunday 5 October from 5pm.

Rob McHaffie has curated this exhibition of nine artists from Sydney, Melbourne and Malaysia whose work responds to the beauty and symbolism of flowers.

Darren Knight Gallery project artist Andrew Blythe will be included in the exhibition Everyday Imagining: New Perspectives on Outside Art, 1 October - February 2015, at the Ian Potter Museum of Art. The exhibition, curated by Joanna Bosse, will coincide with the inaugural international conference Contemporary Outsider Art - The Global Context, presented by Arts Project Australia and the University of Melbourne. The event will take place at the University from 23 - 26 October. For the full program of events visit the conference website.

This exhibition, opening on 25 September, explores text and fictional storytelling as an art and exhibition making strategy. Bond will exhibit a work by his alter ego Edith Mayfield, as well as two fictional book works. The project is part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

This inaugural exhibition in the new NGA Contemporary features a selection of significant works from the National Gallery of Australia's collection of 21st century Australian art including works by Jon Campbell and Anne Wallace.

For her exhibition at Contemporary Food Lab Exhibition Space, Berlin, Nikou will present a single new work titled Vacancy 2014 (pictured above). This exhibition has been made possible with the support of the Australia Council.

( ) is an exhibition of new work by Gertrude Studio artist Charlie Sofo, on display in Studio 12 until 4 October. This exhibition has been made possible with the support of Arts Victoria.

Rob McHaffie has won the 2014 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize for his work 'Preserve this fruit' 2013. The $30,000 acquisitive prize for painting is held biennially .

Judge Charlotte Day said the winning work ‘reflects Rob McHaffie’s distinctive approach to painting involving processes of modeling and collaging. Although modest in scale, his paintings are sharply perceptive reflections on the paradoxes of contemporary life. As well as nodding to traditional Thai folk painting, this work can be appreciated as an allegory of Western and colonial attitudes to the East.’

Louise Weaver's work 'Lighthouse' is included in the exhibition 'The Museum of Abject Sentimentality', curated by Phil Edwards, which opens today at RMIT School of Art Gallery. The exhibition continues until 12 September. For more information visit the gallery's website.

Bond has two works included in Peter Hill's curated exhibition at KINGS ARI. This exhibition is part of KINGS' 2014 Limitless City Festival of Abstraction, Materiality and Authenticity.

Continuing their series of focus exhibitions, Newcastle Art Gallery presents Absurdia, works by Noel McKenna from the gallery's collection.

Punkasila, Slave Pianos, Tunas Mekar Balinese Collective, June Mills (Gunluckiinimul), The Woolybutts, Michael Keiran Harvey present The Lepidopters (Part 4) at the Darwin Festival, The Lighthouse, Darwin, Australia, 20 August 2014.

Darren Knight Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair, Stand E117, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 13 - 17 August 2014.

Darren Knight Gallery at Spring 1883, Suite 224, The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne, 14 - 17 August 2014.

Ronnie van Hout's 2014 work Brett and Michelle will be shown in Auckland next Thursday 14 August, as part of the annual CIRCUIT symposium: Locating the Practice: Exhibiting Artists’ Moving Image. Ronnie will be partaking in a Skype interview following the screening.

Rob McHaffie and Noel McKenna have been shortlisted for the 2014 Basil Sellers Art Prize. The winner of the $100,000 acquisitive prize will be announced Friday 25 July, and the exhibition will be on show at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne until November.

Jon Campbell and Rob McHaffie have been selected as finalists in the 2014 Geelong Art Prize. The recipient of the $30,000 acquisitive painting prize will be announced on Friday 29 August, and the exhibition will run from 30 August - 23 November at Geelong Gallery

For the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair Darren Knight Gallery will present a selection of gallery artists including new and recent works by Kushana Bush, Jon Campbell, Noel McKenna, Ronnie van Hout and Louise Weaver. For information about Melbourne Art Fair and tickets please visit the website.

Darren Knight Gallery is excited to participate in the new art fair Spring 1883 to be held at the Windsor Hotel. We will be presenting a selection of gallery artists including new and recent works by Jon Campbell, Jess Johnson, Rob McHaffie, Noel McKenna and Charlie Sofo.

Michael Stevenson has been included in the 8th Liverpool Biennial, A Needle Walks into a Haystack, curated by Mai Abu El Dahab and Anthony Huberman. Stevenson's work is on show in The Old Blind School. For more information on the Biennial visit the website

Kenzee Patterson is one of seven artists included in a group exhibition at Firstdraft gallery which opens tonight. The title of the exhibition comes from the name given to the reaction created when submerged sections of ice-bergs melt underwater. The title alludes to the fact that there is more to see in these artists works, beyond what is visible.

Hahan has been commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre to create a large wall mural for the exhibition 'The List', which aims to establish relationships with the youth of the Campbelltown area, engaging them with contemporary art practice.

Joanna Braithwaite is the third artist selected for The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Rotating Art program. The program showcases leading contemporary Australian artists to the banks's clients, employees and stakeholders, strengthening the institutions ongoing commitment to Australian art. The 2014 Archibald Prize finalist will present a solo exhibition which spans her practice from 2005 through to 2014, and includes works from her most recent exhibition with Darren Knight Gallery, as well as several new paintings. The exhibition is on show by private view for four months at The Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Sydney offices.

The Lepidopters will be performed as part of the Darwin Festival on Wednesday 20 August at 7 pm at The Lighthouse, Darwin. Get set for a multimedia experience of intergalactic proportions when the science-fiction space-opera The Lepidopters comes to town. Combining the talents of Melbourne’s Slave Pianos, Indonesia’s Punkasila, virtuoso pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, Indonesian performer Rachel Saraswati and local Darwin artists, this is one incredible multimedia, cross-cultural art odyssey.
A four-part science-fiction comic written by Mark von Schlegell and Derham Groves, and drawn by ‘Iwank’ Erwan Hersi Susanto, The Lepidopters tells the story of an invasion of the Indonesian archipelago by alien moths, who plan to colonise Earth by engaging in inter-species reproduction. The fourth part, newly written especially for Darwin Festival, sees the hybrid moths settling in the Top End.

Kushana Bush exhibits in 'Where do I end and you begin' as part of the Edinburgh Festival, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 31 July - 31 August 2014. Join curator Aaron Kreisler and some of the New Zealand artists taking part in the exhibition for a special discussion and tour focused on their involvement in the project at 3 pm, 3 August 2014.

Curated by Simone Hine and Kyle Weise, the 2014 MAF Video program is a new sector showcasing moving image and new media work by Australian artists at the forefront of their field. Organised into four themed exhibitions, Tim Woodward's work A film is cut to the swing of a clock 2014, will be presented in the 'Quotidian Rhythms' section alongside artists Nathan Gray and Sonia Leber and David Chesworth.

Joanna Braithwaite has been selected as a finalist in the 2014 Archibald Prize for her portrait of author Colleen McCullough.

Colleen McCullough is one of Australia’s most successful authors. ‘It was quite an adventure to journey to Norfolk Island to meet her,’ says Joanna Braithwaite. ‘I specifically went to Norfolk because I wanted to seek out and paint Col, as she calls herself, because I have been a long-term fan of her books.

‘I knew Col was a feisty intellectual, not only from her books, but also from television interviews I had watched. She has a passion for art and has exhibited her own works in the past. The maps and portraits of Roman historical figures found in her series of books titled Masters of Rome were all drawn by her own hand. I make reference to this in my painting with the book she is holding.

‘Colleen has dedicated her life to writing books so I chose to surround her with them. In my portrait there are several references to her passions and to objects that I saw in her home. These include a bust of Caesar and an Egyptian cat.’

Braithwaite has been exhibiting for nearly 30 years throughout New Zealand and Australia. Her work was the subject of the 2011 exhibition Significant others at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. She has been shortlisted for many awards including the Sulman Prize, the Gallipoli Art Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Award. This is her second time as a finalist in the Archibald Prize.

McKenna's painting Wharf, Palm Beach 2014 has been shortlisted for the Wynne Prize, and his work Domestic Interior 2014 has been shortlisted for the Sulman Prize. McKenna is a previous recipient of both awards, having won the Wynne Prize for Watercolour in 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2005, and the Sulman Prize in 1994.

Ricky Swallow in 'Made in LA', Hammer Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, curated by Connie Butler and Michael Ned, 15 June - 17 September 2014.

Michael Stevenson is in the 2014 Berlin Biennale, 29 May - 3 August 2014.Curated by Juan A. Gaitan, the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art will bring together a range of local and international artistic positions that explore the intersection between larger historical narratives and individuals' lives. Thus, the 8th Berlin Biennale aims to counterpoise the empirical and the authoritative approaches to history and historical becoming. The research for the 8th Berlin Biennale is structured along three speculative approaches toward the city of Berlin: in its relationship to the built environment, in its relationship to citizenship, and in its relationship to labor. Another focus lies on ways in which the 18th and 19th century Berlin is contemplated within our current cultural landscape.

Jess Johnson wins the 2014 National Works on Paper Prize. The acquisitive prize was won by Johnson for her work Mysteria Mystica Maxima 2014. The three judges, Jane Devery, Curator Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Jenepher Duncan, Curator Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia and Jane Alexander, Director, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery said that 'Jess Johnson is an outstanding young artist with a singular vision. .

Jess Johnson - 'Gamma World', Original MCA Facade, Vivid Sydney Festival, 23 May - 9 June 2014.

Jess Johnson, Jennifer Mills, Tim Woodward, 2014 National Works on Paper Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria, 23 May - 20 July 2014.

Darrey Knight Gallery and Artspace are pleased to congratulate Kenzee Patterson as the recipient of the 2014 NSW Visual Artist Residency at the Darling Foundry in Montreal, Canada.

Laurence Aberhart and Noel McKenna in 'Conflict: contemporary responses to war', UQ Art Museum, Brisbane, 10 May - 7 September 2014.

Laurence Aberhart in 'Concrete', Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 3 May - 15 July 2014.

Noel McKenna - A Walk from One Tree Hill to Half Moon Bay, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand, 2 - 31 May 2014.

Chris Bond exhibiting in 'The medium is the message', La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 30 April - 27 June 2014.

Tim Woodward is included in 'House Lights', TCB inc. Melbourne, 16 April - 3 May 2014.

Laurence Aberhart, 'ANZAC' Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, 12 April - 31 August 2014.

The Lepidopters: A Space Opera - performances 12 and 13 April at Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne. Science fiction meets cross-arts mavericks, Slave Pianos, joining with the 40-member Astra Choir, Yogyakarta art/punk music collective Punkasila, Indonesian singer/dancer Rachel Saraswati and virtuoso pianist Michael Kieran Harvey to present The Lepidopters: A Space Opera.

Tim Woodward, 'Ring Around the Dowser', Geomuseum, Munster, Germany, 23 March - 23 April 2014

Jess Johnson - Mnenomic Pulse - a video collaboration between Jess Johnson and Simon Ward (with soundtrack by Andrew Clarke) Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 12 March - 17 April 2014.

Andrew Hurle, 'Geldumlaufgeschwindigkeit (the velocity of money)', The Institute of Contemporary Art, Newtown, 24 February - 18 March 2010.

Ricky Swallow will be exhibiting as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Curated by Stuart Comer, Anthony Elms and Michelle Grabner, the Whitney opens 7 March 2014 and continues through until 25 May.

Chris Bond is included in 'Ex Libris - the book in contemporary art', 22 February - 25 May, Geelong Gallery, Victoria.

Patrick Hartigan is included in 'Solitaire', 22 February - 27 April 2014, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Melbourne.

Ronnie van Hout exhibits at ICAN, Newtown, Sydney, 27 February - 16 March 2014.

Kenzee Patterson exhibits at Bus Projects, Melbourne, 19 March - 5 April 2014.

Tim Woodward presents a selection of new works made while in residence at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris. 'A black line wriggling on a white street' is open 11 - 12 February 2014 in Studio 8202 at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris.

The latest Melbourne 'Art Tram' was launched this week with a design by our own Jon Campbell. See a video of the work being applied to the tram by clicking on the link below.

The Mark Hilton book 'Don't Worry' was launched at the National Gallery of Victoria on 30 November 2013. The book documents the making of the artist's recently completed sculptural project 'Don't Worry' and includes essays by Dr Chris McAuliffe, Jarrod Rawlins, Amita Kirpalani and Maria Tumarkin. Published by the Michael Buxton Collection.

The work 'Don't Worry' is currently on display in 'Melbourne Now' at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Jess Johnson, Michelle Nikou and Ricky Swallow are included in 'Future Primitive' curated by Linda Michael at Heide Museum of Modern Art, 23 November 2013 - 2 March 2014.

Anne Wallace is included in 'Suburban Noir' opening Saturday 30 November at the Museum of Sydney. Curator Peter Doyle will speak about the exhibition 11.30 - 12.30 am.

Darren Knight Gallery announces the inclusion of Ricky Swallow in the 2014 Whitney Biennale, 7 March - 25 May 2014.

Mark Hilton is the Victorian recipient of a 2013 Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award.

Charlie Sofo included in 19th Biennale of Sydney, 21 March - 9 June 2014 - 'You Imagine What You Desire', curated by Julianna Engberg.

Maria Kontis included in 'Australia: Contemporary Voices' curated by Geoffrey Cassidy at the Fine Art Society, London, 11 November - 21 December 2014 .

Congratulations to Rob McHaffie, finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.

Congratulations to Kenzee Patterson, finalist in the Fisher's Ghost Art Award at Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2 November - 16 December 2013.

Congratulations to Laurence Aberhart on receiving a NZ Arts Foundation Laureate Award and to Kushana Bush on receiving the Foundation's New Generation Award.

'In the Echo Chamber', 18 new drawings by Jennifer Mills will be included in the University of Queensland National Artists' Self Portrait Prize opening 19 October 2013.

Jess Johnson, Michelle Nikou and Ricky Swallow are included in 'Future Primitive' at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 23 November 2013 - 2 March 2014.

Darren Knight Gallery artists included in 'Melbourne Now' are: Chris Bond (with Drew Pettifer), Jon Campbell, Mark Hilton, Jess Johnson, Slave Pianos, Charlie Sofo and Ronnie Van Hout. The exhibition opens on 22 November and includes over 300 artists, architects, designers and creative practitioners. This will be one of the largest and most ambitious shows in the museum's history.

Kenzee Patterson included in 'Never Eat Soggy Weet-Bix', TCB Art Inc. Melbourne, 7 - 24 August 2013.

Laurence Aberhart - The Other Side, Lismore Regional Gallery, opens Friday 19 July at 5.30 pm. Exhibition runs 20 July - 25 August 2013.

Darren Knight Gallery is proud to announce Jess Johnson's inclusion in Primavera 2013 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 12 September - 17 November 2013.

New work by Ricky Swallow included in 'Labour and wait', Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2 July - 22 September 2013.

Grapevine - Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Michael Frimkess, John Mason, Ron Nagle, Peter Shire - curated by Ricky Swallow, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, 13 July - 17 August 2013.

TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA) celebrates its tenth anniversary year in 2013 with the launch of the inaugural TarraWarra International 2013, presenting the exhibition Animate/Inanimate. Artists from around the world are creating haunting and beautiful works that consider the profound interconnections between diverse life forms (natural, animal and human) and visitors will have the opportunity for a unique experience in an exhibition which include installations, sound works, sculptural elements and video works by leading artists from Australia, the USA, India and China. This show includes new work by Louise Weaver.

The piece entitled 'Comin' Down' is a larger than life figure pointing skyward with a strangely elongated arm and is part of Christchurch Art Gallery's 'Populate' programme to install art works in various locations around the city. See the art gallery's Facebook page for some great installation shots.

'Robert Rooney - The Box Brownie Years 1956-58', curated by Maggie Finch and Patrick Pound with Robert Rooney at The Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne.
An exhibition of never before exhibited black and white photographs taken by Robert Rooney with his Box Brownie camera between 1956-58. These photographs will be shown alongside three key paintings from the time and a recent film 'The Quadrangle 1956' (2009) made with these early images. Opens Thursday 28 March at 6 pm. Exhibition runs from 3 April - 19 May 2013.

Congratulations to Joanna Braithwaite, finalist in the AGNSW Sulman Prize.

Congratulations to Noel McKenna, finalist in the AGNSW Wynne Prize.

'South of no North' is curated by the MCA's Glenn Barkly and includes artists, Laurence Aberhart, William Eggleston and Noel McKenna. The show came about as part of the MCA's series of exhibitions in which an Australian artist's work is shown in an international context. Noel McKenna selected Laurence Aberhart (NZ) and William Eggleston (US) as two artists he greatly admired and would like to exhibit with. There are similarities in the way these artists focus on everyday suburban subjects. In an interview with Art Guide's Tracey Clement, Glenn remarks 'I think there is something sort of magical about the three of them in that they are finding something beautiful in banality. If you open your eyes you can see it, but of course it's not that easy. That's why they are such great artists, because their eyes are open'.

'A Handful of Dust' is curated by Laura Fried and includes artists, Ricky Swallow, Mark Hagan, Jay Heikes, Erin Shirreff, Zin Taylor and Allyson Vieira. Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 27 January - 24 March 2013.

Join Jon Campbell for the last MCA ARTBAR of the year titled 'Shit Yeah - Jon Campbell Rocks the MCA'. The event features sounds on the terrace by DJ duo, 'Dads with earrings', accoustic performances, lectures by the artist and friends, gallery tours with a twist and an elevator performance by Peter Oxley of 80s pop-rock sensation, 'The Sunnyboys'.

We are delighted to welcome Jess Johnson to the gallery.

Michael Stevenson presents a solo exhibition, 'A life of crudity, vulgarity and blindness' at Portikus, Frankfurt from 29 September to 2 December 2012.

Rob McHaffie talks to Michel Lawrence at Inside Art about the works in his current exhibition 'Let's see how it goes'.

Jon Campbell speaks to Clara of Spacecraft Studio about the 'Yeah Flag'.

We are delighted to congratulate Jon Campbell on winning the Basil Sellers Art Prize 2012.

We are pleased to present new works by James Morrison and Ricky Swallow at Melbourne Art Fair 2012. Drop by Stand D01 or click the link below to view images. 1 - 5 August 2012.

We are delighted to welcome Maria Kontis to the gallery. She will have a solo exhibition with us early next ye

The July/August issue of Art Guide features James Morrison in his studio with some great images. James is working on new paintings for the Darren Knight Gallery Stand at Melbourne Art Fair, 1 - 5 August 2012.

Tinnitus brings together artists, curators, critics and historians to discuss and debate the frequent but overlooked exchanges between art and rock music since the 1960s. Harvard hall, Room 104, 21 April 2012. Presentations start at 9 am.

'Post-planning' refers to the unplannable, to doing away with preconceived ideas and starting something before you know where it finishes. The term comes from architecture and urbanism, but has more recently been used as an idea within curatorial practice. Hybrid terms like this suggest a way of crossing between disciplines, between straight lines.

The exhibition Post-planning allows us to follow artists who adapt methods in a similar way; making work by searching the mid-ground, applying ideas from one context or discipline to another. These five artists explore meta-structures and systems in their work. They seek the intensities that are produced at places of transition, edges, intervals and intersections. Each of them is more interested in patterns of thinking and new directions than in finish or conclusion.

Works by Rob McHaffie, Noel McKenna, Michelle Nikou, Robert Rooney, Charlie Sofo, Ricky Swallow and Louise Weaver are included in 'Volume One: MCA Collection' at the MCA Australia curated by Glenn Barkley. This exhibition features works by Australian artists drawn from a period of acquisitions which began with the constitution of the MCA in May 1989.

Charlie Sofo has been included in NEW12 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 17 March - 20 May 2012. Curator Jeff Kahn in conversation with Charlie Sofo Wednesday 21 March at 6 pm. This event is free. Bookings essential.

Ben Cauchi, the 16th artist in residence at the McCahon House studio has spent the summer months creating a new series of work capturing the bush and surroundings at French Bay, but in no ordinary way. Using the 160 year old wet collodion photographic process, a technique developed just after the daguerreotype, Cauchi presents haunting glass plate images that transport you back in time. Like an alchemist, Cauchi subtly mixes reality and our perception of reality in his carefully observed and recorded works..

Photographer, Ben Cauchi moved into the residence on Sunday 30 October for his three month Summer residency. His work is created by a wet collodian process on glass or metal in a process dating back to the 19th century. A temporary darkroom was set up in the studio as timing is crucial in this process.

'Euan Macdonald: Open Tuning' at the Hayward Gallery in London, Exhibiton runs from 14 January - 19 February 2012. Euan Macdonald will present a solo exhibition at Darren Knight Gallery in March 2012.

Ben Cauchi wins Arts Foundation New Generation Award in New Zealand's first national art awards.

Jon Campbell is a finalist in the 2018 National Works on Paper Prize at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 20 July - 9 September 2018. A biennial exhibition, the prize supports and promotes contemporary Australian artists working on or with paper.