Art Guide Australia

Surat by Atong Atem (published by Photo Australia and Perimeter Editions in 2022 as part of the PHOTO Editions series) positions Atem’s work in and beyond the family archive. This is comfortable footing for Atem, as her wider practice investigates cultural practices of archiving memories through images. Atem is a Dinka Bor (Awulian) South Sudanese-Australian artist, living and working in Naarm/Melbourne.

Despite their physical separation, Bali and Lombok share the ebb and flow of the Lombok Strait. For centuries, the waterway has served as a link between the two societies, freely allowing trade, migration, and the ongoing exchange of culture and artistic techniques.

I know a place by Drew Pettifer, while predominately a publication on photography, has me initially thinking more about the purpose of words in relation to images. I find myself ruminating over three words: negotiated, place and queer. “I know a place is the fifth instalment in Drew Pettifer’s ongoing publishing project with M.33 of monographic works centred on the negotiated queer male gaze.” This is the phrase that greets one when encountering documentation of this book online.

The vision for Sydney’s White Rabbit Gallery was born out of a friendship between Zimbabwean-born philanthropist Judith Neilson and Chinese artist Wang Zhiyuan. In 1999, Wang introduced Neilson to young Chinese artists whose work had never been seen outside their own country. Together the pair explored studio complexes and art districts across China, viewing some of the most daring and experimental art of the post-Mao era.

Australian Galleries director Stuart Purves told Art Guide that the 70th anniversary of the gallery would also mark his 80th birthday and 60th year at the heart of the enterprise, begun by his parents Tam and Anne Purves in 1956. Notably, the gallery started with artists who we now know as the talents of the time—Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and Albert Tucker. Purves believes that timing was critical. “Great art arises out of some sort of adversity.

Tầm Tã—Soaked in the Long Rain is the first international survey exhibition of Trần Lương. Curated by Biljana Ciric, and co-organised by Art Jameel, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Tầm Tã reverently exhibits decades of generous, playful, and prodigious work from an artist committed to his practice and his community.

As a child growing up in Brisbane/Meanjin in the 80s and 90s, Tony Albert would scour op shops to buy Indigenous memorabilia: ashtrays, plates, cups and saucers with Aboriginal faces and motifs and storybooks such as author Brownie Downing’s tales of “piccaninny” child Tinka. In his childhood innocence, these treasures helped him understand his own identity.

Canberra Glassworks’ forthcoming exhibition brings together Western Aranda artists of Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre—Vanessa Inkamala, Kathy Inkamala, Dellina Inkamala and Raelene Inkamala—and contemporary glass artist Jordan Benson. Iltja Ntjarra, in Alice Springs/Mparntwe, carries on Albert Namatjira’s legacy, supporting Namatjira’s descendants to continue painting and sharing their stories.

Entering the Bondi Pavilion Gallery, you are met with a large photograph half the size of the wall, crowded with faces staring out into the golden early morning light. Decked out in speedos, their expressions are grave and solemn. The image captures a gathering of thousands of surfers and swimmers who paddled out to sea to honour the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach tragedy in December last year.

A compelling new presentation in Alice Springs this winter brings together two distinct but deeply connected practices: senior Kaltukatjara artist Pastor Roy Yaltjanki and Anmatyerr painter Cindy Mpetyan Dixon. The presentation offers an intimate encounter with works grounded in Country, memory and cultural continuity. For Yaltjanki, painting is an act of devotion. Since 2023, he’s painted almost every day at Kaltukatjara Art.