Richard Bell
You Can Go Now
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
Until 29 August
My shows are always an act of protest. I make art for other Aboriginal people and I want my art to be empowering to them. This body of work reflects a long history of Aboriginal protest. I want audiences to be challenged – Richard Bell
Darren Sylvester
Treasure Island
Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre
Until 31 October
The works investigate the language between perceived high and low culture, the nature of authenticity, desirability and mortality….The artist says: I’m trying to create a look that doesn’t exist here, but perhaps could in Hollywood or on TV — one where you’d have to build a set.
Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Until 26 September
This year marks 100 years of Australia’s oldest and most-loved portrait award. The Wynne Prize is awarded to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery, or figure sculpture, while the Sulman Prize is given to the best subject painting, genre painting or mural project in oil, acrylic, watercolour or mixed media.
FAC Print Award
Fremantle Arts Centre, WA
Until 18 July
The Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award is Australia’s premier showcase of prints and artists’ books. The award and exhibition, which have been running for more than 40 years, boast a national judging panel and $22,000 in prize money. The FAC Print Award presents the best works from established, emerging and cross-disciplinary artists.
Lucy O’Doherty
Blue Hour
Edwina Corlette, Brisbane
Until 19 June
Blue is a colour not to be consumed as it rarely occurs naturally in the food we eat, but it is a colour to be consumed by, as we often find a sense of tranquillity when swallowed by the wide stretches of blue that make up the ocean and the sky – Lucy O’Doherty.
Sidney McMahon
Of Sorrow and Release
ACE Open, Adelaide
Until 3 July
McMahon’s installation interweaves human, psychological and computational perspectives to ultimately respond to the question: ‘How do I celebrate the person I am now whilst expressing sorrow for my previous self?’
Fresh: connecting new & old art
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Until 27 June
Fresh: connecting new & old art brings together works from the Aboriginal, Australian and South East Asian art collections. This exhibition will reveal diverse stories from within these collections and the broad geographic regions they represent.
Moving On
Byron School of Art, NSW
Until 22 June
Moving On is an exhibition of new work by: Sophia L Franks, Gala Jane, Fabian Pertzel, Bridy Jean Walker, Kairan Ward, Eli Waters & Mia Zapata.
Captions: Richard Bell, You Can Go Now, © the artist, photograph Anna Kučera; Darren Sylvester, Forever twenty one 2019, 240 x 320 cm, lightjet prints. Image courtesy the artist, Sullivan+Strumpf Sydney and Neon Parc Melbourne; Kathrin Longhurst’s portrait of Kate Ceberano has taken out the 2021 Packing Room Prize. Oil on linen, 122 x 122 cm. © the artist; Alison Kennedy, ICU, 2019, white ink screenprint on 30 industrial polyacrylic panels, 240 x 300cm, 1/1; Lucy O’Doherty, Empty Pool In, Nautical Twilight2021, oil on linen, 66 x 84 cm; Sidney McMahon, Of Sorrow and Release installation view ACE Open, photography by Grant Hancock; Eko Nugroho, Kekerasan dan Korupsi 2007, hand drawn machine embroidered rayon thread with Calico interfacing, 43 x 79 cm, MAGNT Collection, SEA 03558 and Gala Jane I’m an Artist 2021 el wire & acrylic on board