The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes delight and surprise audiences every year with fresh presentations of contemporary Australian painting and sculpture. At its heart, the Archibald Prize is about storytelling. Who are the people our artists have chosen to paint and what do their portraits reveal to us? In this exhibition, Australian and New Zealand artists use portraiture to share the beauty and complexity of our times. [...]

Presented alongside the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2026 at the Art Gallery of NSW, this salon-style wall features portraits of a different kind, not of people, but of other beings deserving of our affection – beloved pets, spirit guides and creature friends. Created by the artists of Little Orange Studio in Campbelltown, Pet Palace is a celebration of the unbreakable bonds (and knowing looks) between people and animals. For the [...]

Back in Five surveys twenty years of one of Aotearoa’s most bold and distinctive contemporary artists. Wayne Youle’s sculptural practice charts the passage of time not just as a theme but as a material that shapes, stretches, and reframes meaning. With his trademark playfulness and wit and working across a broad range of media, schoolboy pranks meet sharp cultural critique. Youle tackles big ideas—masculinity, fatherhood, colonial legacy, and [...]

Jeetje is an invitation to re-examine the work of Ans Westra (1936–2023), one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant documentary photographers. Jeetje  is a Dutch expression of surprise — and, in this case, delight. It sets the tone for this selection drawn from Westra’s vast archive of funny, tender, and poignant photographs spanning the 1960s to the 1980s. From poetry readings in graveyards to spirited street protests, from competitive dog shows [...]

In the current issue of recently relaunched Art News magazine, writer Dina Jezdic observes that “to write a preview of show is to confront the particularity of a practice that rejects the very idea of the preview. No new body of work finished in preparation for exhibition. No theme declared in advance. Only this: 50 years in the same studio, sunk into the slope of a garden, light flooding [...]

Now in its second decade, D Lan Galleries flagship annual exhibition opens simultaneously across all three galleries, offering collectors rare access to historic and museum-quality paintings and sculpture by Australia’s most celebrated First Nations artists. At the foundation of this year’s exhibition is a selection of early Papunya paintings from the seminal 1971–72 period, including works by Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa, Johnny Warangula Tjupurrula and Uta Uta Tjangala. [...]

Central Belonging Art Award is an art prize exhibition that represents the rich diversity of the artistic communities around and within the Central West region. The Award returns for its second year. It showcases established and emerging artists that are local to Cowra Shire and the surrounding areas. Artists from the following local government areas are part of the finalist exhibition: Bathurst, Bland, Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes, Hilltops, [...]

COLLECT returns to The Lock-Up for its ninth year, this time bringing together 126 artists—from early career to established—in a bold, energetic snapshot of Newcastle and the Hunter’s creative ecology. A much-loved annual fundraising exhibition, COLLECT champions the region’s artistic talent while raising vital funds for The Lock-Up’s ongoing program as a not-for-profit, independent contemporary art space. This year, COLLECT includes nationally significant artists such as Michael Bell, Lottie Consalvo, James Drinkwater, Locust Jones, [...]

‘Some memory cannot be documented. Some memory lives in the body.’ — Dr Natalie Harkin, Archival-Poetics (Vagabond Press, 2019) My Blood Sings Old Songs gathers artists who capture what is not always said—but deeply felt. The works in this exhibition resonate over time, unraveling layers of the body and the quiet weight of being seen, where movement becomes a vessel for remembrance. Hovering between an ending and a beginning, each gesture [...]