NewsOpenings
Boola Bardip: Perth’s revamped Western Australian Museum opens with new name and focus on Aboriginal heritage
The museum worked with around 60 Aboriginal language groups across the vast state to bring their perspectives into every gallery
NewsRestitution
Australia pledges millions towards repatriation of Aboriginal artefacts from overseas collections
Government extends pilot project to return objects to Indigenous peoples—including those held by private collectors
NewsArt schools
Sydney bucks trend for marginalisation of drawing at art schools with new National Centre for Drawing
Opening on 4 November, the centre, which is part of the city's National Art School, is modelled on the the Drawing Centre in New York and London’s Drawing Room
NewsRestitution
Leading Australian activist accuses British Museum of downgrading provenance of Aboriginal shield to prevent restitution
New text accompanying object removes mention that it was collected by Captain James Cook but museum says it doesn't alter its significance
NewsAustralia
Campaign to 'free' the Aboriginal flag gains momentum as Australian government seeks exclusive licensing rights
Made by the Luritja artist Harold Thomas in 1971, the rights to the flag design are currently held by Ben Wooster, a former art dealer previously fined $2.3m for selling fake Aboriginal works of art
NewsExhibitions
Brisbane lands mammoth European loan exhibition from the Met
Gallery of Modern Art is sole venue for a show resulting partly from a skylight renovation project at the New York museum
NewsAustralia
Sydney's Powerhouse Museum saved from sell-off, but debate rages on
NSW government scraps controversial billion-dollar relocation plan but faces questions from community groups and parliament
NewsAustralia
‘Broken’ heritage laws: Australia launches investigation after 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock art is obliterated
Parliamentary enquiry will examine how mining giant Rio Tinto obtained legal right to destroy ancient Juukan Gorge site
NewsDisasters & destruction
Mining company Rio Tinto apologises for destruction of 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site
Blasting of two ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge was authorised in 2013 by Western Australia state government
Newscoronavirus
Sydney arts centre goes into voluntary administration after cancelling six months of events due to Covid-19
Sydney Opera House may step in to take over Carriageworks, which hosts the art fair Sydney Contemporary and exhibitions
PreviewBiennials & festivals
Sydney Biennale puts climate emergency and Indigenous struggle front and centre
Show’s 22nd edition aims to be as much a conversation as an exhibition, with hundreds of public events including bushwalks with aboriginal elders and campfire talks
NewsAustralia
Officials turn down plans to transform Sydney's Cockatoo Island into an art-filled tourist attraction
Private consortium offered $80m to turn former industrial area into Australia’s answer to Naoshima art island in Japan
NewsAustralia
Street art auction in aid of Australian bushfire clean-up includes works by Banksy and Shepard Fairey
The Bushfire Relief Auction in Melbourne has been organised by the collectors Sandra Powell and Andrew King and prices start at £200
NewsAboriginal art
Emily Kame Kngwarreye show in New York highlights spike in interest for Australian indigenous art
The exhibition brings together museum-quality pieces, most consigned by US collectors
NewsDisasters & destruction
National Gallery of Australia closes due to bushfire smoke around Canberra
Director says that decision was taken to protect public and works
NewsPublic art
Image mocking Australian Prime Minister's Hawaiian holiday raises A$50,000 for fire service
Scott Marsh’s mural on a wall in Sydney was painted over
NewsRestitution
Germany returns indigenous remains of 45 ancestors to Australia in 'long overdue step'
Saxon government acknowledges “years of disregard for their dignity and importance to their communities of origin”
NewsRepatriation
'A major step forward for Britain’s colonial museums': Manchester Museum returns objects to Indigenous Australians
Move might pave the way for repatriation of sacred artefacts from other UK institutions
NewsAustralia
Can Australia support two new Aboriginal art museums?
Proposals for Alice Springs and Adelaide have political support but concerns have been raised over competing projects and lack of Indigenous involvement
ReviewBook Shorts
The first book on official Australian art and artists in the First World War explains how the national collection was made
The aim of Australian government’s war art scheme was to prioritise first-hand representations of the conflict
NewsCommercial galleries
Australia's only gallery dedicated to female artists to open in Melbourne
Founder of Finkelstein Gallery aims to counter the low representation of women in the Australian art world
NewsYoko Ono
Just a 'well-known celebrity': Australian tourism chief doubted Yoko Ono's ability to draw crowds
Letter reveals that 2013 exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art was offered AU$500,000 of state money despite reservations
NewsArt market
Australia has underrated Sidney Nolan, expert says, as artist's widow's estate comes up for sale
Mark Fraser makes the remarks as a group of works by the Australian artist is about to be offered at Bonhams in Sydney with a combined estimate of AUS$1.3m-$1.8m
PreviewExhibitions
Canary in the coal mine: Simon Denny on his new show about mining data and minerals
Exhibition by New Zealand-born, Berlin-based artist opens at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart
NewsControversies
Artist defends controversial mural of New Zealand prime minister embracing Muslim woman
Loretta Lizzio's memorial image of Jacinda Ardern unveiled in Melbourne divides public opinion
PreviewSydney Biennale
Indigenous and First Nation artists to take centre stage at next Biennale of Sydney
Artistic director Brook Andrew aims to counter the dominance of Northern American and European narratives
NewsRestitution
Indigenous human remains returned to Australia by five German institutions
Australia is pursuing further repatriations from Germany, ambassador says
AnalysisMuseums & Heritage
Topping a million visitors: how MCA Australia broadened the appeal of contemporary art
With more than a million people through the doors annually since 2015, the museum is a case study in how to expand audiences
CommentObituaries
Remembering Edmund Capon, longest-serving director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
He shook up a moribund institution by abolishing entry fees and staging lively exhibitions
ReviewExhibitions
Ben Quilty: an artist on the frontline
As the Australian artist's major retrospective opens in Adelaide, we speak to him about his time as a war artist in Afghanistan and his campaign against the death penalty
NewsCollectors
Tasmanian museum expands with £230m luxury hotel that includes a Marina Abramović-designed spa
Collector David Walsh plans to build new Motown complex alongside his Museum of Old and New Art
NewsArt market
Bark painting comes out of the woodwork at Sydney Contemporary
Work by the indigenous artist John Mawurndjul sold for $140,000 at the fair, where organisers estimate AUD$21m of sales were made
News
$890m Sydney museum move could be most expensive gallery relocation in history
Critics fear that plan will lead to parts of the Powerhouse Museum’s collection being sold off
NewsChina
Uranium glass chandeliers banned from Shanghai exhibition
Chinese authorities did not explain why Ken and Julia Yonetani’s four works will not be part of Powerlong Art Museum group show
NewsExhibitions
Australian artists and inmates collaborate to make videos about the reality of life behind bars
Works are on show as part of Dark Mofo, a festival organised by the Museum of Old and New Art just north of Hobart
NewsBiennials & festivals
Sydney biennial appoints its first indigenous Australian artistic director
Artist Brook Andrew’s work deals with notions of history, identity and race
NewsBuilding projects
Australia's largest contemporary art gallery to be built in Melbourne
New space will help National Gallery of Victoria to capitalise on blockbuster exhibitions
BlogIn the frame
Couples lock lips and make sweet music in Sydney
NewsPhotography
Bill Henson unveils new works in Melbourne
Show will be first commercial viewing of controversial photographer’s latest works
PreviewExhibitions
The many faces of Australia’s colonial legacy unveiled across two shows
National Gallery of Victoria’s mega-shows range from art by convicts to contemporary indigenous work
AnalysisArt's Most Popular
The world's most popular exhibition? Ancient sculptures in Tokyo versus Modern masters in Paris
Plus record crowds in US, UK and Australia
CommentVenice Biennale
Risk is the key to success at the Venice Biennale
Museum founder David Walsh on Australia's controversial new artist-selection process
NewsBiennials & festivals
Top Australian donors pull funding from Venice Biennale
Funders are furious about plans to exclude them from selecting the artist to represent the country
CommentVenice Biennale
Why I’m no longer funding Australia at the Venice Biennale
The financier and philanthropist Simon Mordant says the proposed restructure is 'not in Australia or the artists’ best interests'
NewsArt market
Emily Kame Kngwarreye painting sells for $1.6m, breaking record for an Australian female artist
Aboriginal work, Earth’s Creation I, was shown at the 2015 Venice Biennale
ArchiveFrancis Bacon
Exhibitions: Bacon goes down under with the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Francis Bacon’s Australian connections are explored
ArchiveInterviews
Interview with dealer Richard Nagy on Schiele: “It is about sex, it is tense, anxious and emotional”
His new space in London will open with an exhibition on the Austrian painter
ArchiveMuseum of Old and New Art
Sex, death and models of down under, down under: Newly opened Mona already a success
Outspoken collector David Walsh unveils crypt-like private museum
ArchiveForgeries
Australian forgeries to be destroyed
Fakes were purported to be by Charles Blackman and Robert Dickerson
ArchiveNews
Shaun Gladwell sets off for Afghanistan as Australia’s official war artist
He is creating video and photographic works to document the conflict
ArchiveArt Gallery of New South Wales
“A quantum leap” for Australia as collector John Kaldor donates $35m-worth of art to AGNSW
Kaldor has donated work by Rauschenberg, Christo, LeWitt, Koons, Judd, and Gursky, among many others
ArchiveDavid Walsh
David Walsh reveals art for new private Tasmanian gallery
Walsh, described as “every casino owner’s nightmare”, owns around 1,300 antiquities and 300 contemporary works
ArchiveAustralia
New government in Australia?
Former rock star would be Minister for Arts and Environment
ArchivePrivate Museums
Australian collectors build their own museums
New museums in Sydney and Tasmania are in the works
ArchiveRestitution
British Museum director Neil MacGregor calls for laws that would encourage lending Aboriginal artefacts
As two objects are detained in Victoria, MacGregor believes something good could come out of the present confusion
ArchiveTate
Will Tate pay millions for this Leighton?
“The Syracusan bride” may be coming home from Australia
ArchiveCollectors
Collector interview: Peter Fay, Australia’s champion of the outsider
The collector of works that are knotty, passionate, perverse and deeply personal talks about his tastes and his gift to the nation
ArchiveExhibitions
New exhibition 'The pre-Raphaelite dream' rocks the Art Gallery of Western Australia
The paintings and drawings on show in Perth are on loan from the Tate collection
ArchiveTracey Emin
Tracey Emin follows up book buzz with a retrospective down under, but will the Aussies approve?
The Art Gallery of New South Wales plays host to her new show
ArchiveAustralia
Ethnographica or art?
Some European and American museums have bought work by Aboriginal artists but there is no broad base of collectors outside Australia for such paintings and no consensus that this work qualifies as “art”
ArchiveCollectors
Exhibition of the largest selection of Australian Aboriginal art to have been presented in Europe
Show demonstrates the aboriginal passion of an Austrian collector
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Andres Serrano: Mining the seamy side for all it’s worth
After sacrilege and violent death the artist whom the moral majority (minority?) love to hate, is now into explicit sex
ArchiveCambodia
The first exhibition of Angkor-period art to leave Cambodia
Australia makes capital out of the 1991 peace accord in Cambodia and demonstrates its newly established diplomatic ties
ArchiveExhibitions
Minimalist masterpieces on show in Sydney
The Drill Hall Gallery is showing works by Mark Rothko and Frank Stella, among others
CommentYoko Ono
Yoko Ono controversy | Government agencies cannot dictate museum programming
The revelation that New South Wales's tourism chief questioned the Sydney MCA's inclusion of a Yoko Ono show crosses a dangerous line
John McDonald